Utah just took a significant step towards school choice.

Utah’s plan is modest, and at the same time revolutionary. It would reimburse parents sending their children to private schools between $500 and $3,000 a year based on their family income. Parents whose kids currently attend private school would not be eligible unless their income was low enough. But all new kindergartners would qualify, so that by 2020 all private school students would be eligible for vouchers.

State Rep. Steve Urquhart, the bill’s chief sponsor, says the breakthrough in winning House approval was the realization that it wouldn’t harm public education. The bill stipulated that for five years after a voucher student left the public system, the district would get to keep much of the money the state had paid for his education. Given that the average district gets $3,500 from the state and the average voucher is expected to be $2,000, a typical school district would gain some $1,500 every time a student left its system.

Obviously the state had to make some serious (and costly) concessions to placate the government run schools, but progress is progress.  The amazing thing, as noted in the editorial, is that the debate on the issue was substantive and without ideologues claiming that public education would be harmed.  As JFK was fond of saying, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

Utah will now be under a microscope, with school choice advocates across the country eagerly waiting to see their success, which may take a decade.

Related content:

This entry was posted by Brian on Monday, February 5th, 2007 at 6:56 am and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.