If it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t make sense.
Why do Republicans want to spend more tax money, and why is a Democratic Party governor pushing a Republican priority?
Curmudgucation – Dear TC: About School Vouchers PETER GREENE, JAN 19, 2024
The universal vouchers for students already in school creates a taxpayer problem, because it increases the number of students that the taxpayers pay for. Taxpayers are paying for 100 students at the public school. 10 leave for a private school. 25 already at the private school get a voucher (and why wouldn’t they? what sense does it make to turn down free money?) But now taxpayers are paying for 125 students. If that money comes from the school of origin, that school can either cut programs or raise taxes. Universal voucher programs get really expensive, really fast. One of my objections to choice in general and vouchers in specific is that policymakers aren’t willing to be honest about the cost, but instead lean heavily on the fictions that A) money doesn’t matter in education and B) we can run multiple school systems for the same money we’re spending now.
Shapiro will propose during his budget address next month a new way to fund Pennsylvania’s public schools after the Commonwealth Court ruled the current system unconstitutional. He’s also expected to again work to pass a private-school voucher program — a long-held Republican priority that Shapiro supports, but that put him at odds with the state teacher’s union and members of his own party last year.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro website contact page.