School choice: We can’t help the poor by helping only them
Opponents of school choice measures such as vouchers or tax-credit scholarships love to do a little two-step.
First, they insist choice measures be limited only to low-income families — for the sake of being “fair.” Then, they note the tuition charged by existing private schools and say these families couldn’t possibly make up the difference between those prices and the value of the voucher or scholarship, and thus we might as well scrap the choice measures.
With that, they sit back and fold their arms, confident they’ve done something other than prove the basic laws of economics apply to education.
Before we burst their bubble, let’s take a step back.
The goal of anyone interested in education should be to see that all children attend quality schools. Right?
In a triumph of hope over experience, choice opponents think this can be accomplished through existing public schools alone. If only we spend more and more (and more) money on them.
The rest of us understand the public schools need more competition. More competition would not only mean new, better options for families. It would compel public schools to improve themselves, too.
That is, after all, the way the world works. Consider an example: digital cameras.
Economist Mark J. Perry last year observed that, in 2000, Nikon’s popular CoolPix camera was a 3-megapixel camera that cost $1,337 (adjusted for inflation). By 2012, the CoolPix was a 16.1-megapixel gadget that retailed for $197.
So, in 12 years the camera became more than five times more powerful even though it sold at less than a sixth of the price.
What drove those changes? Technological innovation, of course, but also competition. In fact, competition spurred the innovation: Had Nikon enjoyed a government-enforced market share of more than 90 percent, we hardly could have expected its camera to undergo such substantial increases in quality or decreases in price, much less both.
We shouldn’t expect to see competition change education quite that dramatically, though there is great untapped potential for schools to use technology. But neither can we expect education to improve at more than a modest rate so long as public schools face little competition.
That brings us back to means-testing for school-choice measures, and those basic laws of economics.
In case it’s been a while since you took Econ 101: When demand rises, supply increases to meet it. All else being equal, this tends to drive prices down over time.
It is precisely because demand for educational alternatives is artificially depressed, by the existence of “free” public schools, that their supply remains so restricted and their prices so high.
If we continue to limit school choice measures via income thresholds, or most any other restriction, we will simply ensure demand remains low. That’s a sure-fire way to keep supply low, too, and prevent the robust competition needed to boost the quality of all schools.
And that, in turn, will keep tuition prices from falling to the point even those families that do qualify for a voucher or tax-credit scholarship can afford other options.
The end result will be failure for the choice measures, and more middling improvement in educational quality.
To be fair, choice opponents aren’t the only ones who favor means-testing. Some advocates would accept income limits if that meant choice measures moved forward sooner.
While I can’t fault them for their impatience, and while I certainly share their concern for lower-income families, they need to realize they risk crippling the entire effort before it has a chance to succeed. Worse, they risk preventing even those lower-income families from seeing the very changes they so desperately need.
That’s hardly “fair,” to those families or anyone else.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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278 comments Add your comment
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 21st, 2013
12:02 pm
You don’t have to believe it cheesy
And I dont.
Most of your posts are what I would expect of a high school dropout.
md
February 21st, 2013
12:04 pm
“So what you’re saying is that the attempt through Obamacare to move millions more onto expanded Medicaid rolls isn’t giving away a lot of “free” stuff as in virtually free health care?”
Not to mention the subsidies……..one can choose to be a gang banging thug and terrorize society and now we get to buy his insurance and insure he gets his preventative care that all these bleeding hearts are so worried about……….
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
February 21st, 2013
12:04 pm
The proponent’s goal is to starve the system so that me and my family, which is already eating pretty high on the hog, can eat even higher on the hog.
barking frog
February 21st, 2013
12:04 pm
Bruno
Or is he just looking for a few flies to zap with his tongue??
…………………………………………………
my search is ended…..
