The United States’ education system is extraordinary in several ways. A quick look at rankings of universities around the world reveals that America is home to many of the world’s best. However, despite having more resources than many other nations, the U.S. lags behind many other developed nations in primary and secondary education. Furthermore, the U.S.’ education system manages to perpetuate and produce massive inequalities not seen in many other developed nations.

In an effort to address the issue of inequality and provide adequate education for a greater number of students, the Milwaukee Public School system instituted a voucher program in 1990. The first in the nation of its kind, the voucher system grants children from low-income families a voucher they can use to attend a private school.

The program has faced scrutiny over the years for a variety of reasons. First, the taxpayers who fund the program have cried foul because their children are not directly benefiting from it. Second, the program has been dogged by questions of efficacy since its inception.

On Sunday, Erica Breunlin of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the findings of a new study on the effectiveness of the program in light of recent changes. New legislation was aimed at increasing enrollment in the program, and it has: Enrollment in the program grew by more than 10 percent in the last year. However, bigger isn’t always better.

There are still questions surrounding the ability of the program to effect positive change for Milwaukee Public School students. The program may be a temporary solution, but predictions that it will help to bring about educational equality are dubious at best.

Among the report’s findings, the most striking is that voucher enrollees scored no higher on math or reading standardized tests than did their Milwaukee Public School counterparts. Now, I’ll be the first to criticize the use of standardized tests as a metric for quality of education, but the fact is this is how educational quality is determined in this country.

There are many different possible interpretations of what constitutes a good education. Many Americans no doubt place a high value on whether their children’s education will put them in a position to successfully compete for well-paying jobs. Others may see education as having more intrinsic worth and place higher priority on learning itself. Most people probably combine these two approaches to some extent, but it seems clear enough that the ultimate purpose of education is to place children in a position to pursue what they think is a good life.

This is, of course, a rather broad definition of what education is, and it would be impossible to measure the effectiveness of one education over another according to this description. By the standard we do have, however, the voucher system in Milwaukee is at best doing no harm. But it also is not improving the education of Milwaukee Public School students in any measurable way.

I think there are many people, proponents and opponents of the voucher system alike, whose main intention is to improve education. This is a noble goal, but their approaches to it are very different, and the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Rather than taking a student-focused approach, proponents of the voucher system are focusing on schools themselves. Instead of trying to improve the education received by students, voucher supporters are trying to improve the education provided by schools, but only certain private schools.

There is a place for good intentions. Someone needs to be trying to improve the overall quality of education offered by schools, but this is not the only solution to the problem of education inequality.

The voucher system breeds competition by funneling students from failing schools into private schools, which compete for these students in order to gain resources. This will improve the education offered by these schools, but what happens to the schools from whence these students came? What happens to their peers? A free market system in which only the strongest schools survive cannot be applied to the issue of educational inequality in a way that will facilitate the improvement of education for all.

Ryan Plesh ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in philosophy and physics.