Privatizing Education: Lessons from Canada and Europe

[Excerpt] Legislative proposals for vouchers for K-12 schooling have come before many legislatures and are a regular part of election year debates. Public support for vouchers is growing. When a representative sample of the population was recently asked “Do you favor or oppose allowing students and parents to choose a private school to attend at public expense?” 44 percent said yes up from 24 percent in 1993. A tax credit has even more support. When asked “Proposals are being made in a number of states to provide a tax credit that would allow parents who send their children to private or church related schools to recover part of the tuition paid. Would you favor or oppose this proposal in your state?”, 73 percent of public school parents said they favored it. Only 24 percent opposed it (Rose and Gallup 1998). This is a policy idea whose time may soon come