Vouchers take money away from public schools

Caitlin Deerwester, Page Design Editor

There are often big debates about what taxpayer money should go towards in the education system. Most would hope it funds public schools, yet private and catholic schools get some of that money, too.

Taxpayer money should not go to Catholic Schools through voucher programs. Instead, the money should be used for public schools.

A voucher is a handout of taxpayer dollars to private school tuition, mostly for catholic schools. It is another way for the government to funnel money from public schools into private schools.

The government sets up voucher programs for students whose parents do not believe the local public schools would be sufficient enough for their child, so instead they are given the opportunity to go to a private school. However, these programs usually go towards poor/struggling private schools and there is no proof that their education is better than the public schools.

The goal of funding private schools isn’t to improve students learning but it is to implement religion into their curriculum. The government’s goal also gets muddled due to the fact that catholic schools are going through serious financial struggles because no one is admitting into catholic school giving them even more incentive to push for more taxpayer funded vouchers.

The separation of church and state is a serious issue especially at the school level. As of now public schools do not have enough funding, but the government is giving taxpayer money to religious schools just to give certain students a better education without focusing on using that money for public schools which could improve millions of student’s education.

The government’s goal should be to improve public education for all students and use our money for schooling instead of using it to help the rich over the poor.

While vouchers were not made with religious schools in mind originally, Catholic schools growing dependence on vouchers for money creates a conflict of interest especially when they argue for vouchers in a political setting. Americans United for Separation of Church and State a nonprofit group stated that religious affiliations are in 76% of private schools. Therefore, it can become a violation of the separation of church and state if these school’s goals are to spread their religion which could very well happen due to their decrease in popularity and money.

We should focus our money on public schools whose main goal is to educate the population including the neediest of children, instead of using vouchers to support private and catholic schools who do not help poor students or even the majority of students.