Parental Choice Savings Revealed
In addition to providing thousands of South Carolina parents with the opportunity to find a better academic environment for their children, the proposed Education Opportunity Act would also result in additional per pupil resources for public schools and savings to South Carolina taxpayers.
According to a fiscal impact study prepared by former S.C. Revenue Director Burnie Maybank, the Education Opportunity Act would result in first-year savings of $5.4 million assuming “a reasonable average private school tuition rate and a conservative demand estimate.”
South Carolina currently spends $11,000 per child in the public system – more than twice the average private school tuition.
The fiscal impact findings were announced by longtime public school advocate Sen. David Thomas (R-Greenville), who is a co-sponsor of the parental choice legislation introduced last month by Sen. Robert Ford (D-Charleston).
“This bill is about helping all students – and all taxpayers,” Sen. Thomas said. “It’s also about giving public schools more resources per child. As a longtime, passionate supporter of public education in South Carolina, I believe that we have an obligation to do both.”
“We have to stop pretending that these goals are mutually exclusive, and we have to start recognizing that you can be for parental choice and for public education at the same time,” Sen. Thomas also said. “Who can be against simultaneously empowering parents and freeing up more money per child within the public system?”
Thomas joined Sen. Kevin Bryant (R-Anderson), another sponsor of the legislation, at a State House press conference yesterday to announce the fiscal impact findings.
“Our school system is failing far too many children,” Bryant said. “We have to try something new, and the good news is that we can do that in such a way that saves the state money and lets our public schools have smaller class sizes and better student-to-teacher ratios. When you put the goal of the individual child – not the individual bureaucracy – first, this proposal is a no-brainer. It’s only when your concern is more for the administrative functions that you start to see opposition.”
Incidentally, Maybank – who we’ve criticized in the past – used BEA numbers and BEA methodology in preparing his report.
Which means it will be very interesting to see what “state economist” Bill Gillespie comes up with.
Gillespie has been blasted in the past by lawmakers – including former House Majority Leader Jimmy Merrill – for publishing inaccurate reports.
Comments
By JBV on April 3rd, 2009 at 9:30 am
Great idea! Should we give money back to all the folks not in prison – since it is saving taxpayer dollars? Or the folks whose house didn’t catch fire, or the folks who didn’t have a 911 call? Or the folks who don’t have children at all – they are really saving the state money! If private is better, we should turn the schools over to the private folks to operate – that would be the biggest savings to the state.
By ORLY on April 3rd, 2009 at 9:41 am
the fact that more money goes to the public schools and they STILL are fighting this shows that while money is great, the educrats want power more than anything else.
imagine if the economy tanks and all the kids in private schools now crawl back to the public system, that would bankrupt the districts!
if we give tax credits for crap like hydrogren development and tv commericals, why not for parents who are saving us taxpayers money by not using the public schools they are all paying for?!
By UpYers on April 3rd, 2009 at 10:54 am
What are the private schools doing to provide a better learning environment for half the money. This is what we should be considering. What lessons can be learned?
By Kent on April 3rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Lesson learned?!
Rigid union dominated labor market and a monopoly on both captive students and tax revenue result in low expectations and even lower student achievement
By Toyota Kawaski on April 3rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
wrong spending 8 per student and private school cost me 7 for my 3rd grader.
By Palmetto_Native on April 3rd, 2009 at 12:43 pm
How much will it cost to first reimburse the thousands of families that are already enrolled in private schools or are homeschooled?
lets face it, thats what this is all about…..
the whole “better choices for poor children” is a smokescreen to funnel the money back into the pockets of those already enrolled. How much will Bryant get back in the first year, since he home schools his kids and I doubt that he has ever even been inside a public school for any reason other than a photo shoot..
Only if there is any money left or room left in these schools will we finally see the poor, underpriveledged children be given a shot at standing in line for the few remiaing spots in these schools.
By Scott on April 3rd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Palmetto_Native,
How much do current private and homeschooling families save the State of South Carolina? Hundreds of millions of dollars. The tax credit portion of this bill would only give them a fraction of what is currently being spent on pupils in the public school. From what I understand, current private school students wouldn’t get anything for three years while home schoolers get a $1K tax credit once the bill is passed and implemented.
The student scholarship organizations for poor children are real. They are working in a number of other states and offer choice options for parents – regardless of skin color and regardless of zip code.
By baker on April 3rd, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Question to anyone who knows: Is there an income cap for those seeking a tax credit? I think it was capped at $70,000 in the old “Put Parents in Charge.” Something like that.
I’d like to read Burnie Maybank’s report. When PPIC was a hot topic of discussion a few years ago, someone (maybe it was Maybank) came out with a study saying how much money school choice would save public schools. But I think it’s questionable, at best:
**What are the “demand” estimates? And is there any reason to suspect that supply can legitimately meet demand? What about counties where the private schools are full? Maybe someone will start a new private school — doesn’t mean families are going to rush to it the way they would the established, well-heeled private schools.
**What about the cost to public schools of losing one or two students at a time? This has been pointed out over and over (and over and over and over and….), but the school choice advocates still breeze by this issue. If a school of 400 students loses 30 students from five different grades, there is a good chance that school won’t cut much in the way of costs at all….it’s probably not enough to lay off a teacher, cut a bus route, reduce administrative costs, remove books from the library, sell off computers, etc.
So, even if “some of the money” or whatever stays with the public school, it’s likely that most schools won’t be able to cut significant costs if they lose enrollment — unless they lose really large number of students.
Again, though, that does get back to the question of private school demand and how many students might actually leave.
By BIN News Editorial Staff on April 3rd, 2009 at 9:22 pm
This bill is just another voucher scam. All you voucher clowns do is perfume the pig and have its nails done.
The voucher scam is still a pig. No matter what lies your bought and paid for voucher clowns dream up.
BIN News Editorial Staff
Flair and Balanced
By BIN News Editorial Staff on April 4th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
BTW, sic(k) willie, please provide the source of the photo you posts with this and provide the names of those in the photo. Inquiring minds…
By Mike on April 5th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Hey BIN News- “Voucher clowns?” That really pushes the debate forward; and why on Earth would you care who the models are in what would appear to be a standard stock photo?