It's Schools Again.

       Whatta you think about school vouchers? They place funding for school improvement in the hands of parents, right? Vouchers force under-achieving schools to clean up their act and improve or else, right? Well,  all that's true to some extent. The problem isn't that families are given the opportunity to pick and choose the school that best provides for their children, the problem is that unless the vouchers provide all the funding necessary for children to attend any school they choose, it will only subsidize wealthy families to send their children to the more prestigious schools while leaving the poor stuck where they are in the lowest performing schools
       Why do I think that? Partly because I don't trust Congress or school systems to get the rules right. See if a rich kid is attending one of the better schools in his or her region, I don't think the government should be providing the means for him or her to transfer to the best school. That needs to be up to the family. I think vouchers should be based on a needs formula. If you have a child in a poorly run school you should have the opportunity to send your child to a better school. And government should help.
       But what if, even with vouchers, you can't afford the better school? Seems to me the voucher is wasted unless it pays the whole tuition. But even that isn't the best answer. That's because, then, what do you do with the under-achieving school? If everybody wants to transfer out of it, and who wouldn't want to, do you shut them down? If you shut down all the under-achieving schools, there wouldn't be enough classroom space in the regions affected nor would there be enough good teachers.
       It seems to me that the only way to handle the problem is not with vouchers to transfer, but with task-forces,  teams of specialists, to descend on under-performing schools to turn them around. Give these teams the authority and funding, through the vouchers, to make the necessary changes. Both in facilities and personnel. Give them the supplies and equipment they will need to improve. Give them the dedicated, enthused teachers they will need to be successful.