NOTES Study Shows School Vouchers Can Mean Savings (NAPSA)—When it comes to assessing the institutional benefits derived from school voucher programs, opportunities for finan- cial savings stand out. That is one of the key findings of a recent study published by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. It found that school vouchers that help pay for private school tuition for students who transferred from their local public school saved states and districts more than $1.7 billion over a 20year period. The study covers the costs associated with 10 school voucher programs in Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, D.C., Utah, Georgia and Louisiana from 1990-91, the first year of the historic Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, through 2010-11. During that same time frame, participation in those school voucher programs grew from 300 students to nearly 70,000, an increase of over 230 times. Relevant Relationships According to the study’s author, Jeff Spalding, the most relevant relationship to examine whencalculating the fiscal impact of school choice is the difference between (1) the amountof financial assistance (the voucher amount) provided to participants and (2) the current cost of educating those students in the public school system. Spalding finds that if the average voucher amount is less than the average per-student educational cost, a savings is realized for those students who use a voucher to leave a public school to enroll in a private school. Part Of The Policy Toolkit “As policymakers consider ways to balance their state budgets in 2015, school vouchers absolutely must be a part of their Voucher Students’ Total Variable Costs in Public Schools Total Cost of Those Students’ Private School Vouchers Savings from ONT ASTOR MGS mC MU CRC glialGe Schools A recent study finds that school vouchers that help families pay for private school tuition saved states and districts more than $1.7 billion over a 20-year period. toolkits,” said Robert Enlow,president and CEO of the Friedman Foundation. “Parents are already demanding school choice. Taxpayers should be, too.” “The benefit of school vouchers is that they create great savings, but we don’t always know what happens to the money,” Enlow said. “Lawmakers need to devise systems to track the savings from school choice moreclosely to find out how the moneyis being used.” Spalding’s report, “The School Voucher Audit: Do Publicly Funded Private School Choice Programs Save Money?,” can be downloaded at edchoice.org/School VoucherAudit. The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice promotes school choice as the most effective and equitable way to improve the quality of K-12 education in America. To learn more, visit www.ed choice.org.
