School Vouchers Analyzed

10 Pages 2505 Words

cause of ineffective performance among the
nation's public schools is their subordination to public authority. ... The
school's most fundamental problems are rooted in the institutions of
democratic control by which they are governed".
Chubb and Moe deny the historic purposes of public schools when they reject
the idea that educational policy should be directed by a common vision or
purpose. They assert, "It should be apparent that schools have no immutable
or transcendent purpose. ... What they are supposed to be doing depends on
who controls them and what these controllers want them to do". The Thompson
proposal for Wisconsin's schools embraces this belief system it is a denial
of the fundamental role of public education in affirming the public good.
A second issue which remains unexamined in the rush to the marketplace
concerns the claims offered in defense of private school choice. Choice is
offered as a "lesson learned" rather than a proposition to be examined.
Advocates of private school choice have ignored its history. Despite the
claims made for a market-based school restructuring strategy, the history of
choice does not support the claims of its proponents.A Declaration of Crisis
Willingness to abandon strong support for public schools and to turn to
marketplace solutions is driven by a crisis rhetoric. This rhetoric, which
suggests that public education is failing, is not only misleading, it is
dangerous because it may erode public confidence in the very institutions on
which our capacity for a democratic response depends.
Criticism of public education has continued unabated since the publication of
A Nation At Risk in 1983. Stimulated in large part by new international
economic realities, by a domestic economy based on traditional production
models, and by changing domestic demographics, the critics have sought
solutions to these challenging problems by turning to sc...