LPSC Supports Vouchers

Recently the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission voted to put the question of education vouchers back before the voters. More information about the TBRC can be found at http://www.floridatbrc.org. The TBRC has concluded its meetings and no further measures will be put on the ballot for this November.

The Libertarian Party of Seminole County applauds the action of the TBRC to allow voters to decide whether public funds can be used to fund a voucher program for students in Florida. The Florida Supreme Court previously determined that an earlier version of a voucher program was unconstitutional because the Florida Constitution requires a "uniform" system of public schools.[1] The proposed constitutional amendment would presumably reverse the ruling of the Supreme Court and may actually broaden the availability of vouchers, which were previously only available to those attending schools defined as failing.

The Libertarian Party has long been a proponent of vouchers as an interim measure to eliminating public funding of schools, although this position is no longer included in the official platform. The provision of rebates or other incentives to encourage the growth of the private education economy would broaden public awareness that the government is not the only possible source for education. In addition, fostering competition in the education marketplace by the elimination of the government school monopoly would quickly enhance the education provided to the vast majority of students. Even those remaining in government schools would benefit from the competition or the government school would simply cease to operate due to the lack of interest in the level of service provided.

While most libertarians subscribe to the goal of separating government from education entirely, there is serious debate about the utility of the interim measures such as vouchers and other incentives. There are several areas of concern about the marginal benefits of such systems over the current government monopoly. First of all, there are always regulations attached to government funding. The concern is that the benefit of private education would be overwhelmed by regulations that essentially take away the competitive benefits of private institutions by regulatory requirements that eliminate any distinctions. As one simple possible example, consider how the results of a private school would compare to a government school if all the instructional staff were required to have the same certifications and the books and curriculum were government mandated.

Another concern is the impact of government subsidies on the cost of private education. A brief look at the inflation in the cost of a college education suggests that paying for private school would inflate as a result of the availability of tax dollars. The inflation in the cost of college has far exceeded that of most products in our economy and closely parallels the expansion of government grants and guaranteed loan programs over the last several decades.[2]If the rebates, vouchers, or credits are too popular, the cost of private education will rise dramatically to absorb the government provided tax funds.

These are but two of the well reasoned arguments against vouchers as public policy. It may well be that the voucher program will suffer from all of the concerns raised by those opposed in principle to the use of tax dollars to fund this system. The point remains that we already have compulsory funding of a system that demonstrably does not work and completely lacks any benefits from real competition. A trial of the voucher system may well demonstrate the failures of current government schools and cause the populace to recognize the benefit provided by real competition. If there is no real change produced by this experiment, the teacher unions and government bureaucrats will quickly bring it to an end. If we all pay attention to the potential failings, we may be better able to guard against them.

As a final point, we do not currently have the option available to abruptly end the funding of government schools with tax dollars. There is a benefit to redirecting a portion of the current expenditures to a competitive marketplace where the likely result is superior. The competitive nature of the private marketplace is the key to the control of the costs. There should be downward pressure on price by this competition. In fact, many schools may even choose not to accept the vouchers and continue in just as they do today to foreclose any potential problem with likely regulatory interference. Obviously, those not accepting vouchers cannot simply raise prices as though their customer were receiving the benefit of the subsidy.

On balance, the Libetarian Party of Seminole County recommends this proposed amendment to the voters of Florida. Even the downside of potential inflation would be acceptable if the overall result is better education both for the continuing government schools as well as the increased competition from new private schools.