Public Schools Gain From School Choice
South Carolina’s public schools are in trouble. Ranked lowest in graduation rate and 49th in SAT scores, our public schools are not preparing our students for the challenges that lay ahead. In addition to growing achievement gaps between income and racial groups, researchers have found that some of our state’s “best” public schools are actually the furthest behind their national peers.
Despite abysmal rankings, public spending on K-12 education is enormously high and increasing faster than wages or inflation. Lawmakers are looking to spend $11,480 per child in the 2008-09 school year. Recent history is clear: More and more money is clearly not the solution to failing public schools. We must change how we fund education in South Carolina, not merely how much we fund public schools.
Tax dollars should be appropriated on a strictly per-pupil basis, allowing parents the freedom to choose the independent, private, charter, magnet, or traditional public school that meets the needs of their particular child. Only when parents are free to choose among all education options can we expect responsive and effective education for all children.
MORE MONEY
Public spending on education is not actually attached to the individual student. Appropriations are filtered down to schools in a tangled web of federal, state, and local dollars. Federal money is determined by the economic demographics of the area a school serves and local money is a function of the ability of county governments to collect property taxes. Neither corresponds to the number of students attending the schools. State money is sorted into per-pupil appropriations (the base student cost) and a huge range of programmatic and categorical spending items. These categories are treated as fixed costs, with money appropriated in lump sums.
The budget that just passed the House parcels $11,480 in per student K-12 education spending as: $1,097 federal; $4,867 state; and $5,516 local.
“ Recent history is clear: More and more money is clearly not the solution to failing public schools. We must change how we fund education in South Carolina, not merely how much we fund public schools. ”
Recent school choice legislation (S. 457 and S. 851 in 2007, S. 1166 in 2006) has included tax credits, scholarships or vouchers at levels lower than the state portion of total per pupil spending. In fact, these bills allow for scholarships and tax credits that total only a percentage of that portion (up to 75% in S. 457 and only non-categorical money in S. 851).
Since neither federal nor local revenues are based on attendance numbers, public schools would still draw funds from these two sources if students transferred out of public schools. In fact, the more students that migrated out through school choice, the more money per-pupil would remain in public schools. This has been proven in Milwaukee, where school choice has operated since 1990 (see also here and here). Research also shows that competition leads to higher salaries for public school teachers as schools work to attract and retain effective teachers.
BETTER STUDENT PERFORMANCE
Any reform of education needs to be judged by its impact on student performance. Money is only one input toward that end, not the full story. School choice is exceptional among education reforms because in addition to providing more money for students in the public system, school choice programs correlate with higher student achievement in both public and private schools. Competition through educational options consistently yields system wide improvements.
The data on choice are clear. In 1998, an 18-state peer-reviewed study of dropout rates found that “competition from private schools does have a positive and statistically significant impact on the high school graduation rates of neighboring public schools.” In 2002, an analysis of school choice in Milwaukee found statewide gains in the public school performance in 13 of 15 major grade and subject categories from 1997 to 2001. A 2003 review of choice in Florida, found higher math and reading scores for all public schools. The Florida study further determined that the greatest gains were seen at public schools facing direct private competition. Choice means competition and this generates accountability, which is the key to performance.
School choice offers more freedom for parents and greater opportunities for their children. It is proven to boost spending and scores at public schools. Only those who see public schools as a end-in-themselves, and not just one avenue toward the larger goal of education, can argue that real school choice won’t benefit all children in South Carolina.
Randy Page serves as President of South Carolinians for Responsible Government, a statewide grass-roots organization that promotes limited government, lower taxes and increased educational options. Page may be reached at randy@scrgov.org
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This is nothing more than moving the deck chairs on the Titanic. How do poor parents participate in this? How do they transport their children to a “better” school that is twenty miles away? This system benefits only the middle and upper classes. It does nothing to equalize the educational playing field. A cartoon once showed a school desk with a sign “This desk reserved for the children of the rich. Screw the poor.” That cartoon appeared some thirty years ago. Still true,unfortunately. The folks in charge of public education do not have a clue as to how to improve the system, and they never will. Throw out the whole system and start over. We could not do worse.
Looks like we lead in obesity too. Guess Randy forgot that ranking or is a typical hypocrite.
Agreed, John, and if they have enough money to transport their kids, they should probably move out of the cess pool of the country and get a decent job, wage, healthcare and everything else that comes with a different state. Heck, you can’t lose , pick any state of the other 49.
Any idea how the private/catholic schools do versus the public? Im confident its better but is there a way to quantify it?
Why don’t we try letting the money follow the student. This works in the rest of the civilized world. If there is funding, private schools will open, even in the cesspool regions of our state . And, as they always do, private schools will have much better outcomes than government schools. Unlike government schools, bad private schools go out of business. Bad government schools just get more money.
We homeschool our two oldest children for around $700 per year for their books . Each year they score well above grade level on the Stanford Achievement test. They play well with others, and unlike, “Obesity too”, they can debate an issue without calling names or making personal attacks.