Student journalists from Children's PressLine analyse the school choice debate, focusing on congressional races in Florida, where more than 26,000 students have used public money to attend private and parochial schools since 1999.

School choice programs, also known as school voucher programs, provide public funding for low-income students to obtain scholarships to attend the school of their choosing -- be it private, public or parochial.

This year, eight states -- Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wisconsin -- enacted new school choice programs or expanded existing programs; today, a dozen states and the District of Columbia have private school choice programs.

By 2007, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group in favor of the programs, predicts as many as 150,000 students will be participating in publicly funded tuition scholarship programs.

But the debate rages; it's not clear if private schools provide a better education than public ones.

This summer the U.S. Department of Education determined that public school students perform as well as or better than comparable private school students in reading and math, with one exception -- 8th grade reading, in which private school students performed higher.

In July 2006, school vouchers proponents in Congress introduced a federal bill that would extend the school choice program. The America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids Act would allow any student in an underperforming public school to apply for a funding to cover part of the cost of tuition for a private school education.

The position of advocacy groups on opposite sides of the issue

Many advocacy groups have a lot to say about the contentious issue of school vouchers. While all of them seem to want the best for the nation's youth -- and recognize that there are problems with the current system -- they differ drastically on their proposed methods of achieving this change.

For some advocates of the proposal, school vouchers go beyond academics. They argue that vouchers give families the choice of sending their children to the school that best fits their needs. Furthermore, they suggest that the competition between the public and private schools will improve the overall quality of education.

The Alliance for School Choice, for example, suggests that school choice will help to level the playing field between the rich and poor: "we believe that the most effective means of creating systemic and sustainable K-12 reform for our educational system is by giving low-income parents the same right to choose the best education for their children that most Americans already enjoy."

Others maintain that vouchers deprive school districts of money and dodge constitutional laws against funding religious educational instruction. The National Parent Teacher Association claims voucher programs take much-needed money out of public schools and reduce public revenue without improving public education.

Parents' rights in education

Florida politicians are similarly polarized. Many Republicans support school choice programs and advocate local control, referring to the public education system as a "bureaucracy."

Jeff Miller, a Republican candidate running in Florida's 1st District, said, "School choice is about one issue: Who should have the right to determine where a child goes to school? The parents or the government?"

Ander Crenshaw, Republican candidate for Florida's 4th District, agreed, arguing that "control of education must be taken away from Washington bureaucrats and returned to parents, teachers and local leaders. It just makes common sense to put our children's education in the hands of those who know their names and their needs."

For the millions of students nationwide who are stuck in what the government has determined to be "failing schools", local control and school choice seem like attractive options.

The Heritage Foundation suggests that school choice is "clearly popular" among participating families, citing the large number of applications received for a similar fund in 1999.

The impact on public schools

But what happened to all those kids that applied for scholarships but could not receive them? Were they given a chance to succeed?

"What do you think you'd feel like when somebody just leaves you behind?," asked Charlie Stuart, the Democratic candidate in Florida's 8th District.

"Somebody comes to you and you're in a group of 10 or 20 people and they say, 'We want to pick you for our team, but not you over there.' That's what I think those children will feel like when other kids say, 'We're gonna go and get our voucher and leave you behind in a failing environment.' That's not a message you want to send," Stuart said.

Jan Schneider, who campaigned this year but ultimately did not win a bid for Democratic candidacy in Florida's 13th District, had voiced concern for the millions of students who currently find themselves in failing environments and likely would remain there -- school transfer availability is limited because successful public, private and parochial schools can only take on so many new students.

Schneider was strongly opposed to school vouchers. She argued, "Particularly with our public schools in such dire financial straits, Congress should oppose all schemes to siphon off resources."

Do vouchers really provide choice?

Beyond the problem of availability, the National PTA stresses that "privatizing" education --giving funding to private schools that are not accountable to government standards -- endangers the rights to equal education for which Americans have fought for many years.

The PTA argues on their Web site that vouchers do not provide choice because private schools could deny admission for any reason, including "disabilities, limited English proficiency, or low academic achievement."

Will vouchers will really provide the "choice" that the Florida candidates claim? Or do vouchers provide choice for some kids, but not for everyone?

Though their tactics differ, Florida's legislators agree that education is important and that something needs to be done about the millions of kids who are stuck in learning environments that are not conducive to learning.

-- By Nawal Arjini, 11; Che'te Bay, 16; Marco Felice, 10; Sabrina Felice, 11; and Natasha Kirtchuk, 15, from Children's PressLine. Children's PressLine is a youth journalism program based in New York City. This is the fourth in a series for NewsHour Extra on youth issues and the 2006 Congressional races.