Published: August 28, 2009 09:07 pm      

The case for educational choice scholarships

EDMOND — We like to have choices. We like to have options. Whether we are considering trivial items (think socks) or important ones (think doctors), we are happiest when we have the freedom to choose what we want. Yet, when it comes to one of the most important services any person will ever consume — one’s education — we artificially limit the number of choices from which parents can choose.

In the past few weeks nearly 700,000 Oklahoma schoolchildren have donned their new clothes, slung their backpacks over the shoulders and trudged back to school. More than 90 percent of those students will be attending their local public school. Unfortunately, this is not the result of parental choice as much as it is the result of governmental policy.

In Oklahoma a student’s school is not determined by the student’s needs or by the parent’s wishes. Instead, school enrollment is determined by two factors that should have no influence on this decision — wealth and location. Wealthy families are able to send their children to any school. Poor and middle-income families though, often have just one choice — their local public school.

In many cases that local public school will provide a quality education. However, providing a quality education for every child is not equivalent to providing the best education for every child. Admittedly, Oklahoma’s public schools often do a phenomenal job at fulfilling an impossible objective — they must educate every student that walks through their doors, regardless of student interest and parental support. Yet, because they must serve everyone, and because the population of Oklahoma schoolchildren is so diverse, it is impossible for the public school system to serve all of the needs of all of their students. For some students, private schools are better.

There are many reasons why parents might prefer a private school over a public one. First, some private schools might offer a more rigorous curriculum leading to higher levels of student achievement. Alternatively, some private schools might offer a different curriculum with a greater focus on the arts, or on science or even religious studies (more than 80 percent of private schools nationally have a religious affiliation). Finally, parents might prefer a private school because they believe it offers a better social setting for their children due to smaller class sizes, smaller schools or a more familial atmosphere. Clearly, private schools can better serve the needs of some students than can public schools.

Some try to dismiss such statements by labeling them as an attack on public schools and public school teachers. However, it is not an attack on (or even a criticism of) public schools and teachers to recognize that thousands of Oklahoma parents believe that a private school can better serve the needs of their children. After all, thousands of parents have already chosen a private school for their children. And thousands more would do so if they could afford it.

Thus, if we truly wanted to enact a policy that made it easier for every student to attend the best school — public or private — for them, then the government would start offering tuition scholarships to every K-12 student who enrolled in an accredited private school. At the federal level, a $3,000 tuition scholarship would cost less than $20 billion annually — less than what the government spends subsidizing millionaire farmers or spent this year on corporate bailouts. At the state level, a $3,000 tuition scholarship would cost only $100 million annually — less than 2 percent of the total state budget.

Such scholarship programs would make more educational choices more affordable for more Oklahoma families. Consequently, more Oklahoma families would be able to choose the school that they believe would best serve their children. In conclusion, this proposal would give Oklahoma’s parents more power. It would give Oklahoma’s parents more flexibility. It would give Oklahoma’s parents more happiness, all because it gives Oklahoma’s parents the freedom to choose.

MICKEY HEPNER is an associate professor of economics at the University of Central Oklahoma.