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Private schools definitely have a place in American education. They preserve and strengthen the cherished ideal of freedom of choice in education. They make distinctive contributions to education theory and practice. In fact, many of the progressive developments in American education originated in private schools, including nursery schools, kindergartens, and vocational education. However, since 1983's federal report, A Nation at Risk, debate over the quality of public education has fostered growing support for private schools as viable alternatives to public schools for most American families. This support materializes in the form of school vouchers. Under these plans, families receive a voucher, in the amount of the local public school cost per child, which they can apply to the tuition at a private school. The recipient school submits the voucher for payment out of public funds. The school voucher theory, as it exists today, allows the state to make payment either to families or to private schools with an annual check approximately equal to that of the per-student education costs of the public schools. Seems simple enough . . . in theory. In practice, however, debates about voucher programs are occurring in most states. The most sustained and recognizable voucher program existing in the United States is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Private schools be warned, though. Accepting vouchers could open the door to the same kind of scrutiny and regulation that public schools face. And voucher supporters be warned. The end result of voucher programs will be the demise of the public education system--with no guarantee that private schools will successfully accommodate any massive influx from the public schools. What works for private schools? Well, first of all, they are subject to little state control–which is limited to such matters as teacher licensure–and they operate with a minimum of state supervision. Most states currently do not require any sort of accreditation for private schools to function. Any properly administered voucher program would seem to require some way of determining a private school's eligibility to compete for public funds and to evaluate its effectiveness. Private schools are admired because of their lack of bureaucracy. Clearly, some acceptance of vouchers would require an enhanced bureaucracy of some sort–public schools answer to all sorts of federal and state mandates. Unlike the public schools, private schools enjoy a large degree of flexibility with respect to their admissions criteria and fees. They essentially are free to create a homogenous student body based on a number of exclusionary factors that go beyond family income and can include academic ability, gender, national origin, and religion. Moreover, private schools are not required to admit the disabled or the at-risk – two groups of children which weigh the heaviest on a school's resources. Undoubtedly, a voucher would cover only the minimum tuition and not extend to specialized services to accommodate these students. In sum, what works for private schools is their academic selectivity, exlusionary admissions policies, strict disciplinary practices, and freedom from many state and federal government mandates. In many instances, they are ill-equipped to serve the needs of most of America's school children and, in truth, private schools cannot absorb the burden of educating all the youngsters being culled from the public schools. At best, private schools can serve as a model for education--maybe even a laboratory for experimenting with progressive educational pedagogies--but they are not the simplistic answer that their supporters would like to believe.
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