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14 States Have School Choice Voucher Programs

It would be wise to do that, but that doesn't help anyone's kid now.

That is also riddled with political pitfalls in our current education system.

One example: research says that the most impactful school-based factor in regard to student outcomes is the teacher. It makes sense to invest in teachers. The best way to help teachers improve is to provide them 1:1 non evaluative coaching (3rd party preferred), more effective than workshops or the occasional observation. However, unions often bar teachers from receiving coaching either for fear it will be used evaluatively or because it's not in their contract.

Who loses? Students. That issue and many like it aren't going to be solved quickly and you can't make a case to parents that their kid should suffer while we wait for it to be resolved.

The quick answer? Give parents a choice where their money is spent, and let the schools figure out their internal issues on their own time.
Then those schools should be under the same rules as public schools and under the same school boards as public schools.
 
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lol. Those gaps are filled in by the right kids, not all kids. As far as price, yes tuition get raised, really....the difference will the the amount. if tuition was 4k and parents are now getting 7k. the new tuition will be 9k. the parents will now have a reduction in tuition by 2k and those that are poor won't be able to pay the additional 2k.
Where do you think all these kids would get put in a private school? If all the iep/504/behavioral problem kids could really go to a private school, what would the advantage be. Let's not be stupid here.
Well...most private school have a testing requirement to get into them because they are subject to accreditation and don't have those resources.
 
1) You’re taking a portion of the state amount to the private school for taking on the student. In a sense they are outsourcing the work— pay a portion of state allotment and one less child in public school
2) Public schools keep the remainder of the state plus 100% of all local whether that student goes public or private
3) Yes, public schools are spending more than $12K per student. Ours is $14,391 per student, but much of that is due to bloated teacher contracts, but I digress. Cedar Rapids pays $12,145 per student.
So when that subsidy comes out of the parents' tax payment, who pays for the decrease in state revenue or how is the decrease covered.
 
My issue with school choice is that by giving vouchers to attend a private school, you’re then taking that money from the public school, which further starves the public school of valuable resources. It turns education into a zero sum game where one side benefits at the expense of the other, and that’s not how we should approach education.

I have a cousin whose kids are attending a private school in Indianapolis, tuition is something like 12k if not more. You think public schools are spending $12k per kid?
Not necessarily, inasmuch as the public school has also reduced a unit of its costs.

Your costs may vary, of course. Here in Arlington, VA, the FY 2020 per pupil spend was 19,921.
 
According to what I read, it's given to the parent to do with what they think is best to help their kid. The parent IS the wall of separation.

This is a silly and obtuse way to look at it. If you think this isn't going 99% of the time to a religious school or religious homeschool nut in iowa, you'd be wrong. This is 100% about religion.
Exactly. And it wouldn't be hard to prove in a court of law either.
 
So when that subsidy comes out of the parents' tax payment, who pays for the decrease in state revenue or how is the decrease covered.
You’re saying they additional tuition they spend and can write off on their taxes? Like college? Well, that amount of taxes they are avoiding as a result are far more than offset by the amount they don’t get and is absorbed by the public schools.
Example, Tuition costs $10K, they get a $5K voucher then pay and write off the additional $5K and don’t have to pay taxes on that, say maybe $1500. Well, they only got $5K of the $7K so the $2K plus all local (additional $5K in CR) stays in the public fund unused by them. So they forfeited the use of $7K which more than offsets any lost revenue for the state.
 
I think it is everyone’s responsibility to fund public schools, whether you have children or not and whether they go to public or private schools or not.
 
I think the general public sees public schools as already bloated financially even though they scream every year about how underfunded they are. Huge systems without real oversight usually tend to do that, not just schools. This should make them assess how and where they use the funds they have.

Just because the public might see schools as bloated doesn’t mean it’s true.
 
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Of course it would, but we all know that the reality of public educational finance and politics is that rich districts do better, and poorer districts do worse, as a general matter. And yet, that doesn't necessarily mean that throwing more money at the poorer district actually solves any problems.
So the only option is to go against the 1st amendment and subsidize even private institutions with tax revenue.
 
Iowa is not Indiana. Nor is Iowa's Supreme Court like Indiana's.
It's the federal courts that matter here.

