What school vouchers would look like in practice

"This blog would support the passage of laws which would allow parents to have school vouchers in order to properly choose which school their children could attend."

The following are key provisions which could be contained in a potential Act of Parliament which creates a scholarship programme that provides all eligible student children the option to attend the public or private elementary or secondary school of their parents' choice. For the sake of clarity
“eligible student” means the student was eligible to attend a public or state school in the preceding
term or is starting school for the first time. “parent” includes a guardian, custodian or other person with the authority to act on behalf of the child.

Any eligible student will qualify for an annual scholarship in an amount equal to the lesser of:

the participating school’s annual cost per pupil, including both operational and capital

facility costs; or the amount in pounds the resident school district would have received to serve and educate the eligible student from state and local sources had the student enrolled there.
An important part of ensuring the crucial aspect parental control is the requirement that the scholarship is the entitlement of the eligible student under the supervision of the
student’s parent and not that of any school.

In addition, a participating school may not refund, rebate or share a student’s scholarship with a parent or the student in any manner. A student’s scholarship may only be used for educational purposes. Participating schools that have more eligible students applying than spaces available shall fill the available spaces by a random selection process, except that participating schools may give
preference to siblings of enrolled students.

If a student is denied admission to a participating school because it has too few available

spaces, the eligible student may transfer his scholarship to a participating school that has spaces
available.

Eligible students shall be counted in the enrollment figures for their resident local education authority

for the purposes of calculating state aid to the resident local education authority. The funds needed for ascholarship shall be subtracted from the state school aid payable to the student’s resident local educational authority. Any aid the school district would have received for the student in excess of the funds needed for a scholarship will be kept by the local authority.

The local educational authority shall adopt rules consistent with this program regarding:

1) the eligibility and participation of non-public schools, including timelines that will
maximize student and public and non-public school participation;
2) the calculation and distribution of scholarships to eligible students; and

3) the application and approval procedures for scholarships for eligible students and

participating schools.

For further information it is possible to consult sections 4 and 5 of the Friedman Foundation for Educational choice's select school choice model legislation: "Parential Choice Scholarship Program Act" (Universal Eligibility)
http://www.edchoice.org/Documents/SchoolChoice/Parental-Choice-Scholarship-Program-Act-_Universal.aspx

Below is one of I suspect to be many videos to come from the thinktank Reason Foundation's Youtube channel Reason TV exploring the school choice revolution that has taken place in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It also examines the political aspect of the reform programme which followed and the relevance that has the educational reform debate in this country specifically concerning the role of teacher's unions.