Intellectual honesty and the Anti-Public
School Politicians who are proponents of school vouchers are seemingly mutually
exclusive. At least, publicly displayed intellectual honesty. In private, they
may espouse to their confidants that the real goals of school vouchers are to
dismantle public education and provide tax breaks to the rich.
Since we know that we can’t
expect intellectual honesty from our anti-public school / anti-egalitarian /
anti-democratic politicians, I’ll attempt to fill the void.
The Political Lie of School Voucher Economics: School vouchers will reduce the cost of private school
tuition and make private schools available for the poor.
For example, if private school tuition is
$10,000.00 a year (above the reach of a poor family), the poor family can use a
$7,000.00 school voucher. This will reduce the cost of tuition to $3,000.00, an
affordable amount.
"Vote for Me!"
Truth #1 of School Voucher Economics: Assuming the above model holds (it won’t, see Truth #2,
below) it really only works if the family has only one child. Every additional child increases the cost to
the family.
One child = $3,000.00. Two children = $6,000.00. Three children =
$9,000.00. And so on. When the family
reaches its private school funding capacity, what are they supposed to do? Rank their children by potential?
“I’m sorry, Johnny. But we all know your little sister is
smarter than you. So quit complaining and get on the Yellow Bus.”
Welcome to Survivor: Family Edition.
Truth #2 of School Voucher Economics: The political school voucher economic model assumes the
operators of private schools are stupid. Which makes you wonder what
politicians think about public school educators? Not really, their actions
speak loud and clear about what they think about us. I on the other hand do not believe that
private school operators are stupid.
Assume I am a private school
operator. I am charging $10,000.00 a year for tuition, and I have a waiting
list. All of a sudden, my clients have
an additional $7,000.00 of non-discretionary income that can only be used at
private schools.
"What to do? What to do?"
I could do nothing and my
clients can reallocate $7,000.00 of their discretionary income to buy new
iPhones and go on vacation.
Or, because I am smart, I can
raise my tuition by the amount of the non-discretionary client windfall (the
school voucher). My clients get the same
service. My clients spend the same amount of their discretionary income on
private school tuition.
No harm, no
foul.
But, and here is the good part, I get to pocket the extra $7,000.00 of
state money. Sure, it may be bad for public school children and taxpayers, but
that’s not my problem.
"Thank you, Mr. and Ms.
Anti-Public School Politician!"
Think.
Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
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