School Vouchers as a Means of Expanding Inequality
School vouchers are expensive, results are mixed, and the long-term impact could be ever-expanding inequality
There have been lots of news stories recently (and even not so recently) about the cost of vouchers (they’re expensive) and the results (not good).
Peter Greene offers further analysis of the long-term impact of a voucher scheme.
Greene goes further to note the commodification of education could have some disastrous results:
Vouchers get us to the place of considering education a privately purchased commodity instead of a public good, a service provided to and for all citizens. Once we've established that it's a privately purchased commodity, then vouchers are just one more bit of welfare, another entitlement to be cut so that the Poors aren't a drag on the folks with resources.
The long game, then, is to dismantle public education, hand the profits to privateers, and restrict education resources such that the haves have more and the have-nots have never.