1. United States
2. Ark.
3. Letter

The state messed up. This private school voucher program costs nearly $400 million and is growing. It isn’t helping families, now that schools have increased tuition. It helps the private school get revenue from the state. At least with public schools there are public controls on spending and metrics from the state. With private schools, they may build bike tracks or fancy buildings and just raise tuition. We have no control. But we fund it. I am not against nice private schools. I am against funding $400mm to private schools because they still raise tuition. It doesn’t solve for families. It solves for private school revenue. Now the public is paying for public schools and partial to private schools. That means less to public schools or other public needs. You have no controls over the schools performance. State education declines further. It’s a mess that should have never been approved.