Florida children in failing schools are out of luck if they seek better opportunities for their education, now that the state Supreme Court has ruled that school vouchers violate the state’s constitution. Florida law calls for uniform system of free public schools. Under the Florida voucher system, students in failing schools could receive vouchers to offset the cost of tuition at private schools. Opponents sued, arguing the vouchers divert money from public schools and also violated the principle of separation of church and state.

In this ruling the court has condemned hundreds, if not thousands, of Florida children to mediocrity, in a mindless attempt to impose a punitive leftist agenda. Why should our children serve as guinea pigs in schools that fail to make the grade? These failing schools aren’t behind due to lack of money, countless studies and comparative examples demonstrate without question how money plays only a marginal role in the success or failure of public education. These schools are failures because of mindless bureaucracy and a culture of indifference practiced by parent and community alike, a culture that has relegated these children to mediocrity, a culture that doesn’t value education.

Now the one opportunity these children have to escape from the doldrums has been whisked away thanks to a coalition of leftists fearful that some parents may use their vouchers to send children to (dare we say it) a religious school. The court’s ruling is not only morally and ethically deficient but constitutionally the ruling is without merit. The state’s public education needs are satisfied through a voucher system and if they aren’t then the constitution should be amended at once. It is abhorrent that children should be denied opportunity and choice to placate bureaucracy.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-01-05-florida-school-vouchers_x.htm