As Congressional Republicans plan to violate Washington DC's home rule, and force a school voucher system on the city, I think it's useful to review how vouchers are working here in Florida.
I'll support almost anything reasonably calculated to improve the access of poor people — and rich people too! — to quality schooling for kids. Abstractly, vouchers look like they might do that, subject to a small host of caveats about the effect on kids with serious problems who might end up being treated like the 'lemons' of a primarily for-profit system, or dumped into the vestigial remains of an underfunded public system.
Given the Florida experience, however, one has to ask whether vouchers in practice are in fact reasonably calculated to be helpful on balance. As usual, the Florida Blog is on top of this one, with links to:
- Nonpublic schools wrote own ticket on form
- Come fall, the heat is off: The state's much-touted sworn affidavits are making school vouchers look increasingly like blank checks.
- Avoid state meddling: Start a schooll
- Bush aides considered fabricating voucher explanations
- Cooking up a coverup
- Education commissioner concedes voucher failings
Talk about waste, fraud and abuse! Not to mention special interest lobbying, hogs at the trough, and every other cliche too.
