Here is a sampling from June 28 daily newspaper editorials on the voucher decision:
“The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday struck the greatest blow for equal public education since Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. In the process it also stripped away the last Constitutional and moral figleaf from those who want to keep minority kids trapped in failing public schools.”
The Wall Street Journal,
“Vouchers Have Overcome”
“More districts and states should explore programs like Cleveland’s, try new methods and thus expand the public’s knowledge of what works. Vouchers may well not be the great boon to students, and to overall school improvement, that some believe. Then again, they may.”
The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer,
“A Lesson in Freedom”
“In theory, Cleveland’s voucher program allows children to use state stipends to go to any school they want. In practice, the choice it offers them is between a failing public school system and the city’s parochial schools. This is not a choice that the Constitution intended public tax money to underwrite.”
The New York Times,
“The Wrong Ruling on Vouchers” (Requires free registration)
“Vouchers may offer answers for some children. The Constitution should not be read to forbid policymakers from finding out. In fact, our quarrel with the Cleveland program would be that the vouchers are too small. Imagine how much competition might be generated, and with what respect poor parents might be treated, if they were given an $8,000 voucher for each child, and public schools really had to prove they were worth what society now spends on them.”
The Washington Post,
“Letting Parents Decide”
“A widespread voucher program would siphon off the involved parents and striving students who keep up the pressure for progress. No private schools need accept or keep a student with a troubled discipline history, increasing the concentration of violent or disruptive students in public school classes.”
Los Angeles Times,
“A Blow to U.S. Education” (requires free registration)
“The public schools of Plains shpaed a U.S. president, and the schools of Atlanta influenced the leader of the civil rights movement. Before we walk away from the system that educated Jimmy Carter and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., we should try to improve it, instead.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
“High Court Ruling Doesn’t Mean Vouchers Will Work” (no longer available online)
