By Don Miller
The pro voucher people have changed their argument for wanting vouchers and the new pitch used at city hall this week was powerful and formidable. They started out arguing that vouchers were needed to provide poor folks with a private school choice. Not getting traction with that pro choice pitch -- not too many care about giving choices to poor people -- they came up with the new pitch which instead focuses on fear of the need for huge state income tax increases if we don't embrace vouchers. The story line is that Utah state income taxes are already among the highest in the land (this not exactly true but its truthiness makes little difference) and will have to be raised dramatically higher along with higher property taxes to pay for the expected influx of 150,000 new students needing schooling in the next 10 years.
At the Chamber of Commerce meeting Rep. Clark used 165,000 new students in the coming decade for a 33 percent increase in Utah students. As the estimated number of new students gets larger, the fear factor associated with estimated tax increases also grows.
Their numbers not surprisingly can't be trusted. Clark claimed in one editorial that New Jersey only has 250,000 students in public schools and thus Utah has a much larger percentage of students in public schools. Data from New Jersey shows the state had in fact 1,390,000 public school students or 5.56 times more than Clark reported. So Utah's student population number is 19 percent of the population compared to New Jersey's 17 percent -- a two percent difference.
So the pro voucher pitch continues, the only way to keep our taxes from getting astronomically high and out of hand is to shift a significant number of the 150,000 (or 165,000) new students to private schools where at most the state will only have to contribute $3,000 per student compared to the $7,500 it now costs to educate each student in public schools. So for a subsidy (cost) of no more than $3,000 per student to get them in private schools, we'll save at least $4,500 in taxes for each private school student. If we get 50,000 to go private, saving $4,500 each, we hold taxes down by $225 million annually. On the other hand, if all 165,000 new students attend public schools at $7,500 per student, that will cost Utah taxpayers nearly $1.238 billion more annually. The total cost for all 665,000 Utah K-12 students would be nearly $5 billion.
As you know the real goal for our GOP leaders is to privatize K-12 education, a huge new profit center. And using the fear of huge income tax increases if we don't begin to use vouchers to hold down taxes is powerful and serves them well. If vouchers are approved, especially on this tax savings basis, it will be easy over time to dismantle the public school system in favor of the state merely giving parents a set amount say $5,000 or even $7,500 per student to attend private schools while holding down state income taxes. Who will care, other than a few liberals and progressives, that the amount the state provides will be insufficient in most cases to pay for good schools? Parents who want their kids to get a good education will have to pay extra out of their own pocket. The bulk of the jobs being created in Utah and elsewhere are low paying and don't require good schools anyhow.
And so it goes -- Don
At the Chamber of Commerce meeting Rep. Clark used 165,000 new students in the coming decade for a 33 percent increase in Utah students. As the estimated number of new students gets larger, the fear factor associated with estimated tax increases also grows.
Their numbers not surprisingly can't be trusted. Clark claimed in one editorial that New Jersey only has 250,000 students in public schools and thus Utah has a much larger percentage of students in public schools. Data from New Jersey shows the state had in fact 1,390,000 public school students or 5.56 times more than Clark reported. So Utah's student population number is 19 percent of the population compared to New Jersey's 17 percent -- a two percent difference.
So the pro voucher pitch continues, the only way to keep our taxes from getting astronomically high and out of hand is to shift a significant number of the 150,000 (or 165,000) new students to private schools where at most the state will only have to contribute $3,000 per student compared to the $7,500 it now costs to educate each student in public schools. So for a subsidy (cost) of no more than $3,000 per student to get them in private schools, we'll save at least $4,500 in taxes for each private school student. If we get 50,000 to go private, saving $4,500 each, we hold taxes down by $225 million annually. On the other hand, if all 165,000 new students attend public schools at $7,500 per student, that will cost Utah taxpayers nearly $1.238 billion more annually. The total cost for all 665,000 Utah K-12 students would be nearly $5 billion.
As you know the real goal for our GOP leaders is to privatize K-12 education, a huge new profit center. And using the fear of huge income tax increases if we don't begin to use vouchers to hold down taxes is powerful and serves them well. If vouchers are approved, especially on this tax savings basis, it will be easy over time to dismantle the public school system in favor of the state merely giving parents a set amount say $5,000 or even $7,500 per student to attend private schools while holding down state income taxes. Who will care, other than a few liberals and progressives, that the amount the state provides will be insufficient in most cases to pay for good schools? Parents who want their kids to get a good education will have to pay extra out of their own pocket. The bulk of the jobs being created in Utah and elsewhere are low paying and don't require good schools anyhow.
And so it goes -- Don
3 comments:
I admit, I haven't kept up with the school voucher issue, but I have to say I don't see a mass exodus occuring if families are given a $3000 credit to go to private school. Families would still have to fork over a large portion of the tuition. I guess I'm not feeling very alarmist about the prospect of the voucher system and I'm a democrat.
It's the camel's nose under the tent.
Vouchers carry a built-in tax increase precisely because that $3,000 isn't enough. The amount will have to be raised if the voucher system is going to benefit any students who weren't going to go to a private school anyway.
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