A reader from Milwaukee sent this comment:
“You would think there would be accountability, but here in Milwaukee we have had religious school choice and charter for a number of years.
“There is practically no accountability to the state DPI regarding certification of staff, assessments, curriculum, open records, etc. We are requiring them to seek some type of private school accreditation, but give them multiple chances to achieve it. The same with fiscal responsibility. The genie is truly out of the bottle in Wisconsin, and I fear there is no hope unless suburban and rural areas realize very soon that money is being siphoned from their schools to the detriment of their children’s education.
“Oh, I should add that as of July 1st, a tax deduction is now in place for all families that send their children to private schools. It can be as much as 10,000 dollars per child
for high school. This, of course, means less tax money for public schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It amazes me that the public is willing to let public funds from taxes be spent without any public control. Under what theory of government does this make sense? It invites corruption, and has no check on quality.
“It amazes me that the public is willing to let public funds from taxes be spent without any public control.”
They don’t know there’s no public control. Most of the people I talk to in Ohio are surprised when they find out we have for-profit charter schools, or for-profit management companies running schools. They don’t know the boards are not elected and they don’t know that the management companies own the publicly-funded assets and charters don’t have to report financials or produce documents and records like their local public schools does.
They (perhaps understandably) believe that “public” comes with all the provisions they are accustomed to in their life-long familiarity with “public schools”. It’s the reason I won’t use “public” when describing charter schools. The language comes with a whole set of assumptions. It’s misleading.
To clarify, this is a tax deduction not a tax credit and, therefore, the impact on both tax revenues and school choice decisions will be at the margin. There is no obvious or necessary link between this tax deduction and the amount of money that public schools will receive: Time will tell.
Where are the tax breaks for childless citizens? Why is money being given to people just because they have kids, and why is more of it being given to people who were blessed with more children compared to those with fewer? Isn’t this discrimination?
Using “per pupil funding” this way robs communities of the tax money necessary for running the community institutions that are available for all to use. That funding formula is not supposed to be a figure for some people to pay less into the community and for others to pay more. Public school buildings are utilized for much more than just daily school activities. They are community centers after school hours. They are polling places. They are shelters. Public schools belong to the community, not just those citizens who have children.
The practice of giving people tax vouchers for their children is democracy’s death.
LG:
Tax equity issues are extraordinarily difficult to win. If you follow it through to its logical conclusion you will end up supporting flat tax policies.
Bernie, tax credits are a disguised voucher. They take money away from public education.
Diane:
Precision and accuracy are important. Tax deductions and tax credits are two separate things. Focusing on $10,000 is accurate but misleading. Bottom line it is true that both are subsidies for private school tuition and can be seen as more or less the equivalent of vouchers. As I said the voucher in Wisconsin is a maximum of $240 per child K-8 and $600 per HS student. By the way, in what way are tax deductions disguised? As to issues of equity, I would argue that a flat $200 and $500 tax credit/voucher would be more equitable for low income parents sending children to parochial and private schools. But as I said, tax equity issues are a Pandora’s Box.
And yet you haven’t been able to explain why people should be given tax credits just because they have children. Shouldn’t, then, I be entitled to a tax credit because I choose to drive on toll roads instead of free roads? I men, since we’re giving money to some of the public for the choices they make, why not?
LG:
You are making my point. Ultimately there is no logical basis for giving tax deductions for some activities and not for others, ergo you end up at a flat tax since progressive income taxes essentially give a negative tax deduction for higher incomes. Your only recourse is then to argue that a tax credit or tax deduction does not do what it is designed to do. Debates about tax equity are manifestations of Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. Wikipedia’s discussion of Arrow’s Theorem plus related issues of social choice is a pretty good introduction.
“Ultimately there is no logical basis for giving tax deductions for some activities and not for others…”
That’s been my point all along. I was just playing Devil’s Advocate. There is no equity in a voucher system that caters to a percentage of the population. If we start giving money to “some” people because they happen to have children–as if having children is some sort of a hardship–where do we draw the line? Can I lobby for funding assistance for pet food and obedience school for my furry companions, too?
An educated public benefits the entire community–therefore public education funding belongs to everyone, not just the people who have kids.
