Arizona Families who bail on public school will get $7,000 per kid

[dfrecore]

I understand the appeal of the market-forces argument for these vouchers/credits/whatever, but I think it’s a really reductionary argument that serves mainly to obscure the actual complexity.

The cheapest kids for a school system are those with no major problems (educational, cognitive, physical, etc) who are operating at or a little above grade level. The father you get from that “median” student, the more expensive, with the important proviso that kids above grade level cost less than those below grade level.  Schools typically get more funding for special needs kids, but not enough to pay actual costs.  The tax dollars allocated for “median” students effectively help to subsidize the more expensive students’ costs.

The students who will be able to take advantage of these vouchers and credits will be overwhelmingly, if not entirely, median or better students.  By removing average and above-average students, the apparent “quality” of the public schools (based on things like test scores and graduation rates) will decline.

I looked at a bunch (9) of private schools (just a quick Google search) in AZ and looked at their tuition. Only one of them, a Catholic school, had tuition of less than $7,000 per year for Kindergarten or higher. In other words, the parents will still have to pay part of the cost of education. The poorest kids, regardless of how smart they are, will be unable to take advantage of these vouchers. Most of the schools that I looked at also required students to be fluent in English. In AZ, that’s no small thing.

Nationwide, private schools enroll disproportionately more white and Asian students and less black and Hispanic students. This AZ program will do nothing to change that. It will be a tool for white parents to take their kids out of more diverse public schools and put them in more affluent, whiter private schools.

Also, there already is a marketplace for K-12 education. If you don’t want you kid to go to public school, PAY for them to go to a private school. Can’t afford it?  Work harder.

Philosophically, I also just disagree with these voucher programs. I was taught that the purpose of government was to do for the public those things which they cannot reasonably be expected to do for themselves. The military, police, fire department, aid for the very poor and disabled, etc, all fit into this. The government already guarantees access to an education in a public school. If you don’t like your school, move to a different district or state or pay for private education. If the argument is that people cannot reasonably provide for their kids a PRIVATE school education so they need government help, I will be waiting for my $50,000 check from the government because I want a Porsche 911 but I can’t afford it; I need some welfare, just like those AZ parents will be getting their WELFARE.

I was a parent that did not put my kids in school (I homeschooled them K-8) BECAUSE they were not average students.  If they were, it wouldn't have been an issue.  My daughter had/has dyslexia, and there was just no way the schools in my area could cope with that.  She did not read well until she was about 12.  Fortunately, we were able to work around this with intensive reading/spelling programs for all of K-8, plus doing TONS of oral work instead - if she couldn't read well, it did not put her behind, we just did things a different way. Schools LOVE output - lots of writing, worksheets, proving what you know with paperwork.  Instead, we were able to have discussions, listen to books on tape, etc.  My son was very advanced, and again, the schools were not capable of providing for that.  He was able to work ahead, without being put in classes with students much older than him, which would not have made us happy.

I know LOTS of people who pull their kids out of public school because the school does not serve them.  If you have average to above-average students, school is for them.  It's the kids who are not served by schools because they are "below-average" in some way that this benefits.

Plenty of people don't want to put their kids in private schools.  Lots of people WANT diversity.  Lots of people are perfectly happy with their local schools.  I'm guessing that if the state is currently spending more than $7k per pupil, that giving them $7k to "go away" will leave them with MORE money for the public schools, rather than less.  They're basically buying off everyone who they can, leaving them with more money in their coffers to spend however they'd like.  This may actually mean that they'll have more money for teachers, and better teacher/student ratios; but my guess is that they'll spend more on crap like Chromebooks that they lose track of, clear backpacks, and of course, administrators.  If you look at private schools, the administrator to teacher ratios are MUCH better than public schools.