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Debt Doesn't Deliver
Monday, March 24, 2008
By Dr. Matthew Ladner
Goldwater Institute
"Crazy for loving you," Patsy Cline crooned. She must have been singing about district schools.
Bill Clinton famously defined "insanity" as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result every time. Apply that notion to Governor Napolitano's repeated calls for the state to incur huge levels of debt in order to build school district facilities.
We have better options.
Charter schools operate with fewer taxpayer dollars, and with no state funding for facilities. Charter schools make up nine out of the top 10 high schools in the greater Phoenix area when ranked by reading scores, so bang for the buck is substantially higher.
The state should pass a moratorium on financing school construction projects. During the moratorium, districts should authorize new charter schools. Looking beyond charter schools, thousands of seats sit empty in Arizona private schools. Choice programs could make them accessible to parents.
Since inception, Arizona's existing charter and choice programs have educated one out of three students entering the K-12 system. Debt and overcrowding would be far worse without these successful programs. We should expand them.
Alternatively, we can incur billions of new debt to build nothing but district schools, just as we have for years. Arizona district schools, incidentally, have the unfortunate track record of failing to teach about half of Arizona kids basic reading skills by the 4th grade.
Call me crazy, but building a mountain of debt for tragically suspect results doesn't make much of an education legacy for either legislators or the Governor.
Learn More
Goldwater Institute: You're Fired!
Goldwater Institute: School Choice in Arizona: A Review of Existing Programs and a Road Map for Future Reforms
Townhall.com: Charting the Course for Reform:
Dr. Matthew Ladner is vice president of research for the Goldwater Institute. Prior to joining Goldwater, Ladner was director of state projects at the Alliance for School Choice, where he provided support and resources for state-based school choice efforts. Ladner has written numerous studies on school choice, charter schools and special education reform. Ladner is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and received both a Masters and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Houston. Ladner previously served as director of the Center for Economic Prosperity at the Goldwater Institute and as vice president of policy and communications at Children First America.
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