Hardly anyone seems to want a school voucher system in New Jersey, but an opportunity scholarship plan continues to have life. Sharon Krengel of the Education Law Center explains:
Strong pushback against vouchers last winter from public school parents and advocates provided encouragement for the many legislators who do not support the bill. Deep opposition, coupled with polls clearly showing a majority of NJ residents oppose vouchers and the uproar over spending taxpayer money on private and religious schools, has stopped the OSA in its tracks.
But recently there’s been talk in Trenton about scaling back the OSA to a pilot program for five or six districts. Trying to gain a foothold in New Jersey, voucher proponents see a smaller pilot program as a way to blunt criticism that the original OSA bill covering 13 districts was too expensive.
Vouchers lack popular support and they don't work to improve educational outcomes. I would have thought that's the kind of combination that speaks directly to elected officials, whether driven by policy concerns or political ones. For whatever reason, it remains a popular short-term solution for some leaders.
Sending taxpayer money to religious schools with little or no oversight is never the answer, however. If it's no good for a whole state, it's no good for a few districts either.
