It seems to me that far from worrying that a voucher system might negatively impact public schools financially, we should recognize that the _current_ system is inequitable, that the public school funding model is unfair to those who have sought other alternatives for their children.
A few points that I haven't seen mentioned here:
1. Parents of students who are in private schools are at least in some sense paying twice for their kids' education: once through taxes (=> financing the public schools) and once directly to the school attended. This is inequitable, but it is a voluntary inequity, parents _could_ all send their children to public schools.
2. If all private schools closed today, the public school system would not be able to absorb the extra students. It would cost a lot to add enough schools (buildings, equipment, teachers and staff) to provide an education for all students. This would mean higher taxes on everyone. (Who is footing the bill now? Ah, yes, the families of the private school students.)
3. There is accreditation for private schools, if a school is not providing a good education for the students the accreditation agency should not (re-)accredit that school. Rather than saying that a certain school doesn't deserve to be included in a voucher system, let's say that certain schools should not receive accreditation, and accreditation
4. We need not theorize in the absence of data. Look around at how education is funded in other countries, not everyone does it our way, and studies must have been done on the different options -- or if not, they should be. During a year I studied in Europe I became aware that some European countries have in place voucher systems that seem to work well. This Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_voucher) refers to several cases I wasn't aware of: Chile, Netherlands, even some regions in the U.S.A. This page (http://oldfraser.lexi.net/publications/critical_issues/1999/school_choice/section_05.html) details the long experience with vouchers in Denmark.
My two cents worth,
Ken Caviness
Professor of Physics
Southern Adventist University
Collegedale, TN
P.S. The alert reader will have noticed that I teach at a private university, which a little research would show was founded by and still closely associated with the Seventh-day Adventist church, a Protestant Christian denomination: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh-day_Adventist_Church. The average U.S. citizen may confuse Adventists with Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses, but the pertinent point here is that that SDA educational system is the second-largest parochial system in the world, after the Roman Catholic educational system. I have always been bemused that Seventh-day Adventists in the U.S.A. gladly pay twice (taxes & tuition) for their children's education, citing the importance of "maintaining the separation between Church and State", although our church-supported institutions still seek and obtain accreditation from the appropriate regional accreditation agency. (For us, that means SACS, here at Southern we recently underwent our periodic reaccreditation.) Yet in Germany, SDA schools receive government funding as well as meeting governmental standards. It doesn't make sense to me. Why should some pay twice? Why should they be expected to? Why are they willing to?
-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@mail.phys-l.org [mailto:phys-l-bounces@mail.phys-l.org] On Behalf Of ron mcdermott
Sent: Tuesday, 10 July 2012 2:55 PM
To: Phys-L@phys-l.org
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Private schools
What kind of voucher system would you envision, and how would you run it without negatively impacting the public schools financially? I'm willing to be enlightened, but I've been discussing this issue with others for years, and I think I've seen ONE system that MIGHT work - IF it remained as limited as it was initially. The main problem with any voucher system is that the goal of most supporters is to extend it to ANYONE who wants it, including people whose kids are currently in private schools. Even UNextended, virtually all of them will hurt public schools financially.