Florida Vouchers Unconstitutional

It is becoming ho-hum business to find the courts ruling in favor of a status quo system that has failed for years and will continue to fail for an eternity.

From the AP through TownHall.com,

In a 5-2 ruling, the high court said the program undermines the public schools and violates the Florida Constitution's requirement of a uniform system of free public education.

Voucher opponents had also argued that the program violated the separation of church and state in giving tax dollars to parochial schools _ an argument a lower court agreed with. But the state Supreme Court did not address that issue.

In other words, Florida's Constitution demands that a public school, regardless of any inefficiencies in operation or an abyssmal track record, should be allowed to feed at the public trough and further perpetuate the scandal of poor education to another generation of children.

The people that fight school vouchers are not concerned with the quality of education of children, but rather the equality of it. To these people an educational system that is uniformly equal and bad, is much preferable to one where some kids perform at levels higher than others.

Many public schools fail for a lot of different reasons. However, it is the state itself that has made off-limits certain changes that would make the largest differences. Until public schools are able to dispense with disrupting students, are able to terminate ineffective teachers, are able to ignore the doctrines of social engineering, and are willing to give local people more control over their own destiny, the system will fail in educational terms. However, it will be a huge success for equality.