Vouchers Schmouchers

A big issue around here these days is the school voucher bill. Supporters on both sides of the issue claim that the other side is being supported by out of state organizations, which is true. On both sides. I'm not sure whether I'm for or against them , but I'm SICK of all the flaming! Also, my husband is a teacher here in Utah. And a good one at that, if I do say so myself. He cares about his students - he wants them to succeed in learning and he wants them to have fun doing it. But he can't do this without parental support. In the classroom, it quickly becomes obvious whose parents are invested in their education and whose parents are not. Most often, it is those students whose parents take no interest in their education that have trouble and cause problems in the classroom. If the voucher bill is passed, in reality only those parents who actually care about their child's education will take advantage of the scholarships offered. Parents who don't take note of their kids before the vouchers certainly aren't going to change after the vouchers. This leaves a greater percentage of students with no support in the public schools, creating an even greater achievement gap between the students in private schools and the students in public schools, not a bridge between the two because of greater competition (not to mention more work for the teachers who are overworked and underpaid as it is!) wow. can you say run-on sentence? This is just one side of the issue, but who knew that by adopting the voucher program we might actually be thwarting one of its very goals? Well, my husband knows, and I think most teachers do too.