Susan Spicka: Ninja training!
In a letter to the Pitsburgh Post-Gazette, Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters of PA, responds to some of the folks boosting vouchers for Pennsylvania, and points out some of the problems that have emerged elsewhere.
Take Arizona, for example. A universal voucher program that was estimated to cost $64 million in the current fiscal year will cost more than $900 million. Who will pay for this? Arizona taxpayers. They will either pay higher taxes to fill the hole blown in their state budget by these vouchers or they will experience cuts in services provided by their state.
And who benefits from this very expensive voucher program in Arizona? Is it the “marginalized” children the authors claim to care about? Nope. As it turns out, about 75% of students who scooped up universal vouchers in Arizona were already in private schools.
So how are families in Arizona using the piles of cash they received through the voucher program? A recent report by ABC15 found that education tax dollars paid for voucher families’ Ninja warrior training, passes to ski resorts, golf equipment, pricey subscriptions for international snack deliveries, and much more.
Pennsylvania already spends $470 million annually on school vouchers, providing government subsidies to unaccountable private schools that pick and choose the students they enroll.