Focus on Issues & Decision-making: Educational Reform Movements - Tax Vouchers and Their Impact on Music Education Programs
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By Dr. John Benham
There is an ongoing public policy debate – acted out in many states in a wide variety of initiatives and regulations – that reflects one fact that cannot be ignored: tax vouchers ignite strong beliefs and opinions, both pro and con, about the use of public money in private and parochial schools.
Tax vouchers have been around since at least the 1980’s, and they are a result of a national trend toward freedom of “school choice.” They are an outgrowth of the “open enrollment” movement that proposes that the student (family) be given the right to choose their own method of educating their children. A secondary motivation of the tax voucher movement is to create a business-like environment that stimulates school improvement through competition to attract students (customers).
How Do Tax Vouchers Work?
The adoption of a tax voucher system is normally the responsibility of a state legislature. Typically the process works like this.
The legislature determines an annual amount of state funding per child in the public educational system (for example, $7,000).
The state then determines that a family may receive some form of “tax credit” for educational expenses for each eligible child (for example, $1,500).
The family may choose to use this tax voucher as a deduction for educational expenses related to the education of their child(ren) and apply it to the cost of sending their children to a private or religious school, or to fund home schooling. (The choice to opt out of public schooling is often made because the local public school is perceived to be, and perhaps even may be, academically weak.)
Tax vouchers are primarily intended to assist families who otherwise may not be able to afford to send their children to a school of their choice, for example, a family of low economic means.
In the process, the government promises a reduction in taxes to each taxpayer.
Theoretically, tax vouchers give all children the opportunity for a better education by facilitating educational choice, while at the same time decreasing the tax burden on the public. On the surface, it may seem that everybody wins!
What Really Happens . . .
. . . to those families who most need the opportunity for a better educational environment?
Lower income families cannot afford to pay the tuition and other costs for a non-public funded education that are beyond the $1,500 tax voucher.
The very people the voucher system is purported to serve are least able to take advantage of the option.
. . . to the funding of public education?
With the loss of each student the district will lose the full amount of the state funding (in our example, the full $7,000).
If you calculate the cost of one teaching position (salary and benefits) to be $70,000, the loss of just ten students equates to the elimination of one teacher.
. . . to academic improvement?
With reduced funding of the public school district, teachers will be eliminated.
With reduced funding of the public school district, class sizes will increase.
With reductions in the number of teachers and the increase in class sizes, academic achievement will continue to decline.
. . . to music programs?
With a decline in funding for the public school district, cuts will need to be made in educational services.
Arts programs become a primary target for elimination because of reduced funding.
Instrumental and vocal music (and arts) programs in the elementary schools are often cut first, leading to a collapse in secondary music programs.
The Net Results?
Only families with sufficient income who can afford to pay the difference in tuition for a private institution or costs for home schooling beyond the tax voucher amount can take advantage of the voucher (which, in our case, was only $1,500).
The quality of public education, particularly in areas of lower economic status, will continue to decline.
Property owners would seem to gain most from the apparent per-student tax reductions (in our example, $5,500) for each student removed from the district roles. (However, this assumes that the state would actually implement a tax reduction, and not spend any monies saved on other projects.)
There may be some advantage to proprietors of private music studios, since some states permit the use of tax vouchers to pay for individual lessons. In some cases, states or local districts have adopted policies that consider such lessons as fulfilling curriculum standards for a music education.
Many students will be deprived of the opportunity to participate in an adequate music education. These students are often those for whom it may have been most important.
As you can see, implementing a tax voucher system has the potential to polarize communities along social, economic and ethnic divisions, leading to the deterioration of any concept of equal educational opportunities for children in our schools. For those of us who place high value on offering our children a complete education that includes music and arts curriculum offerings, tax voucher systems jeopardize these programs by siphoning essential community support away from our public school systems. Tax vouchers may provide improved educational opportunities, but those opportunities and benefits will only be for the few children whose families can afford to pay for them out-of-pocket.
For descriptions of policies enacted in several states, as well as further information and other perspectives on this issue, visit the Education Commission of the States web site on tax vouchers.
