Debate Desk
Does School Choice Drain Money From Public Schools and Hurt Students?
Funding follows the child, not the building; choice serves families who want alternatives, with modest gains and no harm to those who stay.
The claim
Opponents say that vouchers and education savings accounts take dollars from public schools, leaving fewer resources for the children who remain, and that they subsidize private schools that are not accountable to the public. Strong public schools, they say, are the foundation of the republic.
The answer in three points
- The money is the child's, not the school's. Public funds for education exist to educate children, and when a family chooses a different school, the funds for that child's education should follow. A public school keeps the cost of children it no longer teaches off its books, and in many programs a share of per-pupil funds stays behind.
- Competition tends to help. Studies of voucher programs in places such as Florida and Milwaukee have generally found that nearby public schools improved or held steady when families had options. A system that cannot lose students has little reason to listen to parents.
- The choice is not between public and private but between a child and a bad fit. A family trapped by its zip code in a failing school has no way out unless it can afford to move or pay tuition. Choice extends to every family the option that wealthier families already have.
The numbers
- The Supreme Court upheld a school voucher program in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), holding that it did not violate the Establishment Clause, by a 5-to-4 vote.
- Arizona became the first state to make every student eligible for an education savings account, under a law signed in 2022, according to the Arizona Legislature.
- The National Center for Education Statistics reports that real per-pupil spending in public schools has risen substantially since 1970, according to its Digest of Education Statistics.
What they will say next
"Private schools can pick their students." Many do not, and many participating schools are religious schools that serve low-income families. Programs can require testing and transparency, which makes the schools answerable to parents and to the public.
"Public schools have fixed costs." They do, and good programs phase in change and hold harmless for a time. Costs follow enrollment in every other enterprise, and districts have adjusted before.
"Choice has not raised test scores everywhere." Results vary by program design, and some programs with weak oversight have shown poor results. The best evidence of gains comes from graduation rates and parent satisfaction, and from the benefits to nearby public schools.
"It undermines the common school." The common school was meant to give children an education, and choice does that by other means. Many private and public schools teach the shared values of civic life.
Parents are the first educators of their children, and the public interest is served when they can choose well.