Posted on 02/07/2024 9:51:53 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
For GOP lawmakers who view public education as a quasi-socialist project, the gaping hole in state budgets left by subsidizing private school tuition is a feature, not a bug.
Bait-and-switch is an old retail tactic. You lure customers in with promises of a deep discount, only to inform them that the deal has a catch. The real price tag, it turns out, is quite a bit more.
Though it took supporters of school vouchers a while to catch on, they’ve learned quickly that the trick works just as well in education policy as it does in retail sales. Pick a price that will get people in the door, and then break the news once you’ve got them where you want them.
In Arizona, taxpayers are now staring down a $400 million shortfall, with an even bigger bill coming due next year. How did the Grand Canyon State go from sitting on a huge cash reserve to facing a rising tide of red ink? Simple. Voucher proponents suggested that paying for private school tuition would cost taxpayers $65 million a year; but as it stands, the program is on track to cost roughly 15 times that. All told, Arizona taxpayers are likely to spend close to a billion dollars reimbursing the cost of tuition and luxury expenses—including ski resort passes, pianos, and theme park tickets—for families whose children were never enrolled in the public schools........
But as spending on private school vouchers continues to exceed projections, state treasuries are being emptied by tax-cutting schemes........
With all this red ink on their balance sheets, it won’t be long before states need to make major spending cuts. And the first place they’ll start is with their biggest line items: public schools, healthcare, and other social programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenation.com ...
How much did Arizona spend on Illegal immigrants last year alone? Would NOT spending any of that amount this year plug the education “shortfall” ?
So how much was saved in the PUBLIC SCHOOL costs by lowered attendance? I’m betting NOT A PENNY.
Pretty much. It is the fault of conservative, red states that public schools are being rejected and people are sending their children to private schools. Damn that choice thing!!! Its a threat to “our democracy.”
Outside audits to check the books and look for ghost students need to be done at every district.
With zero notice.
Sorry, Nation. All governments suck to some extent, but YOUR type of government has max such, max depravity, max idiocy, and max repulsiveness. And a gubmit school is right there at the bottom of the septic tank. Shove your silly, outmoded ideas up your collective and smelly Obamaholes.
I think the voucher system should be expanded to 100% where vouchers are provided to both public and private schools and then the schools have to live with the voucher funds provided.
We home schook our son here in Arizona. He is not terribly academic, but he does have an ear for music. We uses ESA money to get him an electric piano and lessons. That is NOT a luxury, and costs a lot less than AZ paying a union teacher to babysit him.
When was the last time the Nation was concerned about a budget shortfall?
The author of this drivel gets to the point in the last sentence of the excerpt.
Public schools budgets will suffer due to the voucher program.
IMO, this is a good thing!
Arizona spent $3.2 billion on illegal aliens last year.
The school voucher system has been generally successful and the reason that the spending is increasing is because parents are fleeing the political indoctrination, progressive policies, low academic standards and general weirdness and lack of safety of the failing public schools.
The reason for the shortfall is the state has not cut back on funding the failing public schools that are becoming empty.
LIE!!!
That money BELONGS TO THE TAXPAYER!!! NOT the gov't!!!
When the parent sends their kids to private school, they don't receive a voucher for 100% of the per student cost in public school.
Rather they receive only a portion (which varies between districts but never exceeds 85%).
That means the district still has that 15% + to cover infrastructure and related costs, not imposed by the "butt in the seat".
They've made laws to make it impossible to get rid of Non-Value Added Administrators!
So, are public schools going to become more competent in their teaching methods, and do the job more economically?
Public schools in many venues are neither operating at their fullest potential for imparting learning skills, nor are they doing so at a competitive cost, compared to homeschooling or private ventures.
But they are great indoctrination centers for non-American and anti-Christian ideologies.
“For GOP lawmakers who view public education as a quasi-socialist project...”
Nothing “quasi” about it.
If Public schools there or anywhere cannot respond elastically to drops in enrollment by reducing costs in line then they will fail. Unions must allow for the financial health of their contracting employers or a pox on both their houses. Might public schools compete in a healthy way by adopting the practices that private or charter schools are offering and drawing enrollment with?
“ I think the voucher system should be expanded to 100% where vouchers are provided to both public and private schools and then the schools have to live with the voucher funds provided.”
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Perfect! Competition is good. Public schools would have to improve or the only students they’d have left would be the IDIOCRACY kids or kids of progressive true believers,
But were paying the school taxes anyway along with private school tuition.
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