Jack Jennings, director of the Washington-based Center for Education Policy, which opposes school vouchers, states "the bottom line is, let's get on to real school reform and to things that we know for sure help children achieve better: all-day kindergarten for low-income children, better teachers for schools in poverty and smaller classes." (Schemo 2) Truly the best way to assist all low-performing students is by strengthening their public school and addressing individual learning problems directly rather than simply moving the child and insisting that they must adjust to another district. In order to fix the deep inequities that may reside in a public school, we must first learn to understand their particular dysfunction instead of simply fleeing from the dilemma. Margretta Carrington, the principal of a Tampa, Florida elementary school who witnesses every day the milestones made by individual students explains:.
If Florida leaders spent as much time and energy on helping public school students achieve as they spend on developing voucher programs, there may not be such a perceived need for alternatives to the public schools. The focus on vouchers diverts attention from public schools, hurts the morale of teachers and students, and only "creates additional problems" rather than providing solutions. (Mullen 3).
Carrington's makes a strong point, which is that although we must grapple with a weakened school system, pro-voucher constituents need to dedicate their efforts into shifting them towards the public school and not the latter.
Proponents of vouchers are asking Americans to do something contrary to the very ideals upon which this country was founded. We are investing in charter schools that force citizens such as Christians, Muslims, Jews and even atheists to pay for the religious indoctrination of schoolchildren at schools with narrow unsophisticated agendas and segregation.
