Tuesday, February 17, 2009

School choice saves money

Tom Waken of Oklahoma City has an excellent letter to the editor in today's Oklahoman:
Karen Ristau, president of the National Catholic Educational Association, has said Catholic schools save taxpayers more than $19.6 billion every year. Ristau based the figures on an average public school cost per student of $8,701 per year, multiplied by the total Catholic school enrollment of 2.2 million students who would have been going to public schools if there were no Catholic schools.

Catholic schools are a gift to the nation; the enormity of the gift is more striking during these challenging economic times. In addition to the monetary rewards, the nation gains in other ways: Catholic school students excel academically on standardized tests, 99.1 percent graduate and 94 percent attend colleges or universities.

This is a good argument for school vouchers that would give parents a choice in educating their children. This would also relieve the overcrowding of our public schools and make them more productive in educating students.

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