Education

ESAs Will Improve Education and Save the State Money

February 1, 2016

Andrew C. Spiropoulos

It is my great honor to be the Milton Friedman Distinguished Fellow at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, where all of us see ourselves as carrying on Friedman’s legacy.

Milton Friedman is best known as one of the world’s greatest economists. He received the Nobel Prize in 1974 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988. But for those of us who work in public policy, his most important works are his seminal Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose.

Capitalism and Freedom, written in 1962, lays out the blueprint for the future of conservative public policy reform. Friedman, before anyone else, devised the volunteer military, Social Security reform, and, most important to us, when no one else had ever thought of it, proposed the idea of school choice. He, describing exactly the same problems of low achievement and unequal opportunity we face today, showed that our problems are caused by the public school monopoly. Monopolies have no incentive to innovate or be flexible. He proposed that we inject competition into the system by providing all families what he called a voucher in the amount of the state funding set aside for each student. These vouchers can be used at any school, public or private. Families will have the freedom to choose the school that is best for their child. Competition will improve public schools because they will have to innovate and be flexible to compete for students.

Education savings accounts (ESAs) are still based on this core insight. They, however, provide even more flexibility because they are not limited to paying for tuition. They can be used for any educational expense, including tutoring, materials, and even college expenses. ESAs provide even greater flexibility and empowerment. They are the next step in fulfilling Friedman’s legacy.

As I wrote last year in The Journal Record, “The idea behind ESAs is simple, but powerful. A family whose child currently attends public school decides that the child’s education will be improved if it chooses another option. Upon being notified of the family’s choice, the state will deposit a portion of the state money allocated to the child’s education into an ESA. This amount will vary depending upon the family’s income, but under no circumstances will it be the child’s full allocation. In other words, the public education system will retain, in one version, at least 10 percent or as much as 30 percent of the child’s allocation. The child will be educated elsewhere, but a large chunk of the cash stays with public schools.”

With Oklahoma staring at a budget gap that could exceed $1 billion, our state’s political leaders need to find policy reforms—such as ESAs—that will both improve services and save money. Policymakers looking to free up money for the public schools should be first in line to support ESAs.

Andrew C. Spiropoulos (M.A., J.D., University of Chicago) is the Robert S. Kerr, Sr. Professor of Constitutional Law at the Oklahoma City University School of Law. He also serves as the Milton Friedman Distinguished Fellow at OCPA.