While many feel that school vouchers foster beneficial competition, studies prove that vouchers -- both public and private -- have drained funds from public school districts.  The Milwaukee, WI voucher program, started in 1990, and the Cleveland, OH voucher program, started in 1996, are two examples.  For the year 1998-99, about 6,000 Milwaukee students received vouchers worth approximately $5,000 each, for a total cost of approximately $29 million.  This created a net loss of $22 million to the public schools.  For the same year, 3,744 Cleveland students received vouchers worth up to $2,500 each, totaling approximately $9 million.  However, additional transportation and administrative costs bring the total cost to more than $10 million.  As a matter of fact, the NEA reports that an independent financial audit done in 1997 found that $1.9 million of that cost had been misspent on such things as taxi companies transporting students to voucher schools, and some of the fares paid were for students that were absent!  In both cities, these deficits were felt directly in the public schools, and schools already labeled as failing were made to fair even worse.

Another problem with vouchers is that they play heavily in segregating schools as the more advantaged families move their children to "better" schools and create a socioeconomic barrier.  In Milwaukee, for example, voucher parents, on average, were better educated, more involved in their children's education, and had higher expectations for their children than parents of public school children.  Disadvantaged students, however, were forced to stay in failing schools due to restrictions on parental time and inability to transport.  In a recent NEA report, Wisconsin state enrollment figures show that, although the voucher program was aimed at allowing public school students to leave low performing public schools, only about one-third of Milwaukee voucher students come from public schools.

Another area of concern is in accountability.  A 1998 U.S. Department of Education report, requested by Congress, indicates that private and religious schools are unlikely to participate in a voucher program that would require them to meet accountability standards in key policy areas, such as admissions, student testing, curriculum and religious training.  The NEA recently reported that, in Milwaukee, voucher schools were required not to discriminate against disabled students in admissions, but they do not have to offer special education services.  Also, voucher schools have no requirements with respect to academic standards, curriculum or teacher certification.  Luckily, the Wisconsin legislature is working to specify more requirements in these areas.

Perhaps the most telling statistic, however, lies in the topic of student achievement.  In Milwaukee, an evaluation of the first five years of the voucher program shows no achievement differences between vouchers students and students in public schools.  In Cleveland, the same was true.  In most schools accepting vouchers, there was no achievement difference in math, English, science and social studies with only a slight advantage for voucher students in language arts.  However, in the HOPE Academies, newly established private schools in Cleveland accepting only voucher students, the HOPE students achieved at significantly lower levels in all subjects than other Cleveland voucher students or public school students.

With the proof that vouchers are draining our public schools of funding, developing increased school segregation and producing poorer academic achievement, there seems to be no reason for vouchers and many arguments against them.