School

Most agree that our public education system is not performing up to where people would like. This is especially true with minority students. Many different programs have tried to mediate this problem but they have for the most part just upset the teaching methods. One option to offer a new approach is called school choice. This refers to programs and policies that let families use public money to access schools beyond their local option. Some options include public charter, magnet, private, parochial, online schools and homeschooling. Currently 32 states have some type of option. Minnesota has many options but all have some kind of limitation. For example MN claims parents can send their children to private school but only receive help in the form of refundable tax credits and only low income families qualify. The average tax credit is less than $300 and the average tuition for private school is over $4,000 so it is not much help. School districts receive about $7,000 from the state per student. This is about half the total cost per student and most of the remainder comes from property tax. If the state provided the full $7,000 for private schools many parents would chose that option and use their extra funds for transportation. This would result in closing many public schools and building many private schools or deals could be made to use the same buildings in some cases.