Education
For Conservatives:
Viewpoint: Much of the liberal argument regarding education focuses on the topic of school vouchers, which allow school choice by allotting students a certain amount of publicly-funded money to put toward whatever school they wish to attend. Most liberals object to school vouchers for a variety of different reasons.
Reasoning: In the United States, there is a separation of church and state. In other words, all American citizens have the right to practice any religion they desire, and the federal government cannot interfere in any way. Many liberals believe that school vouchers violate this separation. Of all private schools in the United States, the U.S. Department of Education reports that 76 percent have a religious affiliation, and over 80 percent of private school students attend such institutions. A significant portion of school vouchers, which are publicly-funded, would go toward private religious schools. Therefore, many liberals argue that by forcing Americans to pay to support religion, school vouchers infringe upon their right to religious liberty. Although some conservatives or supporters of school vouchers may argue that in the 2002 Supreme Court case Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the court ruled that school vouchers do not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, others point out that the case did not consider state constitutional issues. Many states in the United States explicitly prohibit taxpayer money going to religious institutions, and the 2002 case ignored this.
Liberals also have an issue with the exclusivity of private schools in relation to school vouchers. While public schools must accept everyone regardless of disabilities, test scores, race, creed or color, private schools have the right to deny students that they feel are not up to their standards. In these situations, the private schools have no obligation to return the school voucher. Therefore, when the student goes instead to a public school, the public school must admit the student without any funding, losing money in the process. This, liberals believe, is both immoral and detrimental to public schools. Also, many liberals feel that it is wrong to make the public fund schools that are allowed to discriminate against individual students. Instead, they think the money should go to inclusive public schools that are accountable to the people.
Many liberals point out that the implementation of the voucher system in several areas has yielded many adverse effects. According to the U.S. Department of Education, students in Washington D.C. who have used vouchers to go to private schools do not believe that the schools they attend are better or safer than the public ones they left. This same study also compared students who were offered a voucher and those who were not in terms of their desire for higher education, participation in extracurricular activities, frequency of doing homework, school attendance, voluntary reading, and tardiness rates. It found no significant statistical differences in these areas and even found that it was possible for students in the voucher program to be absent from school more often than those who were not. Additionally, some liberals feel that because school vouchers usually do not cover the entire fee for private schools, only those who can afford tuition benefit. Low-income families, who are forced to rely on public schools instead, are hurt because the voucher system undermines the public schools.
Another aspect of the liberal argument is their belief that school vouchers are unpopular among Americans. According to the Church & State Magazine, “since 1967, voters in 23 states have rejected vouchers and other forms of tax aid to religious schools at the ballot box.” Liberals also generally feel that focusing on school vouchers distracts from the more critical issue of improving the United States’ public schools. When the voucher program is implemented, only some children choose or are able to leave the public school system for private schools. This leaves a significant number behind who deserve a good education as well. Liberals feel that while most public schools do a very good job, there are others that have room for improvement. They think that the voucher system is simply a magnet that is draining public money into private systems when in reality the primary focus should be on funding and improving the education of the 90 percent of American students in public schools.
Sources:
10 Reasons Why Private School Vouchers Should Be Rejected – Americans United
10 Reasons Why Private School Vouchers Should Be Rejected – Americans United
Education Reform: Conservative/Liberal Perspectives – Pilot Magazine
The Argument Against School Vouchers – Liberal OC
For Liberals:
Viewpoint: On the topic of education, most conservatives support the implementation of school vouchers, which allow students a certain amount of publicly-funded money that they can then put toward whatever school they choose to attend. Many of them feel that the voucher system will significantly improve the United States’ education system.
Reasoning: Like liberals, conservatives recognize the failings of the current public education system in the United States. In their opinion, the solution to this problem is school vouchers because they give students who otherwise would be stuck in these public schools the option to escape.
Private schools cost money. As a result, low-income families all across the country are forced to send their children to underperforming public schools solely because they cannot afford anything else. The money that is given to families by school vouchers essentially comes from their own tax money. Many conservatives feel that people should be given the ability to choose what specific schools this money goes toward, rather than pumping it all into the public school system where it is often used inefficiently. For example, if a town spends $10,000 per student, conservatives advocate for students to be able to use that $10,000 to pay for a private school instead. Given this money, low-income families would have more freedom to send their children to whatever school they like best, public or private. This would in many cases allow children to attend schools that best fit their religious, cultural, or racial backgrounds, likely resulting in them performing better in school.
“It is not the government’s responsibility to tell me where to educate my children… That’s not only my right, it’s my duty. And I shouldn’t have the government telling me based on some random, geographic location that I have to go to this public high school.” ~ Chuck Weisenbach, Principal of Roncalli High School in Indianapolis
Not only do many conservatives believe that students would benefit from a wide-reaching voucher system in the United States, but they feel that by promoting and funding competing institutions, public schools will be incentivized to improve. Most conservatives support the free market and capitalism because they think that these systems naturally motivate businesses to give consumers the best products for the least amount of money. If two companies are selling a product that performs the same function, and one is selling it for less money, that company will get the majority of customers. To prevent bankruptcy, the other company will either have to lower its own costs or focus more on marketing other products to attract more buyers. Conservatives believe that the same should be true in the education system. If a private school educates its students well, and a public school does not, the public school should suffer from a lack of students and become motivated to improve. Because private schools often cost astounding amounts of money that many families cannot afford, this is usually not the case. School vouchers, conservatives believe, will help amend this problem. With more money, parents will send their children to better schools. The worse schools will suffer, and they will either improve or become obsolete. In this way, conservatives believe that the United States’ education system will improve as a whole.
Teachers’ unions, organizations consisting of teachers who work to protect their interests and rights, are the biggest obstacle that conservatives have found to enacting school vouchers. As said, school vouchers could result in many children leaving public schools. Therefore, public school teachers would be forced to begin competing for jobs and money. Conservatives justify their argument by maintaining that school voucher programs would take a significant amount of time to put in place, therefore allowing most of the competition problem to be solved by attrition. Additionally, the hiring of public school teachers would become more selective, further raising the level of teaching and education that would eventually exist in the public school system in the United States.
Sources:
School Vouchers – Top 4 Pros and Cons – ProCon.org
The Case For School Choice – ThoughtCo