The Study On The Development Of American Publicly-funded Educationvoucher Plan

Education/School voucher insists that: the educational finance is offered to the parents in the form of the voucher, the parents choose the school for their children with the voucher, the schools exchange the money on the basis of the voucher’s quantity. If the money is provided by the government, the voucher is called Publicly-funded Voucher. The core of the Publicly-funded Voucher is “school choice” that is the right given by the government. Publicly-funded Voucher is a kind approach of education marketization. The Education voucher has been in the controversy from it was proposed especially was carried out. Education voucher not only induces a storm in the United States of America, but also impacts the reform of other countries’ education.In order to reveal the social background’s influence to the publicly-funded voucher plan, show the laws and regulations about the publicly-funded voucher plan, the state of the development, the resistance and the controversy, reveal the influence and the value of the publicly-funded voucher plan, I choose the American publicly-funded voucher plan. The article studies the publicly-funded voucher plan thoughtfully and deeply using documentary method, comparison method, case method in the angle of historical development.The publicly-funded voucher plan is divided into three periods including the period of the first attempt(1961-1980), the period of different models carried out successfully(1981-2000) and the period of extension step by step(2001-now) according to its state of development in different period. The political, economic, educational conditions influence the development of the plan. The period of the first attempt: the theory of the education voucher was amended and perfect, Rochester and Alum Rock carried out publicly-funded voucher plan in the guide of the education voucher plan which enacted by Center for the Study of Public Policy and the practice basis of the tuitioning program. The plans failed, but it pulled open the prologue of the publicly-funded voucher plan; the period of different models carried out successfully: the policies and regulations enacted by federal, state and local become more. The plans carried out in Milwaukee, Cleveland and Florida formed different models- “promoting educational quality”, “earnings-related”, “promoting educational equity” and “aimed at disability”. The plan carried out in some areas successfully, but every plan was not smooth in the development. The period of extension step by step: because the opponent-vested interest groups and the different attitude of Bush and Obama, the plans don’t appear in large scale. In addition to “one state two cities”, many districts carry out publicly-funded voucher plan, including Washington D.C, Colorado, Georgia, Louis Anna, Utah and Indiana.The plan pushes the idea of “free competition” spread and practice; American government makes government give the power of choose school free to the parents under the plan; the plan shakes the public schools’ monopoly in the education, breaks the bureaucracy system in education, tried to change American educational system; the plan changes the educational finance from traditional configuration of “government-school-student” to the new configuration of “government-student-school”; the plan adjusts the American train of thought of education reform, the object of the reform shifts beyond school education; the strong debate in the legality, effectiveness, feasibility and change the educational system pushes American education and social development. At the same time, there is a study boom about education voucher in our country and education plans are carried out in some areas trying to solve the problem of the educational quality and equity.