Voucher (education)

A school voucher, also called an education voucher, in a voucher system, is a certificate of government funding for a student at a school chosen by the student or the student's parents. The funding is usually for a particular year, term or semester. In some countries, states or local jurisdictions, the voucher can be used to cover or reimburse home schooling expenses. In some countries, vouchers only exist for tuition at private schools.

According to a 2017 survey of the economics literature on school vouchers, "the evidence to date is not sufficient to warrant recommending that vouchers be adopted on a widespread basis; however, multiple positive findings support continued exploration."

France lost the Franco-Prussian War and many blamed the loss on France’s inferior military education system. Following the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the French assembly proposed a religious voucher that would hopefully improve schools by allowing students to seek out the best school. This proposal never moved forward due to the reluctance of the French to subsidize religious education. Despite its failure, this proposal is one of the earliest examples of a voucher system that closely resembles voucher systems proposed and used today in many countries.

The oldest continuing school voucher programs existing today in the United States are the Town Tuitioning programs in Vermont and Maine, beginning in 1869 and 1873 respectively. Because some towns in these states operate neither local high schools nor elementary schools, students in these towns "are eligible for a voucher to attend [either] public schools in other towns or non-religious private schools. In these cases, the 'sending' towns pay tuition directly to the 'receiving' schools."

A system of educational vouchers was introduced in the Netherlands in 1917. Today, more than 70% of pupils attend privately run but publicly funded schools, mostly split along denominational lines.

Milton Friedman argued for the modern concept of vouchers in the 1950s, stating that competition would improve schools, cost less and yield superior educational outcomes. Friedman's reasoning in favor of vouchers gained additional attention in 1980 with the broadcast of his ten part television series Free to Choose and the publication of its companion book of the same name (co-written with his wife Rose Friedman, who was also an economist). Episode 6 of the series and chapter 6 of the book were both entitled, "What's Wrong with Our Schools?" and asserted that permitting parents and students to use vouchers to choose their schools would expand freedom of choice and produce more well-educated students.

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