Just weeks after the five-year anniversary of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, President Bush is asking Congress to broaden the bill to meet its quickly approaching goal for all students to read and do math at or above grade level by 2014. The new plan includes “Promise Scholarships,” which are $4,000 vouchers that poor students at chronically failing schools can use to transfer to private schools. These vouchers are not the answer to America’s poor-performing schools and the achievement gap that plagues our education system.
Public school students have made significant strides since NCLB was first passed in 2002. Reading and math scores are at all-time highs, and 9-year-olds made more progress in reading during the last five years than in the previous 28 combined, according to a White House report (www.whitehouse.gov). These achievements are from students attending improved public schools, not from the help of vouchers sending students to private schools.
“Promise Scholarships” will not improve our schools. Instead of giving up on a school and awarding scholarships to some students so they can get out – leaving others behind at what the state deemed a chronically failing institution – the money should be used to improve the school and make it an acceptable environment for all students to learn.
All students should have the opportunity to receive a quality education; however, if America does not focus on improving the public school system, the achievement gap will not close. While a small few students may benefit – in the short-term – from attending a better school, all students, and the future generations, will benefit from improvements in schools themselves.
Vouchers are a way to escape the problem of failing schools; they are not a solution to the problem. Increasing classroom resources and offering tutoring and other support services to students and providing teachers with quality training programs and continuing education will have farther-reaching effects than vouchers. Institutional changes will positively impact more of the nation’s youth than the vouchers for a select few.
About the writer:
Susan Carmody is a senior journalism major. She can be reached at [email protected].