A state's options are basically as follows:
1. No voucher program (ie, work to improve your public schools).
2. Program that allows for choice/transfers among public systems/schools (eg, from an underperforming public school, or where a local jurisdiction is small enough that it can't support its own).
3. Voucher program for private schools, that does not preclude use in religious private schools if allowing use in nonreligious private schools. (This is the maine case that Scotus will decide this term)

What a state can't really do is establish a voucher program usable in private schools, but not religious private schools.
 
So the only option is to go against the 1st amendment and subsidize even private institutions with tax revenue.
Well, it's not against the first amendment, but at the end of the day, that's not the only option at all. A state can simply work to improve its public schools, or per above, could create school choice options within the public system. But if it establishes a voucher program useable for private schools, it can't discriminate against religious private schools.

 
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You’re saying they additional tuition they spend and can write off on their taxes? Like college? Well, that amount of taxes they are avoiding as a result are far more than offset by the amount they don’t get and is absorbed by the public schools.
Example, Tuition costs $10K, they get a $5K voucher then pay and write off the additional $5K and don’t have to pay taxes on that, say maybe $1500. Well, they only got $5K of the $7K so the $2K plus all local (additional $5K in CR) stays in the public fund unused by them. So they forfeited the use of $7K which more than offsets any lost revenue for the state.
This will be a direct reduction of the tax bill.

Senate Study Bill 3080, which would create a private scholarship program, would allow up to 10,000 K-12 students in Iowa to obtain a scholarship of about $5,200 to attend another school — religious, private, charter or home-school.

This is $52,000,000 coming directly from the state. Are you telling me that it won't affect public school funding?
 
This will be a direct reduction of the tax bill.

Senate Study Bill 3080, which would create a private scholarship program, would allow up to 10,000 K-12 students in Iowa to obtain a scholarship of about $5,200 to attend another school — religious, private, charter or home-school.

This is $52,000,000 coming directly from the state. Are you telling me that it won't affect public school funding?
If my internet research is to be believed, IA's public education budget is $3.5B for K-12. So while the literal answer to your question is "of course it would," the more realistic answer may be "not in any material way" since we're talking about 1.4% of a massive budget, and which would correspond to a reduction in the number of students of slightly more than 2%. So in theory, the actual answer might be "they'll end up with more to spend per student"
 
So the only option is to go against the 1st amendment and subsidize even private institutions with tax revenue.
We should get rid Obamacare and not even think of single payer, then I guess. You know...since subsidizing private institutions is so bad.
 
If my internet research is to be believed, IA's public education budget is $3.5B for K-12. So while the literal answer your question is "of course it would," the more realistic answer may be "not in any material way" since we're talking about 1.4% of a massive budget, and which would correspond to a reduction in the number of students of slightly more than 2%. So in theory, the actual answer might be "they'll end up with more to spend per student"
Yes, but will the costs of operating public schools actually go down as their revenue streams may? If you remove one student from a classroom will you dock a teacher's pay by that proportion. I understand using one less book but will you cut back on lighting and heating?
 
We should get rid Obamacare and not even think of single payer, then I guess. You know...since subsidizing private institutions is so bad.
That's why I called it the insurance subsidy program. Of course that has nothing to do with the separation of church and state.
 
Lets be honest. This will cost the state more money, lead to lower test scores, and put kids even further behind. Anybody who thinks that this will be beneficial to kids is an idiot.
 
That's why I called it the insurance subsidy program. Of course that has nothing to do with the separation of church and state.
Neither does this have anything to do with church and state. There are plenty of non-religious private schools that money can go to.
 
Yes, but will the costs of operating public schools actually go down as their revenue streams may? If you remove one student from a classroom will you dock a teacher's pay by that proportion. I understand using one less book but will you cut back on lighting and heating?
To be sure, there are certain costs that are fixed costs that are a harder nut to crack. (But in some cases may be crackable - eg, if an underperforming school loses enough students to vouchers, it may suggest consolidation of the fixed costs.) But there are certainly variable costs as well (eg, short of actually closing or consolidating a school, it may be that staffing ratios are such that you can cut aides or admin staff)
 
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Neither does this have anything to do with church and state. There are plenty of non-religious private schools that money can go to.
So you want to discriminate against the religious schools? I believe someone told me earlier they couldn't do that, but what do I know. Like I have said, make them take everybody, make them non-profit, allow the school board to have oversight, go ahead.
 
