As this article, Kansas already saw what happens when your state can’t afford to maintain its public school funding. But some Kansas legislators are trying the bait-and-switch we see happening in other states. Just this week, KPI introduced an ESA “light” bill that allegedly targets some students. We’ve seen this before, and we’re not falling for it. You shouldn’t either.
“Bait-and-switch is an old retail tactic. You lure customers in with promises of a deep discount, only to inform them that the deal has a catch. The real price tag, it turns out, is quite a bit more.
“Though it took supporters of school vouchers a while to catch on, they’ve learned quickly that the trick works just as well in education policy as it does in retail sales. Pick a price that will get people in the door, and then break the news once you’ve got them where you want them.
In Arizona, taxpayers are now staring down a $400 million shortfall, with an even bigger bill coming due next year. How did the Grand Canyon State go from sitting on a huge cash reserve to facing a rising tide of red ink? Simple. Voucher proponents suggested that paying for private school tuition would cost taxpayers $65 million a year; but as it stands, the program is on track to cost roughly 15 times that. All told, Arizona taxpayers are likely to spend close to a billion dollars reimbursing the cost of tuition and luxury expenses—including ski resort passes, pianos, and theme park tickets—for families whose children were never enrolled in the public schools.
“It isn’t just Arizona’s problem. Over the past two years, multiple states have enacted universal or near-universal voucher programs that far exceed initial cost projections…
“It wasn’t just the price tag that voucher proponents were deceptive about—it was also the projected beneficiaries of such programs. Advocates promoted vouchers as a benefit for poor students, students with disabilities, and students in struggling schools. Yet the reality has looked very different. As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, the vast majority of parents taking advantage of these tuition coupons are those who already send their kids to private schools. And this dynamic is likely to accelerate as private schools begin to encourage, or even require, families to apply for vouchers. As these schools are discovering, a new willingness by states to pick up the tab for tuition makes it easier to charge families more…
“For lawmakers who loathe taxes and view public education as a quasi-socialist project, the specter of cratering state budgets is a feature rather than a bug. But when voters wise up to the bait-and-switch, as they inevitably will, the backlash will be fierce. Just look at deep-red Kansas, where voters soured on a tax-cutting experiment precisely because public schools paid the price. As programs were slashed and class sizes swelled, Democrats weren’t the only ones to take exception. Republicans also rebelled, as they saw opportunities for their own kids held hostage to their party’s anti-government ideology.”
Published on Facebook on Feb. 7th, 2024.