How Much Are Universal School Vouchers Costing Arizona?
From Forbes.com
When states expand voucher programs to become universal and available to all students in the state, including those who already attend private schools, they add to the number of students whose education is paid for by taxpayers. This must add to education costs for the state; new research shows exactly how much universal vouchers are costing Arizona.
Arizona’s path to universal vouchers—school vouchers available to all students in the state—has been long and complicated. A new report from the Learning Policy Institute analyzes what the program is costing the state taxpayers.
The Learning Policy Institute was founded in 2015 as a non-profit, non-partisan organization that “seeks to advance evidence-based policies at the local, state, and federal levels that support empowering and equitable learning for each and every child.”
“Understanding the Cost of Universal School Vouchers” includes several findings about Arizona’s program.
The program has not been widely used by Arizona’s English learners (students who struggle with learning in English). 9.2% of Arizona’s students are English learners; in 2022-23, only 188 used the voucher program (0.6%).
When the voucher program expanded from targeted (aimed only at students meeting specific qualifications) to universal (for all students), enrollment exploded from 12,127 to 61,689. Almost all of those new enrollees entered under the universal program, and 71.2% of those had not previously attended public school. This has the effect of adding new costs to the state education budget.
How does this work? The usual argument is that school choice programs should be roughly revenue neutral because the money follows the child. But a universal voucher program works differently. Let’s say that taxpayers are funding 100 students in the local public school. Vouchers are launched, and ten of those students take their vouchers and go to the private school in town. Taxpayers are still finding 100 students. But thirty students who were already at the private school sign up for vouchers, and now the taxpayers are funding 130 students.