Educational vouchers – an issue that few people know about. Vouchers, however, will affect the lives of many people in America.The issue of educational vouchers has been a hot topic in recent years. Many advocates have presented it as a way to allow students to choose what school they attend and at the same time put pressure on public schools to perform better. The way a voucher works is that a taxpayer would be able to take the money they pay to local public schools and divert it to the private school of their choice.

The argument that vouchers could help public schools and most students today is one of the most dumbfounding and irrational arguments to surface recently. There are so many holes in the voucher plan that it would make a piece of Swiss cheese jealous.

The first argument made for vouchers is that it forces public schools to perform at a higher standard of education. Now, I am not a math major. However, I do not see how taking money away from an already struggling public school is going to make the school any better. If anything, we would see an even further decrease in the quality of public education.

The next issue is the one of school choice. School choice is something nice to preach about in election years by politicians, but in actuality there is no such thing as school choice for everyone.

The voucher lottery system does not even guarantee that a specific student will get a voucher. The lottery system works the same way a state lottery for money does. Essentially, if the number of people who apply for vouchers outweighs the number of vouchers available, people are drawn randomly from the voucher pile.

The students who do receive vouchers would then be able to use the money to apply to private schools. Private schools, however, are under no obligation to accept students with vouchers. This allows private schools to pick and choose, and send the rejects back to public schools, only to have another round of voucher students apply to private schools and face either acceptance or rejection.

This sort of policy totally goes against the original goal of vouchers, which is that a good education should be available to all students. The voucher lottery would only limit the number of students getting a quality education even more.

“A pure voucher system would only encourage economic, racial, ethnic, and religious stratification in our society. America’s success has been built on our ability to unify our diverse populations,” according to the National Education Association.

Perhaps the most convincing argument against vouchers is that they are unconstitutional, since 85% of private schools are religious and no taxpayer money can go to any religious organization. Allowing a voucher system would go against the separation of church and state. Courts all across the country, from Vermont (Swart v. South Burlington Town School Dist.) to Wisconsin (Miller v. Benson) have ruled time and time again that publicly funded dollars cannot go to any religious organization.

Right now the Supreme Court is hearing the case of vouchers and their decision will affect America’s public education. The only decision they can reach is to reject vouchers as a viable option in today’s educational system. To rule otherwise would destroy our public education system. It would give a quality education to the privileged few, while leaving most of America’s students with a less than satisfactory education.

There is no doubt that many of our public schools need help in improving the quality of education they are providing. This help, however, cannot come in the form of a threat or an ultimatum issued by the government. Help needs to come in the form of more money for our public schools, more support for our teachers, and a re-dedication to students so that they may succeed.

Most of all however, all of today’s students need to be treated as equals. All students deserve the same quality education. Vouchers would just reinforce the gross inequality in today’s educational system. We need to support equality in education, not a program that does the opposite.