Gov. Cuomo’s recently proposed tax credit for individuals and corporations who fund scholarships to help low-income students attend private schools could serve as a lifeline for thousands of kids currently trapped in New York’s worst public schools.
But what about everyone else? The teachers’ unions say that the Parental Choice in Education Act will siphon needed resources away from traditional public schools. It’s a tired argument that is contradicted by the evidence.
Money is one reason why schools in wealthy areas are better than those in poorer areas. But schools in wealthy areas also know that if they perform poorly, they risk losing students and the revenue they provide. Parents with means can afford to pay private school tuition or just move to a better school zone.
On the other hand, schools serving lower income students have captured their clientele. They face no competitive pressure to improve. School choice programs provide low-income parents with the means to walk out of schools they feel are poorly serving their children. The policy mimics the competitive pressures that wealthier parents put on their local public schools every day.
That competition from school choice improves rather than destroys public schools is no longer just a theory. It has been borne out in a wide body of empirical research.
Most relevant to New York’s current conversation, Northwestern University economist David Figlio and Cassandra Hart of the University of California-Davis recently studied the effect of a statewide education tax credit program that started in Florida in 2001. Figlio and Hart — two highly respected social scientists writing in one of the nation’s most discriminating peer reviewed academic journals — convincingly showed that Florida’s program made public schools in the Sunshine State better, not worse. The schools most affected by the scholarships made sudden and sustained improvements relative to schools facing little competition for their students under the policy.
The finding from Florida’s tax credit scholarships is consistent with a wide body of research. Early claims made by education reform supporters that school choice alone would dramatically improve the quality of all public schools have not been realized. However, the evidence is clear that giving more schooling options — whether from private, charter or other traditional public schools-pushes low — performing traditional public schools to make modest but perceptible improvements.
Florida’s policy closely resembles Cuomo’s proposal for New York. Like Florida’s policy, the scholarship program proposed for New York is targeted to the state’s most disadvantaged students. In another study of Florida’s program, Hart showed that students attending lower quality traditional public schools were disproportionately likely to use the scholarships to attend a private school.
Kids stuck in bad New York schools deserve a similar chance to find a school that works for them. The research suggests that educational tax credit-funded scholarships would allow poorer students this opportunity while also providing those schools with a jolt toward improvement.
Winters is a Manhattan Institute senior fellow and assistant professor at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
