Indiana

Public Dollars and Private Choices

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

I have a few questions for my friends who oppose school choice, one of the biggest issues facing lawmakers this legislation session.   Do you think a student attending Notre Dame should get federal financial aid assistance?   Or for that matter, how about someone attending Butler University?  Valparaiso?  The University of Indianapolis?  Kaplan College? Everest College?  Depauw?  Franklin?  If your answer is “yes”, which of course it should be, you should not have a problem with public dollars helping pay for private education at the elementary and high school level.

One of the biggest arguments my friends who oppose school choice make is that it takes money that should go to public schools and gives it to private institutions.  As you can see by my examples above, by following that logic no student should get financial aid to attend a private college or university because that takes money away from traditional public institutions.

Well what about tax dollars going to religious schools?  Doesn’t that violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution?   It depends.   If you’re giving direct tax dollars to St. School on the Left you are correct.  However, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that school voucher programs where the parents are making the choice and not the government are perfectly fine.   As long as three basic criteria are met.

1. The parents or students decide which school to attend, not the state.
2. The program does not create a financial incentive to attend a parochial school.
3. The program doesn’t create a an ongoing state presence in a religiously affiliated school.

I have a feeling my friends who oppose school choice are confusing “public education” with “publicly funded education”.    “Publicly funded education” simply meas schools are paid for with tax dollars and not run by the government.  This is why school choice, if done right, does not run afoul of the law.

It is well established that tax credits which reimburse parents for certain education expenses are perfectly legal and acceptable.  So why not give a parent a check, based on whatever funding formula necessary, and tell them to go pick the accredited school of their choice?  How is this hurting the Republic?   Schools can compete for those dollars and offer parents a wide variety of educational options.  We get better schools, parents get better choices!  Who can argue with this?

And if I were a public school administrator, I would welcome the competition.   And please, spare me the “public schools have to operate under a different set of rules”.  There are number of waivers schools can apply for to reduce state red tape, but here is the dirty little secret,  a good number school administrators like the red tape, that way they can use it as an excuse for not getting anything done; but that’s another blog post for another time.

So if you are one of my friends who oppose school choice based on the theory that you don’t like public money going to private schools, then I am sure you will lobby your state and federal lawmakers to make sure that students at the Art Institute of Indianapolis, Marian College, Martin University and St. Mary’s College never get a dime of federal assistance to attend school.

Good luck with that one.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on January 08, 2011 (boomark / email).