School vouchers, also known as scholarships, redirect the flow of education funding, channeling it directly to individual families rather than to school districts. This allows families to select the public or private schools of their choice and have all or part of the tuition paid. Scholarships are advocated on the grounds that parental choice and competition between public and private schools will improve education for all children. Vouchers can be funded and administered by the government, by private organizations, or by some combination of both. Government-run voucher programs are very controversial, and they have been criticized from two very different angles. The first body of criticism alleges that competitive markets are not well suited to the field of education, and that any school reform based on privatization, competition, and parental choice is doomed to failure. The second body of criticism states that government-funded scholarships would not create a genuinely free educational market, but instead would perpetuate dependence on government funding and regulation to the continued detriment of families.

A third reason they are controversial is because they directly address the fact that public schools are funded by tax payer money, and yet the tax payer has little to no "say so" in what is taught in a public school. Vouchers permit parents to change schools if they disagree with the subjects taught or style of education coming from a public school. Those who oppose "big government" use this reasoning to promote vouchers. They argue that tax money is still "their money", and they should have a greater voice in how it is spent. Without vouchers, families have no choice but to enroll their children in the school within their residential district. This gives public schools a monopoly on education, which ensures job security for faculty. This is why teacher unions oppose vouchers. Such a monopoly also gives little incentive to improve education or produce results in actual learning, which is why some parents are for them. Parents whose children are already enrolled in private schools are split down the middle. On the one hand, some resent paying twice for education: their tax dollars support public education which their childent don't attend, while they pay out of pocket for private education. Vouchers, to them, would bring relief to the high cost of tuition. On the other hand, other parents oppose vouchers because they resent the idea that "poor" children could invade the exclusive schools they themselves are paying out of pocket for.

Actually, in Wisconsin and many other states, parents do have a choice now. It is a period every year from mid January to the beginning of February where parents can submit an application to a public school of their choice. It then gets reviewed, voted on, and parents are notified. There are more technical things that go on, but it does open up the field for parents to find schools more suited for their children. The down side is that parents are then responsible for transportation to the school of their choice and that they must re-apply to that school at several key points: going from grammar school to middle school and middle school to high school and I believe, don't quote me, but I believe that the application process is every year in school, but I may be wrong. It does encourage schools to be slightly more competative in the classes and extra curricular things offered, so the students may reap the benefit!

School voucher are where the gov. instead of giving the education money to the public school. The money is applied to a voucher and the parent can choose which school public or private that they wish to send the child to. So it your child lives in a failing school that does not teach them. You use the voucher and send them to a school that will. It evens the playing field. It is controversial because so many people think the gov. is the answer to every question. Voucher say the answer it parental choice to choice the best school for their child. Causing the schools to improve or loose students.