School Vouchers at the federal level is a huge change in how K-12 public and private schools are funded in the US. The passage ensures disruption of the previous status quo. What ensues when national vouchers meet local school-district funding is still TBD… but has enormous potential consequences both for the states that adopt it, and for the states that don’t.
“We have to be realistic,” said Mr. Elorza, who encouraged Democrats to use their political power to push for vouchers to go to low-income students in underperforming schools. “Look at where our current education system has landed the party. We’re not delivering policy-wise and are losing support politically. We have to try new ideas and should be open to anything.” ~ Jorge Elorza, chief executive of Democrats for Education Reform,
One presumes Mr. Elorza is not speaking for the NEA which in some ways has perhaps nearly as much political power as many Democrat office holders today. One imagines the NEA will be pushing some policy regarding Federal Vouchers that supports teacher jobs, and the NEA might have a lot of sway over what particular states do to structure the Vouchers in their state.
Necessity is the mother of invention? Change is the mother of innovation? National School Vouchers seems like a big step into the unknown.
Perhaps in the middle of what looks to be a coming chaos for some schools, and even potential disaster for some schools and students, there will be opportunities to turn EdTech and AI in Education loose to lower costs and provide higher quality.
TBD what might happen to those opportunities, but presumably some startups and some established Tech powers will seek to provide “AI in education services” to schools. Some would predict that those could be both better and cheaper. But quite possibly not more secure.
That may be too optimistic, but saving costs will come to the fore, and for some schools and school districts EdTech will look like a solution to meet new economic realities. How much of a price may end up being paid for innovation and change is TBD, and change inevitably brings some bad results along with good results.