Home » Take Action » Become a Student Activist » Case of the Month Archives » August 1999
Lesson Plan
"The Debate over the Use of Public Funds for Private Schools"
Purpose
The purpose of this lesson plan is to provide students with information about the Florida education voucher debate and to foster an understanding of the constitutional and public policy arguments about the national debate about education vouchers. Students will also be encouraged to develop their own views on this important issue.
Grade
9-12
Objectives
Students should be able to:
- Understand what Florida's voucher plan involves
- Describe the constitutional and public policy arguments on both sides of the voucher debate
Materials
- The complaint filed in the Florida case
- Other substantive court opinions on school vouchers from other states: Wisconsin (Jackson v. Benson), Vermont (Chittenden Town School District v. VT Dept. of Education), and the two Maine cases (Bagley v. Raymond School Department and Strout v. Albanese)
- Summary of nationwide voucher lawsuits
Activities
- Teacher will give an extensive lecture on vouchers and the Florida voucher lawsuit based on Case of the Month contents
- As homework, students should clip out at least one newspaper or magazine article about school vouchers and bring it into class for discussion
- Students will discuss the voucher articles they brought in with the rest of the class
- Class will brainstorm the pros and cons of the voucher issue, while the teacher compiles a master list of the argument points
- As homework, students will pick one side of the voucher debate and draft a "letter-to-the-editor" expressing their point of view
- Class will hold a mock trial on the voucher lawsuit before the Florida Supreme Court: 3 students will serve as the plaintiffs' attorneys, 3 students will serve as the defendants' attorneys, and the rest of the class will be the justices. The plaintiffs' attorneys must present the anti-voucher position to the class/justices with each student-attorney taking a turn, and the defendants' attorneys must present the pro-voucher position. The class/justices will be able to ask the student-attorneys any questions they may have about vouchers. Then the class/justices will vote/rule on whether vouchers should be legal or not. The members of the class that are justices must then individually write the court's opinion or dissent.
