School choice advocates held a big rally Tuesday in Jackson, and Mississippi’s top elected officials were there to encourage them. It’s not too difficult, though, to be skeptical about the issue — because of the money involved.
Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn spoke at the rally. Organizers hope that a school choice bill, one in the House and the other in the Senate, gets out of committee by a Jan. 30 deadline.
The bills would expand an existing state program that pays for some special education students to attend private school, extending the offer to lower-income and middle-income kindergarten students and first graders who have not yet attended a public school.
The bills would allow the state to pay private school expenses for 2,400 such children in the 2018-19 year, and 4,800 the year after that.
Afterward, the number of eligible children would increase by 1 percent of public school enrollment each year.
It is not rocket science to do the math. The Legislature’s proposed school funding formula revision would give school districts a minimum of $4,800 per student per year, so let’s start with that number.
Spending that amount of money on 2,400 kids next year would cost $11.5 million. In 2019-20, spending for 4,800 children would cost $23 million.
Currently, there are at least 450,000 students in public schools, so 1 percent of that is 4,500. Using that figure, the cost of such a program would increase by more than $21 million annually after the first two years. If the maximum number of students entered the program, it’s easy to see the cost moving past $100 million annually pretty soon.
Exactly where is the Legislature, which can’t find money for more highway approvements and which rewrote the school funding formula to set a lower spending goal, going to find this kind of cash?
Now, it’s certainly accurate to say that some or all of this private school money would come out of the state’s existing contributions to school districts. Those that lose students would get less money. But it’s also accurate to say that as schools lose enrollment, their services suffer. Does the state need to encourage that trend?
The whole idea would knock a sizable hole in the Republican-led Legislature’s contention that it has supported public education during trying times by increasing spending each year.
In fact, there are a couple of other ways that the state can expand school choice while trying to improve public education.
One is charter schools. They have gotten off to a slow start in Mississippi, and the board that authorizes them has been cautious about those it approves. But if the state can attract experienced operators to its small-town markets, these schools could make a difference. The competition also could compel schools in that market to improve.
It also may be time for greater experimentation with allowing families who live in one school district to send their children to another one.
Right now this is only permitted in the lowest-rated districts.
Jack Ryan is the editor and publisher of the Enterprise-Journal in McComb.