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
February 21st, 2013
12:05 pm
be a gang banging thug and terrorize society
ie, black people
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 21st, 2013
12:05 pm
……..one can choose to be a gang banging thug
In other words black.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 21st, 2013
12:06 pm
Great minds Finn
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
February 21st, 2013
12:07 pm
Are you ok with single folks who are homeowners not to pay any taxes that go to schools?
Politico, In a utopian world probably yes, but we are so broke in America, I don’t think we could get by with that and educate our children. I think there are more elderly people, who have already paid for their children’s education that have to keep paying, than childless people. Single people in modern America spawn as well.
This is one of the few wealth transfers from the old to the young, that we probably need more of. My rant yesterday was about poor minimum wage earners having to contribute to social security, so some blue haired rich widow, can trade Cadillacs or take a cruise, or go to a day spa.
The young in Obama’s America today are truly needy in many cases.
Dusty
February 21st, 2013
12:07 pm
Oh dear, Buzzy said that conservatives care about nothing but MONEY!
Honey, I only work for the great pleasure which it bestows on my humble abode and the taxes which support the humble unworkable citizens and the humongous pleasure I get by sending it to our thrifty Washington wonder wonkers. Now does that sound like I only like MONEY?
Hmmmm come to think of it. May be! You don’t like money? Sleep under a bridge?
Skip
February 21st, 2013
12:08 pm
SO Tulsa has a degree in Home Economics. What’s the big deal?
barking frog
February 21st, 2013
12:09 pm
cheesy grits
Great minds Finn
………………………………………………
again you make my point, i’m just smarter than you are.
nothing personal
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 21st, 2013
12:10 pm
SO Tulsa has a degree in Home Economics. What’s the big deal?
Her cookies are delicious. Especially the Snicker Doodles.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
February 21st, 2013
12:10 pm
Thulsa learned to iron shirts with his Home Ec degree?
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 21st, 2013
12:10 pm
again you make my point, i’m just smarter than you are.
nothing personal
trust me none taken
Bruno
February 21st, 2013
12:10 pm
They keep playing the Star Spangled Banner every day on the radio station we listen to at work at noon, using different artists.
IMO, this is the best performance I ever saw:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXiCVtPiMsM
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
February 21st, 2013
12:11 pm
Are you ok with single folks who are homeowners not to pay any taxes that go to schools?
No, even people with no children benefit from an educated population. For example, if you make stuff, you need educated people who can hold jobs, earn income, and afford to buy your stuff.
Thulsa Doom
February 21st, 2013
12:12 pm
Bruno,
He’s building his audience because most of the conversation somewhere else is just tripe. Gets nasty too in the echo chamber. I would rather see the conversation over here continue on the subject and actually discuss the topic but even then it degenerates into snarkiness as you can see. I’m out for awhile to get some work and some quotes done. I’ll check in later to see if its actually back on topic.
barking frog
February 21st, 2013
12:12 pm
well, the folks so concerned about defaulting on the Chinese
debt are perfectly willing to default on an insurance contract
with some old lady….just throw her off a cliff…
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
February 21st, 2013
12:13 pm
Bruno, you saw that performance on the radio? I usually hear performances on my radios, I rarely see them.
indigo
February 21st, 2013
12:16 pm
Georgia Republican politicians are not “interested in education”. They are interested in providing their fundamentalist electorate schools that emphasize creationism, Bible study and anti-science thinking.
Republicans in Georgia decided, some time ago, to mainly appeal to the lowest common convervative denominator.
Obama’s re-election has not deterred this way of thinking in the slightest.
Thulsa Doom
February 21st, 2013
12:17 pm
Finn,
I learned supply and demand and quite a bit about labor economics. You and cheesy still seem to be stuck on your dusty Karl Marx books. I’ll be back later to check and see if either of you actually has something of merit or substance to make your points. So far today neither of you have. But then why should today be any different from any other day? Toodles.
barking frog
February 21st, 2013
12:17 pm
Thulsa Doom …..has left the building.
indigo
February 21st, 2013
12:20 pm
Skip, Cheesy
I’m sure Doom does have an economics degree.
