When it comes to things like salt, makeup and architecture, less is more. But when it comes to choice in education, more is never a bad thing.
With children spending a mere 12 years in the public school system, education is not a subject we can afford to put on the backburner. Each year, thousands of Utah children age out of a public school that has failed to equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary for a smooth transition into the working world.
The less than lofty federal standard of adequate progress asks that three-quarters of students pass language arts testing and only 59 percent of students pass a state math test. With a record high of one-third of Utah schools failing to meet these standards, the public school system could use more than just a face-lift. It needs major reconstructive surgery.
Utah’s education system is plagued with two major problems. The public school system features the largest numbers of children in the classrooms and the smallest per-pupil spending in the nation. Vouchers offer solutions to both of these problems. Classroom sizes decrease when parents are given the option and the means to remove their child from their zoned public school and enroll them in a private institution. When some children choose to leave the public schools, classroom sizes automatically become smaller, resulting in more individual attention from the teacher for each student.
The other issue is inadequately low per-pupil spending that Utah allots for each child’s education. For each child in Utah, $7,500 is spent per year in the public school system. Those who oppose vouchers tirelessly argue that vouchers take money away from the public schools, causing them financial harm. But those who actually know the language of the bill see that the opposite is the case.
Though voucher amounts range from $500 to $3,000 depending on family income, the average voucher in Utah will be $2,000. Under the current system, $7,500 is spent per child per year on education in Utah. If a parent chooses to accept a voucher and remove their child from public school, that means $2,000 the child will have toward a private school education. But what about the remaining $5,500 that is normally spent on that child? A special provision in the bill includes something called “mitigation funds” to ensure that public schools who lose students will not suffer financially. The extra $5,500 that would normally be spent on the child’s public school education still goes to that public school. So even though the child is no longer attending school there, $5,500 is being given to the school to increase funding. That $5,500 will continue to be given to the public school the child used to attend each year, for the next five years. The end result is less students in the school and more money than ever before to provide for the smaller number of students there.
For years now, public schools have been crying out for increased funding. But how do they propose we do that? The answer is, the same way we always do that, taxes. But not only does the voucher system create more money for public schools by paying them for students no longer there, it increases the net amount of money spent on education. Because the average private school education is above $3,000, the voucher will pay for most of the education, but not all of it. Those parents who accept vouchers will have to choose to supplement their child’s private education out-of-pocket. This approach pumps private money into the education system when parents make the decision to financially supplement their child’s schooling. So instead of the entire funding coming from government, private money is incorporated into the system, creating a bigger pool of net funding for education. All of this occurs without ever raising taxes. And by supplementing their child’s education each month from their own pocket, parents become paying customers. Paying customers who are certain to be deeply interested in and fiercely attentive to the progress of their child as they write out a tuition check each month.
The bottom line is vouchers benefit everyone. For those who want more choices in education, vouchers provide that. For those who want smaller classrooms and more per-pupil spending, vouchers provide that too. Vouchers have had great success in other places and they will in Utah, too.
The opposition to vouchers will say that the solution is to give the public schools more funding. But inefficiency and squandering of the resources has evinced year after year that the approach is not working. Many cling to the hope that the public school system will magically fix itself. But those romanced by the notion that more money will fix a broken system are mistaken. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Utah children are graduating (or dropping out) of a system that falls pathetically short of the formal education they deserve. We need to stop pumping money into a failing system and finally embrace some effective reform. Vouchers have come to Utah, and if we have the good sense to vote yes for Referendum 1 on Nov. 6, they will stay.
Brooke Reider is from Towson, Md. and is majoring in print journalism.
Copyright Brigham Young University 17 Oct 2007
