Is privatization the solution? The policy is targeted at low to middle income families which would allow them to choose between public, private, and religious schools for their children’s education. The choice to parents comes in the form of a voucher. The voucher policy includes a predetermined amount of money allocated to parents. After receiving the voucher, parents are allowed to enroll in the s

An even playing field will never be imposed on public and private education. Private schools may reject anyone they feel academically challenged. Public schools will never have this choice. Quality of education becomes much easier to attain when institutions can pick and choose who they teach. This fact is coupled with the fact private schools can operate on a significantly higher budget. This gives them advantages in hiring better teachers and purchasing better educational resources. If public schools lose voucher students to state-funded privatization, they will see a cut in funding while private schools will see a huge increase. It may lead to the extinction of public schools.

New York City is perhaps the most reliant study we can look to for answers. In February of 1997, the School Choice Scholarship Foundation (SCSF) announced it would provide up to $1,400 scholarships for at least three years to 1,300 public school children from low-income families. The objective was to provide these families an opportunity to attend private schools, both religious and secular. To become eligible for this scholarship children had to be entering grades one through five, live in New York City, attend a public school at the time of application, and come from families whose incomes allowed them to be eligible for the government’s free school lunch program. After all applications were received, a lottery was conducted to determine the recipients of these vouchers.

This leads to another assumption involving the schools themselves. Schools are faced with the burden of limited space. In order to achieve absolute choice, schools must have adequate room to accommodate new students whom wish to enroll. School choice is also faced with private discretion. Private schools, unlike public schools, have the ability to deny enrollment because of lack of ability. Upon choosing a privatized education we must also assume that private schools will accept all applicants, just as public schools are required.

The voucher system is also unconstitutional. The 1st Amendment clearly states a separation of church and state in which the government can not support a certain establishment of religion. When money is filtered into the private religious schools, it facilitates the purpose of religion. The 14th Amendment assures vouchers to be unconstitutional, ensuring that states must obey the guarantees embodied in the Bill of Rights. About 85 % of private schools are religious, thus making them constitutionally ineligible for voucher applicants. If the Constitution is abided by, the choice of schools becomes extremely limited.

There are problems with this approach. Most of the studies, up to this point, do not provide significant results and certainly fail to v

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