A Guide to School Choice
If you have been following the news at all, you know that on June 21st, SCOTUS made a new ruling that has some implications for school choice in America. Essentially, the ruling states that if a state offers a public tuition assistance program that allows parents to send their children to a private school, the state may NOT exclude “sectarian” or religious schools in that program. The reasoning behind this, according to SCOTUS, is that States may not “exclude some members of the community from an otherwise generally available public benefit because of their religious exercise.” Following this ruling, there has been many excited people that count this as a major win for school choice, and even more broadly, religious liberty. Although it is a win, there are some misguided thoughts on what this ruling actually means, and specifically what this means for the state of Wisconsin (school choice in every state varies dramatically). Therefore, I wanted to provide a brief guide to what school choice looks like in the United States generally, and what it looks like in Wisconsin specifically. Finally, I will point out the implications any of these rulings have for Tall Oaks Academy and schools like us.
Types of School Choice
There are 5 main types of school choice, and they are NOT all created equal. Here is the brief layout of how each one works…
Education Savings Account (ESA)- In this system, parents who withdraw their kids from public school receive public funds into a designated savings account. These funds can be used by the parents, at their discretion, for things related to education (as authorized by the states government) and would include tuition, tutoring, online learning, and others authorized educational purchases. There are currently 9 states with these programs.
School Vouchers - In this system, parents are NOT given specific funds for tuition, but rather are given a voucher to send their child to a school of their choice. This typically uses only a portion of the public funds set aside for a child’s education, but in some states it uses all of the funds. There are currently 16 states with some form of a voucher program.
Tax Credit ESA - This system is similar to the ESA system, but comes in the form of a tax credit for tax payers who donate to a nonprofit which funds and manages parent directed K-12 education. This is a newer system, and only 2 states are currently using a system like this.
Tax Credit Scholarships - This system gives tax payers full or partial tax credits for donating to a nonprofit organization that provides private school scholarships. There are 21 states that provide a form of this system.
Individual Tax Credit and Deductions - In this system, parents receive tax relief for authorized educational expenses. Depending on the program, these can come in the form of a tax credit or simply a deduction. There are 9 states with this form of a program.
School Choice in America
When you look at the map of America, there is quite the variety of school choice programs. Some states have no school choice programs at all, some states employ just one type of program, and some states have multiple programs. The thing that complicates school choice is that even when a state chooses one type of program, there are various forms of that program and that form may be highly individualized. For example, a state may employ an individual tax credit program, but stipulate that only parents below a certain household income will qualify, while another state may offer the same type of program but choose not to discriminate based on household income.
For those who are school choice advocates, the recent SCOTUS ruling was certainly a win, but not necessarily a bombshell. The bigger win is in the realm of religious liberty, because there were certain states that, for example, did not allow vouchers to be used at private religious schools (this was not the case for Wisconsin). This ruling now gives freedom to those schools to not be discriminated against in regards to school choice programs. Kind of… More on that later.
School Choice in Wisconsin
This brings us to what school choice looks like in Wisconsin. There are currently 5 school choice programs in the state, and 4 of them are voucher programs. Two of the voucher programs are specific to the Milwaukee and Racine area, one voucher program is specifically for students with special needs, and the last and most widely used program is statewide and for anyone who qualifies (families with income no more than 220% of the federal poverty level). Lastly, Wisconsin also has a private school tuition deduction program that not many folks know about. This program allows families to deduct up to $4,000 for elementary school students and $10,000 for high school students. Remember, this is a deduction program and not a tax credit program.
One thing to know with these voucher systems in Wisconsin, is that it is not a system where you can take your kids out of public school and receive funding to send them to just any school. While that would be the best case scenario, that just isn’t the case in Wisconsin. Instead, a school must be a participant in the voucher school system, which requires the school to meet all qualifications that state authorities lay out, both now and in the future. Essentially, the governing authorities in our state are very hands on with this voucher system. If a private school chooses to participate in the voucher system, they will then go through a process of getting approved by the state to be recognized as a participating voucher school. Once approved, families who qualify for school vouchers will be able to send their children to any of these authorized voucher schools using public funding. In other words, if a family receives a voucher in the state of Wisconsin, they can only choose from participating voucher schools to send their children to, not just any private school they want.
Implications for Tall Oaks Academy in Kenosha
Tall Oaks Academy in Kenosha is a private school but has chosen not to participate in the voucher system. Although this is something that was considered by the founding school board early on, the decision was made rather quickly to not participate for various reasons below…
One of the challenges with the voucher system is that it ties you to government regulations. While the current state of regulations in Wisconsin is not excessively strict, there are some regulations that can simply be a headache. Also, regulations can change at any time and requirements could be added that would quickly require a Christian school (if the school is being faithful) to not participate any longer.
The voucher system abolishes an admissions process for your school. If a family has obtained a school voucher, they may not be turned away or denied entrance into the school for any reason. Because our mission at Tall Oaks is to “Partner with Christian parents,” we did not feel like we could participate in the voucher system because our admissions process requires that parents agree to our statement of faith and be connected to a local church body. As a school, we believe a Christian education involves three stakeholders: the parents, the school, and the local church.
There are other reasons as well, but these are the two main reasons.
To clarify, I am not saying that a Christian school who chooses to participate in the voucher program is being unfaithful. In fact, I cheer these schools on and pray that God blesses them! I am simply laying out the reasons why the team at Tall Oaks chose against participating.
Concluding Thoughts
The recent SCOTUS ruling does have implications for school choice and religious liberty generally, but it does not prevent school choice programs, like the programs we have in the state of Wisconsin, to implement stipulations that are antithetical to the Christian faith. This could easily (and quickly) be done and would be a new threat to religious liberty. While this is not currently the case in Wisconsin, there is always that looming threat. Also, in my opinion, a voucher system is not the ideal system. It is a step in the right direction because it offers parents a bit more freedom, but the best school choice programs in the country are Education Savings Account programs that truly put the dollars in the hands of the parents to spend on education how they see fit. These systems are less regulated, and gives parents much more freedom.
So, the SCOTUS ruling doesn’t have any implications for Tall Oaks Academy, or for that matter, the state of Wisconsin. I didn’t write this to discourage anyone, but hopefully to help everyone see where school choice stands, and to help everyone see that there’s still work to do in the area of school choice!
