Did KSL-TV's "Truth Test" pass the truth test in its report on voucher advertising ?

Richard Piatt of KSL-TV aired a report on Oct. 17 titled "Truth Test: School Voucher Ads Deciphered." Republican Ric Cantrell promoted the report on the Utah Senate blog as coming from someone "without a dog in the fight." But it didn't seem to jibe with parts of H.B 148. Maybe I misunderstood the law. So I wrote Mr. Piatt, hoping he would clear up a few things.

Here is an edited version of the e-mail exchange:

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Subject: A few thoughts on "truth in advertising"

Richard,

This is for your "For What It's Worth" file: A few thoughts on the "truth-in-advertising" report on vouchers.

KSL: "Pro-voucher ads say a 'yes' vote for Referendum 1 would be good for public schools, shrinking class sizes and allowing funding per pupil to go up. One illustration of how it would work is in an Oreo cookie ad: 'Now this student decides to take $3,000 in a voucher and goes to a private school. The class size goes down, and we can allocate the remaining money on the students who are still there.' That's true."

Frankly, the "vouchers-are-good-for-public-schools" argument has an "Alice in Wonderland" quality.

First of all, education in Utah is funded using a formula based on the number of students enrolled in the school district. At least that's what the "impartial analysis" in the Utah Voter Information Pamphlet says. More students, more money; fewer students, less money. So how can per pupil funding go up when vouchers would decrease the number of students enrolled?

I understand there's a five-year mitigation period built into the law intended to soften the financial hit schools would take. Why is damage mitigation needed if vouchers actually would help public schools, as the pro-voucher crowd claims? What happens after five years?

Second, it's hard to imagine class sizes shrinking because of a private-school outlet. Capacity just does not exist. Only 79 of the 125 private schools in Utah are large enough to qualify to receive vouchers. Only seven of those enroll over 400, and they're the most exclusive, academically rigorous, and expensive in Utah. All are located along the Salt Lake Valley-to-Ogden corridor. Parents lucky enough to live in the Salt Lake Valley and get their kid into Rowland-Hall, Judge, or Waterford should expect to pay anywhere from $6,000, $10,000, and more each year. Ten counties in Utah have no private schools whatsoever. Cache County is representative of the kind of presence private schools have in Utah. It had two private schools with total enrollments of 153 in 2006.

In nine years Utah will have about 140,000 more kids to educate, according to projections by the state Office of Education. That means Utah's private schools would have to massively expand their capacity just to keep up with current enrollment levels. A Catholic school may open in the fast-growing Jordan area of the Salt Lake Valley but grand statewide expansion plans do not exist. And The Challenger School chain has indicated it won't even participate in the voucher program.

More than likely private school enrollment, regardless of vouchers, will decrease as a percentage of the total.

The Oreo cookie ad doesn't mention fixed costs (building construction and maintenance, utility bills, janitors' salary, and administrative support) that would not go away even though a few students do. Although the cost of educating a kid would be about $5,500 (or as high as $7,500) in a public school and about $2,500 or so privately through vouchers, fixed costs would eat up the difference. Savings to taxpayers is fantasy.

In addition, nothing would prevent a local district from cutting its budget (and taxes) after receiving a windfall from the state during the mitigation period. It could be a politically enticing option for a school board pressured by taxpayers watching their property assessments going up and up.

The legislative fiscal analysis says vouchers will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions when fully implemented, and that does not include costs of probable court fights.

Some 11 voucher and/or educational tax credit bills have been presented for consideration by the Republican-controlled Legislature since 1997. Like the Energizer bunny, they just won't die. They only distract from the non-partisan truth that educating hundreds of thousands of kids costs a lot of money.

Instead of subsidizing private schools and creating another state-managed program, Democratic members of the Legislature and a few Republicans with the courage to challenge the leadership of their party have consistently worked toward passage of the following long-term, nuts-and-bolts solutions:

• Appropriations that would fund K-12 class size reduction;
• Salary increases for teachers;
• Expenditures for augmented technology and textbook needs;
• Expanding options for extended-day kindergarten;
• Additional funds for capital and operational needs;
• Ensuring nonpartisan election of school board members;
• Support for teacher certification and licensing costs for highly qualified teachers.


KSL:"During this five-year trial period, the program is an 'experiment.' "

Maybe I missed it, but I can find nothing in H.B. 148 that indicates the program is an experiment. There is a provision that the legislative auditor general "conduct a review and issue a report" after the end of the 2013-14 school year. I guess anything can change, but only court interventions have killed voucher programs in other parts of the country.

KSL: " 'Setting few if any standards for private voucher schools. Like no accreditation, no accountability for our tax dollars and no requirement for teachers to have a credential.' That's false. In fact, school accreditation, accountability and teacher credentials are spelled out in both voucher bills. That includes requirements for annual student testing."

"Accreditation." Although H.B. 148 requires accreditation disclosure and, for marketing reasons as much as anything else, most private schools likely would be accredited or at least tell parents accreditation is under review, the law does not require private schools to be accredited. Here is what it says in Section 53A-1a-805 (i): Voucher schools must "provide, upon request to any person, a statement indicating which, if any, organizations have accredited the private school."

"No accountability for our tax dollars." Private schools are not accountable to elected representatives of Utah taxpayers. The private schools can spend voucher money any way they see fit as long as the "expenditure of scholarship funds have been made for education expenses ... consistent with other tuition expenditures." Section 53A-1a-805 (iii) (A) Similarly vague standards have paved the way for waste and fraud in Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin. According to a comparison of public, charter, and private schools published by the Utah Charter School office of the Utah State Office of Education, no regulations exist regarding curriculum (They can teach anything) or enrollment (Private schools ultimately decide who will attend, not parents. Religious schools, for instance, first choose students affiliated with their particular denomination and elite schools choose based on the likelihood of academic excellence. H.B. 148 does not change this basic difference between public and private schools).

"No requirement for teachers to have credentials." H.B. 148 spells out teacher credentials this way in Section 53A-1a-805: Private schools must "(g) employ or contract with teachers who (i) hold baccalaureate or higher degrees; or (ii) have special skills, knowledge, or expertise that qualifies them to provide instruction in the subjects taught." Private schools can hire anybody because "special skills, knowledge, or expertise" are defined by the private schools. It's a pretty big loophole.

Anyway, I spend way too much time thinking about this stuff. But let me know if I've missed the boat on any of this. I'll probably pluck it up on the blog to justify my existence.

Bill Keshlear


Rich Piatt's response:


Bill,

I stand by my story.

Rich