What are the pros and cons of school vouchers?
89016
Pros:\nAllows lower income people to send their kids to private school.\nAllows parents to choose where they send their kids to school\nRewards good schools, punishes bad schools\n\nCons:\nTakes money out of an already cash-strapped public school system\nPublic schools are not allowed to turn down students, so students who aren't accepted by private schools will be stuck in even worse public schools.
58420
1. it imposes new, heavy federal requirements on all public schools, but does not provide any extra money for schools to meet those requirements.\n\n2. those requirements come in the form of standardized testing, and links a school's test scores to funding.  if a school does poorly, it gets less money, and if it continues to do poorly (which is likely, if it receives less money), it gets closed down.\n\n3.  this causes schools to focus heavily on preparing students for standardized tests, which is a very task-specific skill set, at the expense of teaching critical thinking, music, arts, and other important programs.\n\n4.  schools with low test scores are often those with little money in poor neighborhoods populated by minority students; these schools are already cash-strapped and struggle to hire decent teachers and maintain decaying facilities.  there is no way that cutting funding even further is going to improve their students' scores.\n\n5. given that minority inner-city students are the ones who start out with poor test scores, it can be construed that NCLB is tilted in favor of white, middle-class suburban students, who already have the benefit of being raised in a wealthy environment that is conducive to success.  seems pretty unfair to me.\n\nin general, NCLB is a form of negative reinforcement - schools with students that perform poorly get hit with more cuts, instead of being helped.  it has been shown many times that behavior modification through negative reinforcement does not work.  NCLB should be modified so that those schools that perform well receive extra funding, and it should include a budget appropriation to pay for the costs of administering the tests and rewards.
151862
Advantages: Cheaper, save money, although you may be spending part of the savings on the commute.\n\nDisadvantages: You don't get to experience the full college experience. You have to do what your parents tell you, they may forget you have grown up. You don't get to be independent.\n\nI went away to school and it was the best thing I ever did, I graduated and I live at home now while I am saving up for a house, but I wouldn't trade going away for anything! It made me the sstrong independent person I am today.
472862
There are many cons.  Some of those would be:\n\nNot everybody worships the same God, some worship no God.\nDifferent denominations of the same belief system pray differently.\nIt takes time away from educating the children.\nHow would parents' issues or concerned be addressed? \n\nOne commonly held misconception is that students can not pray in school, they certainly can.  They can not make other pray with them and they can't be disruptive about it. Schools allow Bible clubs and other religious clubs now, they are not compulsory, but they are allowed.\n\nIf you're looking for some good references, I'd suggest the link below.
828257
I think it is a great idea.  If the public schools don't do their job, as judged by the parents, the parents should get their per pupil allotment in a voucher to use elsewhere.\n\nIncentive for the school to do better, ability for our children to get better education if private schools can do it better for the same amount.
891884
Cons:\n - Cell phones were used in the Madrid bombings as detonators\n - Students can use cell phones with text messaging capabilities to cheat on tests\n - Cell phones can be a distraction in classes, especially if the student forgets to silence their ringer\n\nPros:\n - For students who can not drive, it makes it easier to get in touch with parents if an after school activity is cancelled\n - If something bad happens at the school, students can contact their parents to let them know that they are okay
1116209
Lots of advantages, depending on your viewpoint, but these are the disadvantages I see:\n1. Really sick kids, as in critically ill children. You have to be able to separate yourself from that. \n2. You're often on-call EVERY night - unless you're in a big enough group that alternates call. \n3. Primary care doctors (pediatricans, GPs, Internal medicine, etc.) are often low on the HMO food chain, so if you're going into medicine for the money, become a specialist. \nGood luck!
802313
I believe they are good for schools. First off it is much easier to ensure the schools dress codes, because the school itself can pick the specific clothes. You don't have to worry as much about the short skirts or having any clothes affiliated to gangs or drugs. Secondly, it takes a lot of pressure off the students. They don't have to worry about "impressing" each other with the latest trends. Third, it is better for those families dealing with economic hardships. Usually there are programs to get those kids uniforms, if their parents cannot afford them and it also takes the pressure off those kids who might not be able to afford name brand clothes. Which can help prevent them from receiving any ridicule for that.
985559
Well, I know some of them allow your kids to go to school there for free, or at least for a cheap price so long as you work there.  With tuition at the level it is now, that's a big reason to work there.
