If school choice is ‘welfare for the wealthy,’ then so are public schools  

Despite being one of the first states to pass universal school choice, Arizona has faced a tough battle to keep it.  

Bolstered by an antagonistic Gov. Katie Hobbs, the education establishment has thrown the proverbial spaghetti against the wall to overturn school choice – including by arguing education freedom is just “welfare for the wealthy.”  

“GOP states are embracing vouchers,” one Politico article even read. “Wealthy parents are benefitting.”  

“Unaccountable school vouchers do not save taxpayer money, and they do not provide a better education for Arizona students,” Hobbs claimed last summer. “We must bring transparency and accountability to this program to ensure school vouchers don’t bankrupt our state.”  

But if school choice unfairly benefits wealthy families, don’t public schools do the exact same thing – and at a much steeper cost?  

The Goldwater Institute, an Arizona-based public policy think tank, recently released a report comparing the cost of public education and Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), specifically for high-income families.  

The report estimates 185,000 public school students come from wealthy families (those earning $150,000 or more), costing the public school system $1.4 billion annually.  

Yet, fewer than 15,000 students from those high-earning families participate in the state’s ESA program, costing less than $100 million.  

In short, a wealthy student costs no more – and likely less – to educate via a school choice program than in a public school.  

Fact is, the average public school student costs Arizona over $12,000 while the average ESA award is only $7,400.  

“On one hand, [school choice opponents] hold that scholarship assistance for children enrolled in private schooling options is too financially burdensome to the state,” wrote Matt Beienburg, director of education policy at Goldwater. “At the same time, however, they hold that taxpayer spending on children from families of identical wealth in the public school system is to be celebrated – if not increased.”  

In other words, Arizona taxpayers will subsidize the education of wealthy children one way or another, whether through public schools or universal school choice.  

The question isn’t whether to subsidize their education, but with how many tax dollars and to be managed by whom: the government or the parents?  

Granted, not every parent has an advanced degree in education. But anyone who’s been to the DMV knows the government isn’t a bastion of high-quality services either.