News & Observer editors offer a weak editorial in response to those of us who would like to offer additional educational options to parents.
For example, the following formulation ignores history and reality: “private means parents pay to send their children to schools of their choosing; public means a taxpayer-funded system.” Historically, “public” and “private” schooling had little to do with who paid the bill. In reality, private means parents pay twice – tuition and fees to send their children to schools of their choosing AND taxes to send other kids to school.
Let’s take a look at another N&O sound bite, “The principle behind public education in North Carolina is to provide all families with an equal opportunity under the state constitution for a sound basic education.” The concept of a “sound basic education” refers to the Leandro decision, which declared that “Every child in N.C. has the constitutional right to an equal opportunity to receive a sound basic education.” The court defined a sound basic education as having sufficient skills, abilities, and knowledge to thrive in post-graduate life. Nothing in the definition of a sound basic education specifies how the state should meet the requirement.
And allow the irony alert to sound when N&O editors write, “And through charter schools, the state already funds a choice within the public education system for those parents who prefer schools that are more experimental in their curricula and teaching methods.” You know, charter schools…schools that the N&O editors and reporters incessantly attack. If they had the choice, the parents would have fewer choices.
Of course, N&O editors acknowledge savings from the tax credit, but, for them, “the net savings wouldn’t be so large that it would be worth blurring the lines between public and private schools and encouraging more families to make the switch.” So, it is not about costs and benefits but against some imaginary line between public and private, a line that our pre-kindergarten programs and institutions of higher education cross regularly.
Allow me to answer a few questions posed by N&O editors.
1. “Why wouldn’t parents of children currently in private schools demand a similar tax credit?” They would demand it, but the deadweight cost of offering these students a tax credit is not feasible this year.
2. “Or, would some parents put their kids in a public kindergarten and then take the private school benefit and opt out?” It is possible that some parents will try to do this, but it seems to be much more likely that parents who exit the system will be the ones who are being ill served by it. If a child enters kindergarten and is doing well, parents have little incentive to start paying thousands of out-of-pocket dollars to pay for a private school. No harm, no foul.
According to the Alliance for School Choice, just over 115,000 students receive benefits from nine scholarship tax credit programs in seven states. In most of these states, social justice Democrats supported proposed tax credit programs. For these legislators and community activists, the quality of schooling for poor and minority children was much more important than the provider of that education. I suppose some liberals have more courage than others.
