Many people ignorantly see the voucher system as an infringement upon the public school system. Consequently, in a setting such as public school, the information concerning this elite system is rarely seen in its entirety.

Mediocre public school teachers refuse to discuss its other perspectives on the grounds (which they will not admit) that they would eventually be out of a job. Good riddance, I say. Too many teachers have no inspiring reason behind their teaching, they merely do the minimum required in order to make a living. Their students, in the process, learn only the minimum and fail to truly excel or feel challenged. The voucher system would weed out those teachers and place (or keep) the best in every school. The quality of education would escalate drastically, and students would be given the chance and encouragement to do their very best.According to the voucher system, students, from elementary to high school, would be given the opportunity to attend any school they felt best for them - from public to private. Eventually the finest schools would be filled and the others fade, embarrassed, into the past. There would be fewer difficulties in affording private schools, and rather than being closed, their doors would be halfway open and more available to the middle-class.

As it is, those attending private schools still have to pay taxes for the public system the same as those attending public schools. Even home-schoolers could benefit from this system; they also have to pay public school taxes, though they do not use the schools. With vouchers they could buy excellent supplies and widen their opportunities.

So why in the frenzied focus on improving education do lawmakers - and even those in the community - drive on past this option? Why do they so obviously limit us, the students, while at the same time pulpit pound and cry out for a better education? Refusing to face the facts, the higher opportunities, is also pushing our horizons so far in the distance that we can barely see them.

Katrina Lyman

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Salt Lake City

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