There are plenty of gripes about the public schools, but it is easy to understand why nothing gets fixed: the money keeps pouring in.
Public school administrators often cry broke despite receiving billions of dollars from federal, state, and local governments. They run out of money because so much of what they get is wasted. For example, my local school district spent $17 million on a new administration building even though enrollment has fallen one percent yearly for the past decade. After that, the administration asked voters to approve a $340 million bond issue, in part to replace a perfectly good swimming pool.
None of these items have anything to do with improving student performance, but voters often say yes to these spending requests because they are sold “in the name of the children,” and the public schools are often the only game in town.
Force Public Schools to Compete
The best way to stop the wasteful spending is to force public schools to compete, and the only means to do this is for Congress to pass the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA). The ECCA will give families true school choice in every state. Student performance will improve if schools must earn the funds, they now get so easily.
Under the ECCA, families can get access to “scholarships” funded by private and corporate donors, not taxpayers, to help pay for school tuition, tutoring, education technology, online courses, curriculum, fees, homeschool expenses, or special needs services. Unlike vouchers, the ECCA is a tax bill, not a federal program. There will be no strings attached to scholarships, which would protect the religious liberty of parochial schools, for example.
All students will be eligible to receive the cash regardless of what kind of school they attend, and if their household income does not exceed 300 percent of the median gross income in the area where they live. An estimated 90 percent of families in each state would be eligible. The money can be available as early as the 2026 – 2027 school year.
An Even Playing Field
The ECCA evens the playing field in several ways. First, the money raised to fund the scholarships will come from private sources, not funds coerced from taxpayers, which right away sets up a guardrail against wasteful spending.
Second, the scholarships will go to schools and private services that are providing families with the best value. Scholarship-granting organizations (501c3s) will distribute the money to families who apply for it. Like any purchase decision, families will spend the money on schools and services that best meet their needs.
This spending freedom will create a demand for alternatives to poorly performing or wasteful public schools. One reason there are few choices outside of the public schools is because options like private schools are unaffordable to many families on top of the property taxes, they already pay to support a public school system.
With more options available to families, public schools will have to compete for students. Where I live, state funding follows the student. When families choose an education option other than the public school, the public school will lose that funding. Public schools will learn quickly that to keep students, they must up their game. And if demand for the public schools drops, there will be less of a knee-jerk response from voters to approve each and every spending request.
Be Bold
It is critical that legislators not water down the ECCA when it is up for mark-up in the House Ways and Means Committee, anticipated sometime later this month. For the ECCA to have its transformational effect, donor limits must remain intact to win the support of large donors, like corporations.
Individuals can receive a non-refundable tax credit up to 10 percent of their adjusted gross income or $5,000, whichever is greater, and corporations may contribute five percent of their taxable income for the tax credit.
The bill sets aside $1 billion to ensure a $20 million minimum in tax credits for each state. This will prevent any one state from gobbling up all the tax credits. If 90 percent of the $10 billion aggregate funding cap is raised, the funding cap will then increase by five percent in the following year.
The Florida Experience
Legislators have only to look to the state of Florida, which has had an ECCA-like scholarship program in place for nearly 25 years. Today, more than 500,000 students participate.
Research has found that test scores of public-school students improved and absenteeism and suspension rates dropped in districts where there were more private school options.
Legislators in both parties all support better educational outcomes, and the ECCA could be the best opportunity yet to show the skeptical public that Democrats and Republicans can work together for the common good.
AnneMarie Schieber ([email protected]) is the managing editor of Health Care News, co-published by The Heartland Institute and the Goodman Institute for Public Policy Research. A version of this article appeared in Red State.
