Competition could improve student performance

The school voucher bill recently signed into law by Gov. Reynolds has been vilified by the press and proponents of the public-school monopoly. One Gazette writer asked, “Do they (Gov. Reynolds and Republicans) believe that vouchers to private schools help public schools get better?” My response is, how has more taxpayer money ever made public schools better?

It costs taxpayers almost $16,000 dollars per year per student in public school, the highest rate in Iowa history. (Unfortunately, most education money is slurped up by massive bureaucracies and overvalued administrators.) Meanwhile, student scores and proficiency in reading, math and science are the lower. I’m sure most Iowans have seen teens and young adults unable to make change, or to work simple math problems without a calculator, or to write a coherent sentence. Public schools are a failure.

It seems public schools are much more obsessed with the latest trends in popular culture than with basic academics. For parents who want something better for their children, it has always been a sacrifice to pay private school tuition or to make the time sacrifice to home-school while paying all the taxes as if their child was still enrolled in public school. The school voucher program merely transfers some of the tax money private school parents already pay into public schools back to the school of their choice. Perhaps, public schools will be motivated by competition from private schools to improve student outcomes and do it more efficiently.

Steve Harvey

Cedar Rapids