What Are Vouchers and Charter Schools?
Government educational vouchers constitute a legislatively specified amount of government money given to parents to spend on their child’s education expenses. The money often can be used for public or private education. At present, there are only a handful of state government voucher programs for education in existence. Most of them have been struck down by the courts. No federal educational voucher program exists . . . yet. Supporters of government educational vouchers summarize the benefits this way. Vouchers create competition, giving private education programs an “even playing field” when competing with government funded public schools. This, they say, will improve the quality of all education programs. Besides, it is the parents’ money in the first place and they are merely getting their tax dollars back. A much more common educational program is the charter school. Charter schools are a type of public schools. The school is established by a “charter” that lists the school’s missi
