Missouri NEWS

March 7, 2006
Voucher alternative holds promise in Missouri

By E. Thomas McClanahan
The Kansas City Star

School vouchers have been a tough sell politically, despite the obvious virtues of giving parents the power of choice. The U.S. Supreme Court says the concept is constitutionally permissible, but only a handful of states have taken the plunge.

In recent years, school-choice advocates have pursued another course - tax credits to build scholarship funds, which are used to send more low-income students to schools of their choice.

Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania have taken this step. Missouri may be next. Three tax-credit bills are under consideration in the current session of the state General Assembly.

The measure furthest along is backed by Republican Sen. Luann Ridgeway of Smithville. Her bill would not cover the entire state, however. Instead, it would be limited to the troubled school districts of Kansas City and St. Louis, as well as Wellston, a St. Louis suburb with an unaccredited district.

The bill would grant dollar-for-dollar income-tax credits to individuals and companies that donated money to qualifying scholarship funds. Recipients could use the scholarships to pay tuition at private schools or public schools of their choice.

Many anti-choice opponents argue that if parents have more choices about where their children go to school, the resulting exodus will drain money from the public school system.

Initially, however, districts would continue receiving money for educating students who are no longer present. Under a "smoothing out" provision in the state school foundation formula, declining districts receive aid based on their highest average daily attendance count from any of the last three years.

"You have a three-year cushion," said Don Thalhuber, an analyst with the nonpartisan Senate Research Division. "If you have fewer kids, over time you'll receive less money, but you're educating fewer kids."

That cushion would give districts time to improve their performance, and Ridgeway says she would agree to extend the cushion to five years if necessary.

Opponents wrongly discount the probability that competition can improve the public schools. Look at the U.S. economy: Virtually every sector with healthy competition is highly productive.

Now look at the sectors where competition is inhibited or distorted - health care, government, and K-12 education - and you see widespread problems of inefficiency and poor service.

Scholarship tax-credit bills have been proposed in previous legislative sessions, but last year the idea drew support from some black lawmakers in the St. Louis area. One longtime supporter of tax credits is Rep. Ted Hoskins, a St. Louis County Democrat and chairman of the General Assembly's black caucus.

"We have young people who are not being properly prepared in the school system, and they cannot compete," Hoskins said. "Low-income parents don't have the ability to send students to schools of their choice."

One reason vouchers have been a nonstarter in many states - aside from the opposition of entrenched groups such as teachers unions - is that many state constitutions have strict mandates requiring separation of church and state.

In the 1870s, U.S. House Speaker James G. Blaine sought an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning the use of federal money in support of religious education. He failed in that quest, but his ideas found widespread favor at the state level. Today, 37 states including Missouri have highly restrictive "Blaine amendments."

Under Missouri's constitution, "no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church . or teacher thereof."

Because of that language, a voucher program probably wouldn't pass muster. But a tax-credit program doesn't face the same legal hurdles.

The Arizona Supreme Court examined that state's tax-credit plan and ruled that "no money ever enters the state's control as a result of this tax credit . Thus, under any common understanding of the words, we are not here dealing with 'public money.' "

The current version of Ridgeway's bill would cap the tax credits at $40 million a year - which highlights another distinction between a tax credit and a voucher plan. With a voucher, tax money is budgeted and spent each year according to the number of authorized vouchers. With a tax credit, the money must be raised every year from voluntary donations.

Recipient families may have a harder time navigating their way through a scholarship program than a voucher plan. Even so, educational tax credits would put more students in better schools, while notifying the affected districts that their educational monopoly has been terminated. What's not to like?

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