Executive Summary
A research done by Stanford Graduate School of Education revealed that lower-income students attain an average grade that is notably below the national average, with the greatest socioeconomic disparity respectively reflecting a difference of four grade levels. This brief discusses the issue of alleviating the poverty-based achievement gap and will look at reasons why people should not be in support of the H.R. 610 To distribute Federal Funds for elementary and secondary education in the form of vouchers for eligible students and to repeal a certain rule relating to nutrition standard in schools. This brief will mainly focus on the first half of the bill concerning the use of school vouchers.
Introduction
There has been a constant debate on the approaches to help lower-income children not fall behind in their academic achievements due to their economic background. Across the presidential administrations, policies such as No Child Left Behind and Every Student Succeeds Act have been implemented with aims of reducing this poverty-based academic achievement gap. However, results of the Stanford research reveal that disparities are still prevalent. Following the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as education secretary, the discussion about the use of school vouchers has also gained significant attention.
Approaches and Results
The main concern surrounding the expansion of school vouchers program is how public funding may be drained from public schools and in turn result in the lack of resources in these schools. This lack will further disadvantage lower-income students in public schools. From the other side of the argument, promoting the use of school vouchers for more lower-income children to attend private schools for better quality education may seem justified as their education should not be compromised due to their economic backgrounds. However, that comes with the assumption that all private schools provide higher quality education compared to public schools.
Extensive research has been done on the effectiveness of school vouchers and there has been contrasting results produced. On one hand, Wenglinsky’s research done across 1988-2000 reveals that private schools do not necessarily produce higher-achieving students. On the other hand, a report by the National Center for Educational Statistics, reveals that the difference in achievements are more significant for certain private schools than others. This brings attention to the fact that having a higher school funding does not necessarily equate to higher academic achievements. There could be other determinants affecting academic performances in private schools which results in the lack of uniformity. Center of Education Policy’s publication in 2011 looked at numerous studies on school vouchers but does not give a clear cut conclusion to the effectiveness of school vouchers as it showed that the results of effectiveness of school voucher program differ across states. The publication also raised an important point that the methods used in these evaluation research as well as the sponsor organization for each research affects the objectivity and reliability of the results.
Another point to consider is the reach of the voucher program to lower-income children. Reports reveal that the percentage of children on the program is small and that there has also been students who dropped out of the program. Business Insider reports that only 3% of the students in Indiana are using the school vouchers although Indiana is the state with the most students on the program.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Although the idea of having the choice to choose a school is desirable, it must be acknowledged that the percentage of lower-income children benefitting from the school vouchers is still relatively low and might not be a sustainable option to achieve the aim of minimizing the poverty-based achievement gap. In addition, there has not been a uniform conclusion that the school voucher program has been effective in achieving better academic performance of students. Hence, people should vote against H.R. 610 and instead propose for a more comprehensive way of improving public education, especially in schools which produce significantly lower academic results. This could be a more sustainable option in the long-run as many opinions have highlighted that the majority of U.S. students will still be dependent on public education. This suggestion is based on the idea of equity, in which the government should look into supporting schools that are already trailing behind, keeping in mind that the standards of public school education across the U.S. are not uniform and hence intervention could be more targeted. More research can be done on the possible factors that contribute to higher academic performance in the private schools that have reflected these results. Implementing and adapting these factors for public schools would possibly be more effective in achieving the ultimate goal of minimizing poverty-based achievement gap.