Reply to Charter School Impact on Public & Private School Enrollments

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[quote=Anonymous]Adam Schaeffer, Cato Institute

I thought I'd jump in with a response to some of the discussion . . .

I hear a lot about how charter schools are “out-competing” private schools. Well, even I could beat an Olympic gold-medalist in the 100-yard dash if I started at yard 85. But I certainly wouldn’t say I “out-competed” him.

It is hardly a level playing field when parents must pay their education taxes and then pay out of pocket to send their child to a private school, or when others must do the same and then donate money to a private school.

Charter schools tax everyone in order to provide $9,000 worth of education free to the customer. In very simplified terms, a private school must provide value to their customer that is worth more than $9,000 + tuition, say $6,000, in order for a family to become a customer. So, for $6,000, a private school must provide a family with more than $15,000 worth of value in order to compete with the Charter school.

This is why the “public” option, whether in health care or in education, inevitably destroys the private sector. The private sector we do have remains in significant part because the government cannot by law provide the value of a religious education. Charters have begun to blur even this distinction, however, with Hebrew-language and other technically non-religious charters walking a gray area. But inevetiably, the religious mission or even distinctive secular pedagogical mission of a school will not survive a shift to the public sector.

Charters are often a better option than the traditional public school, and that is a good thing for the kids who transfer from those schools. But that means the private sector will lose out to the marginally improved, and still massively subsidized, government sector. That’s just a fact. And this fact has negative consequences, including a loss of educational diversity, freedom, and competition, as well as an increase in demands on public finances.

Beyond these factors, it is inevitable that some portion, perhaps most, of the students shifting from private to charter schools will end up in a less effective educational environment because marginal financial advantages, rather than academic advantages, made the difference.

This could be solved quite easily, though, by simply eliminating public funding of charter schools in its entirety. In that case, we could be sure that a charter pulling private school kids was providing more value per dollar. And we could of course allow any tax credit funds to be used at a school that does not receive direct government funding, so a tax credit program could help level the playing field with traditioanl public schools for both charters and private schools.
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