Barksdale: Time to move on from the school choice debacle
By Jim Barksdale
Note: The following is an opinion-editorial article on an educational issue in Mississippi, written and provided by Jim Barksdale, a retired businessman and philanthropist in Mississippi, best known for work in the tech industry and his contributions to education and economic development. Opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of this publication.
Taxpayer-funded private schools. Every year it’s proposed, and every year it’s defeated following a deluge of phone calls from taxpayers urging legislators to vote it down. And every year it comes back, fomented by a torrent of lobbying dollars from outside Mississippi promoting the notion of school choice.
Voters oppose school choice
Mississippi voters aren’t the only ones opposed to pouring public money into the dark hole of school choice, with no public vetting or reporting, no audits – no accountability whatsoever. Funding private schools with public money has been defeated every time in every state when put before voters, most recently this past November in Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska. Nebraska voters took the unusual step of rescinding a voucher law that the state’s legislators had passed.
Do vouchers improve education outcomes?
In states that have tested their voucher students, research has shown that these “choice” programs produce significant declines in students’ academic proficiency, with the largest deficits in math. Public schools outperform private voucher schools. If better academic outcomes are our goal, our best bet is to continue investing in our public schools, which recently have earned Mississippi glowing national press due to gains in reading and math proficiency, hailed as the Mississippi Miracle.
Public schools are held to rigorous academic standards, and each year they are assessed and schools are rated publicly based on how well they are moving students toward academic milestones.
There are no such standards for private voucher schools.
Vouchers invite fraud
Unlike other state-funded programs, private voucher schools are free from fiscal oversight. Taxpayers have no idea how their tax dollars are spent and no way of knowing what sort of education is being provided with these funds. Instead, the public pays the bills with no proof of any service delivered.
National media report that not one penny of voucher funding has ever been audited, though records requests in choice states have revealed that public dollars are being used to purchase home theater systems, trips to Disney World, and fancy BBQ grills, all under the guise of parental educational choice.
Choice is bankrupting other states
Despite what “choice” proponents want you to believe, school choice presents a severe financial burden to the state. Arizona has experienced a budget meltdown since passing its voucher program, the majority of which has gone to pay private school tuition for more affluent families whose children already were enrolled in private schools. The result has been cuts to public services and underfunding of the state’s public schools.
Tax credits are vouchers
Recently, private schools have expressed their preference for tax credits to benefit their coffers, hoping to avoid any scrutiny voucher programs might attract. Dollar-for-dollar credits for donations to private schools are a back-channel way to get taxpayer funding to private schools. The cost to the state is the same. It is lost revenue that cannot be used to fund public schools, improve our roads, or provide any of the state services on which we rely.
Why shouldn’t parents have a choice?
Mississippi parents do have choices, lots of them. They can choose public, private, charter, or home schools. The issue isn’t one of choice but rather one of spending: What should taxpayers be asked to fund? Should the public be asked to fund two separate school systems, one public with high standards, robust accountability, and annual fiscal audits, and the other – private – with none of those? Shouldn’t all taxpayer-funded schools be held to the same rules?
Maybe it’s time to move on
Taxpayer dollars should not be used as a free-for-all for parents to choose whatever they like at taxpayer expense. We don’t choose our own publicly funded roads, law enforcement, parks, or fire trucks. Education should be no exception.
Mississippi’s public schools are doing well. Our national ranking in fourth-grade reading has climbed to 21st with our economically disadvantaged children ranking a remarkable 2nd in reading and 3rd in math. A whopping 94 percent of public school districts are rated C or better on a rigorous accountability model that private schools are determined to avoid. Our state has plenty of serious issues our Legislature needs to address. School choice won’t solve a single one of them. Maybe it’s time to focus our attention on things that will.
Voters are right. School choice is a bad idea. Public dollars are for public schools.
Jim Barksdale of Jackson is a retired Mississippi businessman.
