I’m trying to understand the difference, assuming there is one, between voucher schools and charter schools. Is there?
There aren’t voucher schools, at least not that I’m aware of. In voucher programs, parents are given funds which they may use to pay tuition to the school of their choice.
Charter schools are, for lack of a better term, “specialty” schools. Around here, I believe they’re planning a charter middle school with additional foreign language requirements, including Arabic, so as to create truly global citizens. I’ve also heard of charter schools being planned that, for example, run later in the day and have no homework requirements, or that focus on the performing arts.
A voucher program, as Otto posted, allows a student to attend a private school with a lessened or nonexistent tuition burden.
So as far as the voucher programs they have in some inner cities (e.g., Milwaukee), are those vouchers used at charter schools? Or are there other inner city schools called voucher schools?
OK, again, there is no such thing as a “voucher school.” There are no schools that were created specifically to receive vouchers. Vouchers are given to parents who may then use them to pay tuition at private schools. There’s nothing AFAIK that prevents them from using a voucher at a charter school that charges tuition. But there’s no such thing as a “voucher school.”
If not now, there will be if the idea takes off. Groups will start up schools in hopes of making bucks off the taxpayer tab.
I have heard that Milwaukee has approved some form of vouchering system, and I haven’t heard of any others. There has been a lot of legal wrangling about whether these chits can be used to pay tuition at religious schools – a lot of folks want to send there kids to Catholic schools, and there are many other schools associated with individual churches