She got it from home at one of those internet diploma mills.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
February 21st, 2013
12:21 pm
Thulsa Doom …..has left the building.
His mom made him get up and clean his room.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 21st, 2013
12:21 pm
Thulsa Doom …..has left the building.
I’m sure he is out to give an Economics seminar somewhere
What a joke.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 21st, 2013
12:22 pm
At any time during 2012, did you have a financial interest in or signature authority over a financial account (such as a bank account, securities account, or brokerage account) located in a foreign country? See instructions ……………………
Since I’m not a dummycrat or a liar, I got to check the NO box.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 21st, 2013
12:23 pm
She got it from home at one of those internet diploma mills.
That is what I figured as well. Sticking 300 bucks in an envelope and mailing it to the University of Bahamas Online doesn’t mean you know anything about economics.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 21st, 2013
12:23 pm
Wait a minute, dummycrat and liar is one in the same, so I doubled up @12:22. Sorry bout that.
Aquagirl
February 21st, 2013
12:24 pm
You could still force people without children to contribute to the government schools, and most people paying in have no children, so the public schools would get most of the money. Just make adjustments to free people from having to pay twice for their childs education.
People with kids in school have an equal voice in how their tax dollars for education are spent, that’s where they get their choice, just the same as every other taxpayer. People with school age children are not paying for their child’s education through taxes. They’re paying the same tax as everyone else, 20 kids or none.
What you want is subsidized choice—using other people’s tax money while removing their say about how THEIR money is spent.
The issue is not choice and small gub’mint and all this fake tea potty crap, it’s taxation without representation.
Demanding other people’s money without their collective input is completely at odds with our entire system of government. It’s selfish and greedy, and conservatives shame themselves with their pseudo-liberty babble trying to cover this trash.
Dusty
February 21st, 2013
12:26 pm
Well, I’m heading for greener pastures. BARKING FROG has gone to throwing old ladies off the cliff.
Who knows whom is next or next is whom??? Bruno will have to stitch us all back together.
It is all your fault, B F!!!
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 21st, 2013
12:26 pm
Bruno -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uM8HqxNRsA
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 21st, 2013
12:27 pm
Sorry bout that.
No problem. your posts aren’t taken seriously anyway.
barking frog
February 21st, 2013
12:29 pm
Dusty
It is all your fault, B F!!!
…………………………………..
just a little frog on a blog at the bottom of the ajc
who’d a thunk it ……ribbit…
barking frog
February 21st, 2013
12:33 pm
Aquagirl
it’s taxation without representation.
………………………………………………
you might have a point if this was not being done by
elected representatives…..
Dusty
February 21st, 2013
12:34 pm
Wait a minute here. Dusty does not own any Karl Marx books as reported by Thulsa. No Dusty Karl Marx books.
Maybe MarkV might have a few He knows about Karl & all those fellows.
Bye now…. .
JDW
February 21st, 2013
12:43 pm
@Barking Frog…..”Free choice for the wealthy is not free choice.”
Interesting…why do you think that should apply to schools and not health care?
bman.
February 21st, 2013
12:43 pm
Why does it take so long for a post to appear on this blog?
clem
February 21st, 2013
12:50 pm
recent numbers on wealth disparity increasing. the top 1% got 103% of income from 2008-2010 meaning everyone else got less on the average. so much for jobs and trickle down.
Steve
February 21st, 2013
12:54 pm
I don’t have kids but gladly pay taxes so kids are off the streets and in schools, even if most are pretty lousy in the South. Where I grew up in the northeast, we actually paid more in property taxes than we do down here – yep, we did. And we had streets with fewer potholes, nice sidewalks, nice parks and libraries, ample police, and yep – some of the best public schools in the nation.
