Indiana

I?ll Vouch For This

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett unveiled the details of school reform at Wednesday’s meeting of the Education Roundtable.

The main goals include…

• Identifying and rewarding great teachers and principals.

• Empowering school leaders and bring success to failing schools.

• Offering equal educational opportunities to all children and give parents a voice.

One thing I would like to see pushed in Indiana this upcoming session is a straight education voucher for parents to send their children to the schools of their choice.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that vouchers for private and parochial schools do not violate the 1st Amendment if money is given to the family and not directly to the school, so there is no legal prohibition on vouchers if done properly.   And Indiana already offers limited tax credits for school tuition, however you don’t get the tax credit until after you spend the money.

Under my “pre-voucher” plan the State can come up with a formula to figure out how much it costs to educate the average child.  Have parents fill out a form designating where their child is going and have the money electronically transferred into that school’s account.   Monthly payments can be deposited to the school in the event the child leaves during the school year and transfers to another school district.  And a certain amount of reserves can be held back to schools minimize harm if there is a major population shift during the school year.

By doing this, a parent does not have to pay twice for education if they choose to send their child to a private or parochial school.   For those who think this a continued war on public education, it isn’t.  We do this at the college and university level all the time.  Whether someone goes to Notre Dame, Butler University or Indiana Tech they still get federal financial aid. So if this system is good enough for higher education and why not do it for lower education?

And what better way to hold schools accountable than to have the parents vote with their dollars?  If we want schools to improve, we should tie their performance to the pay they get from parents.   Who’ll vouch for this?

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on December 09, 2010 (boomark / email).