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This will be a direct reduction of the tax bill.

Senate Study Bill 3080, which would create a private scholarship program, would allow up to 10,000 K-12 students in Iowa to obtain a scholarship of about $5,200 to attend another school — religious, private, charter or home-school.

This is $52,000,000 coming directly from the state. Are you telling me that it won't affect public school funding?
$52M is a lot, BUT those 10K students also leave behind ~$70M (assuming ~$12K per student) to the public schools and won’t be a burden to it. PLUS, that’s 10K fewer students that need to be accounted for in the public schools. Like I said, some could be absorbed into the existing structure, but not all. See my CR Xavier example.
 
Wouldn't it be wiser to find out why those schools underperform? And does it only apply to underperforming schools? If so, who gets to decide which schools are underperforming?
We know why so many of our schools fail...an overabundant amount of children who live in poverty in them. It's not complicated.
 
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To be sure, there are certain costs that are fixed costs that are a harder nut to crack. (But in some cases may be crackable - eg, if an underperforming school loses enough students to vouchers, it may suggest consolidation of the fixed costs.) But there are certainly variable costs as well.
It just seems like it would increase the overall tax burden and shift the tax burden from property tax revenue to income tax revenue.
 
AMENDMENT I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I'm not a constitutional scholar, but the federal gov't isn't doing this, so no. And the govt isn't saying you have to go to a Catholic school, you can go to any one you choose for the benefit of your child.
You seriously don't see public money going to a religious school as an "establishment of religion"? And before you start, states can't pass laws that violate the Constitution so the idea that it isn't the federal govt doing it is completely immaterial.
 
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So you want to discriminate against the religious schools? I believe someone told me earlier they couldn't do that, but what do I know. Like I have said, make them take everybody, make them non-profit, allow the school board to have oversight, go ahead.
It’s called CHOICE. Which means there is no religion being established by the government and therefore not infringing on the concept of Church and State as far as the first amendment is concerned.
 
$52M is a lot, BUT those 10K students also leave behind ~$70M (assuming ~$12K per student) to the public schools and won’t be a burden to it. PLUS, that’s 10K fewer students that need to be accounted for in the public schools. Like I said, some could be absorbed into the existing structure, but not all. See my CR Xavier example.
Are you decreasing the size of the schools? Are you decreasing the teacher's pay? Are you decreasing the administration? Basically, all you decrease is 5200 books for each class.
 
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It’s called CHOICE. Which means there is no religion being established by the government and therefore not infringing on the concept of Church and State as far as the first amendment is concerned.
Like I have said, make them take everybody, make them non-profit, allow the school board to have oversight, go ahead.
 
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It’s called CHOICE. Which means there is no religion being established by the government and therefore not infringing on the concept of Church and State as far as the first amendment is concerned.
I have no idea what you're arguing. Are you saying we can take our tax dollars and rather than allowing them to be used for the general welfare, we can use them for our own welfare? I want a voucher for defense...the military doesn't need my money and they waste what they do have. I can use it to fund my own personal defense force. It's called CHOICE.
 
Are you decreasing the size of the schools? Are you decreasing the teacher's pay? Are you decreasing the administration? Basically, all you decrease is 5200 books for each class.
You are decreasing the size of public schools, with fewer teachers, fewer facilities, less environmentals, etc. by essentially outsourcing education to others for less than half of what the public pays.
 
It just seems like it would increase the overall tax burden and shift the tax burden from property tax revenue to income tax revenue.
I will not pretend to be able to answer that one, as it's a really big sausage making exercise. :)

I will say this though - I do not think vouchers are a broad based model for education, but rather a limited measure that should be explored to address smaller scale problems in underperforming schools. What you don't want is for them to simply be a subsidy for rich families' private tuition.
 
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You are decreasing the size of public schools, with fewer teachers, fewer facilities, less environmentals, etc. by essentially outsourcing education to others for less than half of what the public pays.
5200 students. How many fewer teachers, fewer facilities will you have? If they all came out of school district or 10 of the smallest districts, you will decrease those items. But they won't.
Like I have said, make them take everybody, make them non-profit, allow the school board to have oversight, go ahead.
 
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