Public Support for Education

Edward J. Dodson

[Posted to the Geonomy blog; 3 May, 2012]

I earlier argued that a serous problem with the delivery of education is the almost universal hierarchy that puts teachers at the bottom. Now, I present an argument in favor of competition by schools for students based on the school's record of success.

Access to schooling is considered essential as a societal good. Young people will as adults become accountable for responsiilities as citizens and as members of communities. Schooling is an important means of helping to prepare young people for these responsibilities. What should concern us is the failure rate. Far too many young people leave formal schooling without earning a diploma. And, far too many young people who complete high school bring with them into adulthood a minimal understanding of what is necessary for life within a participatory democracy. Schools cannot overcome the many other -- often negative -- influences on the behavior of our young people, but schools organized by teachers and subjected to competition for tuition revenue would have the incentive to adapt and respond to the specific needs children bring with them into the classroom.

Funding of schools remains a highly politicized issue. Publicly-administered schools are dependent upon broad-based taxation to meet revenue needs. Parents who choose to send their children to a private or parochial school are also taxed to help pay for the public schools. Others in every community are taxed annually to pay for public school even though they are childless, on the assertion that property owners benefit directly by the availability of public schools with reputations for delivering a high quality education experience.

There is an "equality of opportunity" argument to support the use of public revenue to subsidze the schooling of children. A more equitable means of allocating this subsidy is, in my view, a needs based tuition voucher system. Under such a system, parents would apply for voucher support awarded based an objective means test. This would end the current subsidization of higher income households with children by lower income households (including many retirees living on fixed incomes).

In a future commentary I will offer some ideas on how to best raise our public revenue, which is an issue quite independent of which sources of revenue ought to be allocated to school subsidies.