Voucher school accountability, as the Editorial Board defines it, would result from these private schools being compelled to administer the same standardized tests that the government requires of its schools (“Fix the flaw first,” March 8).
Given that testing drives curriculum, that means that the voucher schools should closely resemble the public schools in what they teach daily.
If parents wanted their children to be in state-homogenized schools, wouldn’t they just settle for the nearest public school and its $13,229 per-child subsidy instead of clamoring for a $6,442 voucher enabling them to transfer to a private school even while realizing they might have to fork over extra money from their own pockets to fully cover tuition and fees?
The point of school choice is for parents to have actual choices other than the conventional government-issue model.
Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to remove the cap on voucher schools would strengthen accountability by making both public and private schools more attentive to the needs and wishes of parents, as opposed to bureaucrats.
Robert Holland
Senior Fellow for Education Policy
The Heartland Institute
Chicago