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According to US News and World Report, the concept of educational vouchers was brought to public attention several decades ago with Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who promoted it as a technique to improve the educational system. The voucher plan, although differing across the country, generally intends to improve the schooling opportunities available to the minorities and the poor by increasing their ability to enter private schools while simultaneously encouraging the building of new schools outside the current bureaucratic structure. Currently, public schools are supported by a combination of taxes collected by state and local governments. The voucher plan turns this system upside down by continuing to collect the taxes, but then immediately distributing them completely to parents to decide which school should be funded. It creates a controlled market in which schools compete for students and students enroll in schools that best accommodate their needs. The vouch ers would more or less be equal to the current expense level per pupil in public schools. Generally school vouchers are supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats. Needless to say, the voucher has become a significant source of debate. The Republican Party and other advocates of the plan argue that vouchers free disadvantaged students from flunking public schools and that they also spur public schools to improve by creating competition for students. In the June of 1998, a poll conducted by the Organization and Phi Delta Kappa, a professional education association, showed that 51% of Americans favor vouchers while only 45% oppose them. Supporters declare that as long as the tuition voucher belongs to the parent, it is no business of the state to which schools the voucher goes. Comparing the vouchers to food stamps, which do not require regulations on grocery stores, they argue that the school vouchers would not carry with them the regulations that have made public schools less effective. The Democratic Party and other people against the plan challenge that vouchers tap resources from the public school system. The US News and World Report says the deregulation of the public school system through the widespread use of school vouchers would lead to an elementary and secondary school system that is fragmented, inefficient, and inherently unequal. Also, they argue the fact that since there are roughly 4.9 million students in nonpublic schools and since the average cost for each of these students is around $5,500, the total cost of the voucher money would be in the vicinity of $26. me :: essays research papers According to US News and World Report, the concept of educational vouchers was brought to public attention several decades ago with Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who promoted it as a technique to improve the educational system. The voucher plan, although differing across the country, generally intends to improve the schooling opportunities available to the minorities and the poor by increasing their ability to enter private schools while simultaneously encouraging the building of new schools outside the current bureaucratic structure. Currently, public schools are supported by a combination of taxes collected by state and local governments. The voucher plan turns this system upside down by continuing to collect the taxes, but then immediately distributing them completely to parents to decide which school should be funded. It creates a controlled market in which schools compete for students and students enroll in schools that best accommodate their needs. The vouch ers would more or less be equal to the current expense level per pupil in public schools. Generally school vouchers are supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats. Needless to say, the voucher has become a significant source of debate. The Republican Party and other advocates of the plan argue that vouchers free disadvantaged students from flunking public schools and that they also spur public schools to improve by creating competition for students. In the June of 1998, a poll conducted by the Organization and Phi Delta Kappa, a professional education association, showed that 51% of Americans favor vouchers while only 45% oppose them. Supporters declare that as long as the tuition voucher belongs to the parent, it is no business of the state to which schools the voucher goes. Comparing the vouchers to food stamps, which do not require regulations on grocery stores, they argue that the school vouchers would not carry with them the regulations that have made public schools less effective. The Democratic Party and other people against the plan challenge that vouchers tap resources from the public school system. The US News and World Report says the deregulation of the public school system through the widespread use of school vouchers would lead to an elementary and secondary school system that is fragmented, inefficient, and inherently unequal. Also, they argue the fact that since there are roughly 4.9 million students in nonpublic schools and since the average cost for each of these students is around $5,500, the total cost of the voucher money would be in the vicinity of $26.