396380
The "No Child Left Behind Act": Pros and Cons\nWhat are the Pros? \n\n1. Accountability - Schools and districts must demonstrate annually that all students - and all groups of students - are meeting state goals for grade-level work to be counted as making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). \n\n2. Focus on Children of all Backgrounds – Every state is now required to test all children in grades 3 through 8 and report scores broken down by race, ethnicity, low-income, English proficiency and special needs categories. \n\n3. Highly Qualified Staff – Sets specific requirements for teacher’s degrees and continuing education. \n\n4. Help for High-Poverty Schools – Title I schools receive both financial and technical assistance to develop and implement a school improvement plan. In addition, eligible parents will be able to transfer their children to other public schools if improvement is not met or get outside tutoring assistance for them.\n5. It stirred the literacy program researchers to advise the reinstatement of phonics in early grades. They discredited the premise of whole language in response to low literacy rates.\nCons:\n1. Freedom to Leave Failing Schools - While this is also a positive aspect of the No Child Left Behind Act, it may create problems in areas where many schools are failing to meet the guidelines. There may be no real choice in the end due to higher enrollment numbers in schools performing slightly better. \n\n2. Unrealistic Timeline – While many parts of the timeline set reasonable and realistic expectations as to improvement of student performance, other portions of the timeline may be impractical. For instance, teacher education requirements could be set too soon on the timeline for schools to comply. \n\n3. Unreasonable AYP Requirements – Adequate Yearly Progress is a vital part of any long-term plan, especially for the No Child Left Behind Act. However, some aspects of this goal may be unrealistic in cases of some special needs students and ESL classrooms.\n\n\n 4. The federal law, "No Child Left Behind", and standards-\nbased curriculum clashed. It lead to "teaching to the test". Dire consequences for schools and teachers of "No Child Left Behind" affect curriculum through fear. Literacy program researchers retained much of whole language's jargon and perspective.\nThe "No Child Left Behind Act" is the most recent in a long history of system changes and education reform initiatives, some teacher-directed, others student-centered, this one test-centered.Democracy depends on the literacy of the majority, but success\nhas been elusive.
387119
The cost of your public school is determined by the town in which you live. There is a per-person cost which is dependent on the cost of living in the area, the services provided in the school and the school environment. The school cost is usually paid for by the town or area property tax and some State money. The per-person cost of education tends to be higher in the city than in suburbs or rural area even though the school environment and test scores are worse. The suburbs tend to get a better education for fewer dollars because the environment is better.
463509
Bad: People want their students to get premium educations - but no one wants to pay for it.\n\nGood: Some students thrive and excel in the current system... and others... are scary.\n\nGood:  We strive towards the ideal that all people are created equally and are equally capable of succeeding in accomplishing their dreams.\n\nBad:  We deem failure when we don't meet the IDEAL... which is completely impractical anyway.\n\nBad: State testing... always wants to raise the bottom 50 percent to the top 50 percent.  Whoah... who taught the politicians their math? There will ALWAYS be a bottom 50 percent.
433601
Pros: informative, mass communication, educational tool, entertainment.\n\nCons: makes people think that they need to have the latest fashions, newest shoes, makes young girls think that they need to be razor thin to be accepted by our population, reality tv shows.
227832
I would say its very important if you have kids...you will be paying taxes that benefit this school and if for some reason you decide that it isn't the right one for your kids you will have to transport them elsewhere and even pay for their tuition in some cases.  Its pretty easy to investigate academic levels of distinction online as well - if you are concerned with the quality of education your child will receive.\nIf you don't have any children, the school district may dictate how "resellable" your house is to families with children and may also have a lot to do with what kind of neighbors you might expect to deal with in that area.\nBottom line is that its definitely worth investigating prior to buying a house - that way you can weigh your options either way.
325925
Pros are the advantages or the positive qualities of something and the cons are the disdvantages or negative qualities.
174506
Hi,\n\nThis can go either way, but if you work in a low socio-economic areas then in my experience having a school uniform is a good idea.\n\nI've seen kids come to school in the same clothes for several days/not washed or washed their uniforms/had badly torn uniforms. Imagine what they would be wearing if they had to wear other clothes (please note - the school often supplied extra clothes as the year progressed).\n\nAlso, by having a school uniform those students from poorer families are not as easily idenified (as they would be if students wore whatever they wanted) or made to fee uncomfortable by standing out in less flashly/trendy clothes (or worse, having to wear the same clothes repeatedly).\n\nThat was how I explained it to my students and they accepted it - junior school council brought up the idea of no uniforms. I said they could vote how they wanted - I just gave them the other side to the story.
342195
The standard arguments are that they  reduce social friction,\nsave money, make it easier to identify students and non students, help establish a studious atmosphere, increase school spirit and focus more attention on education.\nI know you asked for positive arguments  but I'd like to share my experiences.\n My experience with public schools that required uniforms was that  none of these  arguments actually  held up in real use  over time. Social friction etc. still occurs, We found that the  Uniforms were so poorly made that they tore and  wore out  in a  very short  time even  before being outgrown which happened 3 or 4 times in a school year.  Uniforms are only available in a limited range of sizes,  small and large children had extreme difficulty finding uniforms.  They were so uncomfortable that  many children could not study.\n The local schools still have uniform requirements and originally there was almost 100% compliance now  8 years after  instituting mandated  uniforms  over 80% of students get waivers and wear  regular clothing  only kindergartners and first graders  actually tend to wear the uniforms.