Catholic Schools Should Pay for Themselves
A hodge podge of nonsense today on school choice. The question: are charter schools killing off Catholic parochial education? From Matthew Ladner:
Catholic education is anything but wilting in Arizona. Between 2004 and 2006 schools in the Diocese of Phoenix saw a two percent increase in enrollment against a national decline. Two new Catholic schools opened in the 2006-2007 school year, with four more scheduled to open.
The addition of 400 new students to Catholic schools in Arizona is offered as proof that “it is possible to have robust public and private school choice.” Sure, it’s possible in a state that has a rapidly growing Mexican-born, Catholic population that wants its kids educated, if at all possible, in Catholic schools. But that isn’t proof that the public schools or “public-private” alternatives don’t erode the market for truly private schools.
Here’s the Tucson Diocese to explain:
In Arizona, Catholic schools account for a current enrollment of approximately 20,000 students who are located in every corner of the State. A very large percentage of this enrollment includes low-income and middle class families with multiple children whose children are only able to attend because of financial support received through Arizona’s tuition tax credit programs.
Back to Ladner:
But in Arizona, tax credits and some modest vouchers make it easier for private schools to compete against free charters.
This misses the point. The point is whether government should be in the business of underwriting the expenses of private business, and whether, when it does that, as it has most glaringly in the health care and higher education sectors, it doesn’t destroy whatever benefits the private sector has to offer.