LG:
The logic does not work that way. You are simply asserting that spending on Public Education benefits everybody more than spending on something else. You and I may agree but there are many who would say otherwise. I said tax policy and equity was a Pandora’s Box and I meant it. For example, why not stop tax payer funding of Education at 15 or 25?
Groan. Bernie and LG, you’re not getting ‘point one’ on taxes and schools. The government has a responsibility for the next generation’s welfare, after old guys like me are dead and gone. No private corporation has that responsibility; it’s a public one. And we all have agreed, or should agree to that policy objective. It doesn’t matter whether I have children, or grandchildren in school. It’s the responsibility and duty of us all to the next generation. Get it?
William:
What makes you think I do not get it? It makes sense to me that local communities should fund education via taxes. The actual method for delivering that education is another question. You may not like the question but it is now on the table.
Plenty of public money gets spent without meaningful public control. One could argue the current reform movement is a reflection of taxpayers concerns over money spent on public education without the expected outcomes. If you want to see public money spent without meaningful controls, just look at the way school building funds are spent in Massachusetts. See http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/06/30/boston-high-school-enrollment-drops/M23SMEoEozvlVTEtTgt0qM/story.html
Finally, I am not clear at all that the requirements placed on private schools in Milwaukee are any different from those placed on public schools. If an objective summary analysis is available I would love to see it.
The Pandora’s Box problem is why we have tax laws in the first place. Without it, we would have much more corruption than we already do.
The concept of supporting a community is the issue here. Vouchers do not support the community as a whole–they only support certain members of it.
LG:
The tax laws in Wisconsin now allow tax deductions for those sending children to private schools. Folks in Wisconsin have clearly elected representatives who see supporting the community as including helping those who send their children to private schools (as well as paying for public schools.) If you are not careful you will come up with an argument in favor of education vouchers for all!!
” It’s the responsibility and duty of us all to the next generation. Get it?”
Got it a long time ago, William, and if you read everything I posted, you would have noticed that. So, ::groan::, yourself. 😛
😉
Funny…I’m the keynote for the MPS this week
Sent from my iPhone
$10,000 per child! Unbelievable but true. Just this month of August is beginning to look like a big old map of the USA, and on each state we can inscribe some catastrophic move against the free public school system. In NY it is last week’s release of the “scores”. In Wisconsin, we detail what is listed above. In Philly, well we know what to write on the map for the late, great state of PA. Seriously, do this and I think the visual will prove to be quite disturbing and revealing.
Kathy:
You do understand that this is a State tax deduction and not a tax credit. In Wisconsin it amounts to $240 per child for K-8 children and $600 per child for HS students. As I said, such amounts are unlikely to influence a families decision to send a child to private school though it will certainly help.
So, everyone who can afford to send their children to private school as well as those who need a slight boost get a tax deduction?
Yes, that is the way that it works. The same process allows folks who pay mortgage interest rates that are above market because they fail to refinance get tax deductions.
Total corruption.
What are you referring to?
DeeDee:
In reference to what?
In Indiana, private schools want special ed. dollars and SOME special ed. students but not those who would require the schools to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. They also want the special ed. kids for some classes but want to send the students back to the public school – from whom the vouchers have drained dollars – for special ed. services.
Parochial schools used to claim that they had no desire to harm the public school system which educated 90% of their parishioners’ children, but that’s no longer the case. Whatever else it is, this practice is not an example of the golden rule or of preserving children’s instructional choices. At this rate, there ultimately will be NO schools left to provide special ed. services to students who need them.
It was inevitable that reformers would end up subsidizing religious schools. Once you set this up as “choice” it makes absolutely no sense to restrict “choice” to charter schools.
There is absolutely no difference between “liberal” reformers and “conservative” reformers. The amusing part to me is, the “liberal” reformers were completely co-opted by the Right. Conservatives got everything they wanted out of “reform”. Liberals got nothing.
If it wasn’t deliberate on the part of liberals and Democratic “reformers”, they got played. Badly.
I shudder to think these dopes are negotiating on behalf of low income children. They gave away the store. If you think it’s bad now, wait until “backpack vouchers” appear. Poor children will get a 5,000 voucher, which is a massive defunding of their education, while middle class and upper class folks supplement the voucher with their own money.
Well play, liberals and Democratic reformers. Well played.