Start the conversation here
School Voucher Q & A: Senate Bill 1 Impact on Taxpayers
Hi, there. Welcome to our discussion on Senate Bill 1 and school vouchers. My name is Christine Stone. I am the State Public Affairs Chair in Pennsylvania for the National Council of Jewish Women, Inc. The co-host of this discussion is Susan Gobreski, from Education Voters of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania faces a $4 billion budget deficit and Governor Corbett has proposed to cut funding for our schools by $1.2 billion. We know that tuition voucher plans, like SB 1 will cost hundreds of millions of dollars annually that we don't have. Is this the right time to drain critical resources to students who need them most - and increase costs to state and local taxpayers?
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Susan Gobreski on -
Hi everyone, I am Susan Gobreski, Executive Director of Education Voters of Pennsylvania. Given proposed cuts to public education, this raises real questions about meeting our responsibilities and whether we should be spending massive amounts of money on unproven programs.
-
Permalink Reply by Brett Schaeffer on -
This is a question for Christine - Since you're part of a national organization, what have you seen in other states where school vouchers have been tried?
-
Permalink Reply by Christine Stone on -
Yes, with nearly 100 sections across the country, NCJW advocates have long opposed school vouchers.
In Milwaukee, home to one of the largest and oldest voucher program in the country, nearly 16 years old, so-called school choice is still controversial and has shown few documented benefits. Advocates in the past were always touting “choice is best” but now quality is emerging as a key issue – how successful has it been? Additionally, voucher advocates have admitted that some of the schools that have popped up to take voucher money – aren’t good choices.
Other cities, like Baltimore, are finding that vouchers won’t necessarily pay the freight private schools, as there aren’t as many parochial schools as can be found in cities with vouchers like Cleveland and Milwaukee. Further, they are finding that if they can afford a school, how do they pay for transportation, uniforms and books. It’s a reality for families who face true poverty that policy makers don’t understand.
-
Permalink Reply by Brett Schaeffer on
-
Is there any information that shows if many students in, say, Milwaukee, who initially used a voucher to attend a private or religious, ultimately returned to the public schools after a year or two?
-
Permalink Reply by Susan Gobreski on
-
Governor Corbett has proposed $1.1 Billion in cuts to education already. There are articles in the newspapers across PA discussing the proposed cuts and the increases to property taxes. Now we are looking at an unproven program that could cost $800 million to $1 billion to be diverted away from school budgets.
-
Permalink Reply by Christine Stone on
-
From what I understand, the state's legislative audit bureau found that 60 percent of voucher students returned to public schools. Off the top of my head, I don't know in what years this occurred.
-
Permalink Reply by Brett Schaeffer on
-
Susan - Education Voters also operates in states other than Pennsylvania, including Ohio. What has Ed Voters seen from voucher programs in those states?
-
Permalink Reply by Susan Gobreski on
-
One of the things that I think is really key here is that Pennsylvanians have enshrined into our Constitution that it is in our shared public interest to have a "thorough and efficient" public education for every child, not as a benefit but because we get the connection between quality education and shared economic prosperity.
-
Permalink Reply by Brett Schaeffer on
-
60 percent! Wow.
-
Permalink Reply by Christine Stone on
-
Hi Susan. I agree. And I was just amazed to see the estimates of costs under Senate Bill 1 - the total fiscal impact in years 3 and 4 would be $964,341,031 - nearly a billion dollars. Obviously, this is going to mean an increase in property taxes for Pennsylvanians.
-
Permalink Reply by Brett Schaeffer on
-
Susan - So the money for vouchers would come out of the Basic Education budget?
-
Permalink Reply by Susan Gobreski on
-
And the vouchers did not positively impact performance either: "state test results for the first time show voucher students performing "similar or worse" than other poor Milwaukee students, according to the Department of Public Instruction."
© 2012 Created by Brett Schaeffer.
Powered by
