School vouchers give parents the ability to choose where their children attend school. Their child can attend any school that accepts the voucher. It may be either public or private. This removes the geographic determination for a child attending a public school. It permits the parent to choose a school that may have a better learning environment or teachers based on reviews and other information the parents have gathered. This allows students to attend a school near another family member or babysitter that may care for him.
The Hoover Institution website states that competition among schools is an advantage of the voucher program. Schools must compete for the best teachers, and work to improve the test scores of the students attending their schools. Improving in these areas increases the attractiveness of the school to more students. The more students with vouchers attending the school, the more revenue the school receives to continue improving its facilities and learning programs.
Educational voucher systems can lend themselves toward discrimination based on certain factors, according to Education.com. The website indicates vouchers can be issued subjectively based on needs, such as for low-income students. They also can be issued for students attending schools that are not meeting the needs of the students based on test scores in the opinion of the issuers of the vouchers.
Voucher programs can result in the need to eliminate schools that are inefficient in competing, or choose not to compete. As students start to leave the school for other schools, the school may have to terminate the employment of teachers or transfer them to other schools with needs. The reduction of students and teachers at a school may at some point become so low that it is not profitable for the school to operate, and it will close as a result of its loss of students through the voucher program.