Steve
February 21st, 2013
12:55 pm
Again- why isn’t anyone looking at Finland, Japan, and other nations that have public schools that are better than most of our private ones (for children)? Scared to admit that we suck?
md
February 21st, 2013
12:58 pm
“ie, black people”
“In other words black.”
Speak for yourselves guys……I grew up in a “white” crack neighborhood, so you can play your race cards elsewhere……..
md
February 21st, 2013
1:06 pm
And yes, sadly your two minds think alike……more like not at all.
Aquagirl
February 21st, 2013
1:12 pm
you might have a point if this was not being done by elected representatives…..
The spending certainly isn’t—it’s very specifically removed from their horrid gub’mint hands. There’s not even a sham board with Nathan Deal’s friends who are technically responsible, like the Arthur Blank boondoggle.
Frankly there’s more oversight for a taxpayer when their property is seized by eminent domain for “economic development” and then handed to a developer. Are you a fan of that expansion of government power?
md
February 21st, 2013
1:14 pm
“recent numbers on wealth disparity increasing. the top 1% got 103% of income from 2008-2010 meaning everyone else got less on the average. so much for jobs and trickle down.”
Do you realize you got played when you post stuff like that? The propaganda guys are laughing at folks like you…….
Now, ask yourself if wealth is restricted to this country and then go do some research vs letting the prop people rule your life…….
MANGLER
February 21st, 2013
1:36 pm
Tiberius,
Hello. Your post about life being a sacrifice and parents taking the easy way out is troublesome. You’re implying that public school is the easy way out and only for lazy parents to send their children to. It’s mindsets like THAT which have led to the complete gutting of public education, and many other public services that get primary finding through tax revenue. Public school was created so that everyone gets an education, not just those who can afford one. Not everyone of means worked hard their entire lives to have those means, and not everyone who lacks means was lazy and apathetic. There are just as many “takers” in the upper eschelans of society as in the lower.
SeeLow
February 21st, 2013
1:37 pm
It’s amazing that liberals are so opposed to competition when their entire existence is centered around “competing” for access to other people’s money.
Politico
February 21st, 2013
1:40 pm
“Do you realize you got played when you post stuff like that? The propaganda guys are laughing at folks like you…….”
Seeing you were the one who posted that Allen West bs right after the election, you wold surely know about being “played”
md
February 21st, 2013
1:43 pm
“Seeing you were the one who posted that Allen West bs right after the election, you wold surely know about being “played””
And if you did any research you would know that the vote totals still don’t add up down there……..but I’m guessing you don’t want to look into it as it would mess up your “fun”. Oh well……
Reality
February 21st, 2013
1:44 pm
Kyle – You are so wrong with so many things, where do I start.
First of all, your inital premise is wrong. You say, “The goal of anyone interested in education should be to see that all children attend quality schools.”
Let me set you straight. The goal of PUBLIC EDUCATION is to ensure an adequate (meaning a minimum level) education is provided free of charge to everyone. That’s it. It is that simple. It is NOT to ensure that your little Sally can go to what her mother feels is the ‘best’ school. This is written into law – check it for yourself.
You and the idiots that like school vouchers or school choice are so backwards thinking, you cannot even get this point through your skulls. Our tax dollars were NEVER intended to be distributed to any adult that chose to breed to send their offspring to some super expensive private school. You guys have it all twisted.
In order to follow the law, public school systems set up neighborhood schools to provide this adequate and free education.
If YOUR neighborhood public school cannot provide an adequate education, then there are legal and proper steps already in place to follow.
Now, if YOU want your child to have a superior education, then you may choose to pay out-of-your pocket and send your offspring to some private school that you feel can provide it. THAT is your choice!
md
February 21st, 2013
1:47 pm
Here, you can start with this:
“Gertrude Walker, the St. Lucie elections supervisor, has acknowledged errors in counting ballots, saying there was an initial error in feeding memory cards from voting machines through the vote-counting system. At a press conference last week, Walker said her office had acted in “haste” to make public results on Nov. 6 and that “mistakes were made.””