A reader who uses the sobriquet “Retired Teacher” posted the following succinct summary of the harm caused by vouchers.
Vouchers represent anti-democratic education policy. Instead of serving the interests of society, vouchers turn unaccountable public dollars over to unaccountable schools and parents that can often do as they wish with the money. Vouchers are also a form of taxation without representation. When vouchers are used to supplement tuition for affluent children, which is often the case, they represent a massive transfer of wealth from working class to the affluent. They undermine community stability and force austerity on the public schools that serve the most students. They do not save poor students from failing schools. They create an economic reality that legitimizes the defunding of public education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Maybe cities should start issuing policing vouchers, by which residents can opt out of police responses in exchange for a check for $X,000, which they can spend on private security.
Or sanitation vouchers. Opt out of garbage collection and receive an annual payment that can be used for private waste disposal.
Etc.
LikeLike
FLERP!,
And since public highways are so crowded, why can’t people make their own and get reimbursed by govt?
LikeLike
I can’t make my own highway, but I could obscure or alter my license plates and continue to use public highways while pocketing my annual check.
LikeLike
Public schools must obey laws passed by state legislatures and are in the hands of local voters who vote in elected school boards and the parents (who may also be voters) of children that attend those public schools. If voters and parents don’t approve of an elected school board member (or the entire board), they can vote them out in any election.
Vouchers going to private schools of all kinds and public money funding charter schools are in the hands of individuals that often are puppets of billionaires and/or theocrats. The voters have no say. There’s little in the way of laws to hold this education sector accountable. Parents have no say. And in many cases, the legal system has no say until a crime has been committed and the criminals brought to justice where they often are only fined a pittance of what they stole and spend little or no jail time. Sometimes stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the public and still not spending a day in jail. And far to often, the ones that are caught and convicted end up in another city or state doing it all over again.
How many years did the public school teachers in Atlanta found guilty of changing test grades spend in prison, their lives ruined?
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/prison-time-begins-for-atlanta-educators-convicted-in-cheating-scandal/2018/10
LikeLike
well said. Hope this gets picked up by other outlets….
LikeLike
I so appreciate RT’s insightful commentary on this blog!
LikeLike
Thanks, Bob! Your posts are insightful and sometimes hilarious. Often they are both simultaneously.
LikeLike
All forms of privatization conveniently separates taxpayers from the public dollars. Lack of oversight and accountability are deliberate features of privatization. When public money goes behind the shield of private ownership, it becomes difficult to track or manage. It provides privatizers with a cloak that shields them from public scrutiny, and it makes it difficult to impossible to follow the money.
Well supported and funded public schools are the antidote to our extremism and political polarization. When students and their families retreat to their ideological foxholes, the result is increased extremism, racism and marginalization of vulnerable groups of citizens. An important mission of public education is to bring diverse groups together, not to indoctrinate, but to enlighten, expand knowledge, and encourage students to question and think for themselves. These are all important elements of any functioning democracy and some of the reasons why teachers are targets of right wing extremists.
LikeLike
Nailing down the argument to specifics- Jan. 6 was in large part the product of the power grab by right wing Christians and Catholics e.g. John Eastman, who want a nation that neither the nation’s founders nor a majority of its citizens want. In many states, the overwhelming amount of voucher money goes to right wing religious schools who want to indoctrinate students against democracy.
The general counsel of Hillsdale (a school associated with right wing religion) figures prominently in a Detroit Free Press story posted today. In terms of context, Hillsdale’s site boldly states the school’s goal, for students to learn, “character.”
The Free Press article cites court filings in its explanation about the role that
the man who serves as Hillsdale’s general counsel played when democracy was threatened during the 2020 Presidential election, “Michigan GOP Electors were key to Trump Plot to overturn…” Prior to his employment with Hillsdale, the lawyer was with the Bradley Foundation (Koch). The lawyer’s bio boasts publication in the Georgetown (Catholic) Journal of Legal Ethics and his role as deacon at a “Church of Christ.”
The anti-democracy Issue 1, on the ballot in Ohio on Aug. 8, received $900,000 in support from the combined dioceses of Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati. At the same time, the statement from Ohio bishops was that they did not have a position on Issue 1 because, in their assessment, it did not have a moral component. We witnessed an example of “character” distortion by right wing religionists. Had the Issue succeeded, its implementation would have had a grave moral effect in denying people a voice in their governance.
Those commenters who enjoy distancing vouchers from right wing religion
should reflect about some important questions.
LikeLike
Excellent points from the previous commenters. In reality, the ultimate result of vouchers is in the title of this article: they undermine our democracy. Oh well, too many folks care more for their bank account instead. 😦
LikeLike