I ran across a new study from the Cato Institute on school choice that deserves some discussion in North Carolina and elsewhere. David Salisbury, who used to help up a state think tank similar to the Locke Foundation over in Utah, now studies education issues for Cato. He looked at the average tuition cost in a number of cities in order to gauge how many choices would reasonably be available to parents if they were afforded a voucher worth about as much as the per-pupil expenditure in the public schools. He ended up endorsing a voucher worth at least $5,000, and argued that a larger amount would be defensible — and would still save enough money in foregone public-school expenditures to make the proposal salable and cost-effective.
I’m not so sure. I’ve been talking to a couple of NC lawmakers about tax credits or vouchers they’d like to propose in the General Assembly, and we continue to circle around the issue of cost. If the voucher/credit is too small, few parents would be likely to transfer from public to private schools, so there would be little savings to transfer over to cover the cost or revenue loss for existing private-school students. If the voucher/credit is much larger, however, you obviously have to induce lots of students to transfer to the private sector to keep things revenue neutral. Possible fixes included limiting eligibility for the voucher/credit to public-school parents only, which seems unfair, or limiting the program to a particular school or district.
Any thoughts?
