Voucher Math

Some incredibly brilliant person wrote this letter to the editor that was printed in today's edition, and I just thought I'd reprint it here - with permission of the author, of course.

Pro-voucher advocates continue to refer to excess money left with public education for every student that leaves the system. The argument is that since the state spends some $5,000 per student and the voucher has a $3,000 maximum, that means, in worst case, that the schools are left with an extra $2,000. If my understanding of school funding is correct, then that $2,000 does not automatically stay in the system. Schools are funded by something called the Weighted Pupil Unit, a set amount of money per student in the public school system. That's where the $5,000 figure comes from and that number is set by the Utah Legislature. Pull a student out of the system and you pull the full WPU out of the system. So, even if the difference did end up going to the public schools, it would have to wait until the following year for the Legislature to increase the WPU, assuming they didn't find some road project or sports arena more compelling to fund. In addition to all the other assumptions you have to accept to support school vouchers, you also have to trust our Legislature in matters involving the public schools.

Personally, I'm not one that trusts them to do what's best for education.....