Vouchers won't save schools

Right now, 4,000 low-income school children in Cleveland are waiting for a verdict. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments last Wednesday in a landmark case that will determine their fate. \nAt issue is Ohio's school voucher program, which provides each of them with up to $2,500 to pay for tuition at some of the city's finest, if largely parochial, private schools. If the High Court rules that public financing of these schools violates the separation of church and state, required by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, each will be sent back to the city's failing public school system. If it is upheld, they will be free to receive the education their parents want for them but are unable to provide on their own.\nAlthough the court will have the final say on the issue when it makes its decision later this summer, legal battles and constitutional challenges to voucher programs have been waged in state courts for years. Only two other states, Wisconsin and Florida, have successfully managed to implement direct-voucher programs of their own. To avoid the constitutional questions and political obstacles that have stymied their efforts thus far, concerned parents and school-choice advocates have increasingly begun to search for new alternatives. \nA particularly innovative new approach is being pioneered in Arizona. Established in 1995, the Arizona Tuition Tax Credit Program provides a matching dollar-for-dollar tax credit of up to $500 for taxpayers who make voluntary contributions to school tuition organizations (STOs). Donations are subtracted from the amount owed in taxes at the end of the year. Individual non-profit STOs are required by law to allocate contributions to scholarships and grants for students to attend private schools. \nChildren from low-income households have benefited most from the program. Since financial need is the primary criterion used by most STOs to determine eligibility for scholarships, disadvantaged children who are the most likely to be trapped in poor-quality public schools are also the most likely to receive financial assistance. In 2000, Arizona taxpayers contributed $17.2 million to fund scholarships for nearly 15,000 students. \nEducational Improvement Tax Credits are also helping families in Pennsylvania. The program is different from the Arizona model in that only businesses may receive credits, but the maximum annual contribution limit is $100,000. Corporations can direct donations to scholarship organizations similar to STOs or to educational improvement organizations, which use the money to fund innovative education programs in the state's public schools. Pennsylvania has capped credits at $30 million a year, but already, 945 companies have committed to donate $25 million of that total.\nThe state neither directly allocates public money to private institutions nor endorses religious versus nonreligious schools in either case. School-choice advocates have so far been able to avoid the constitutional issues that have limited their efforts to expand traditional school voucher programs. Last year the Supreme Court declined to review Arizona's tax-credit initiative, paving the way for even more states to adopt its approach in the future. \nNo one should be forced to attend poorly-performing schools when there are others that can provide them with the kind of education they need. Voluntary tax incentives, like those now offered in Arizona and Pennsylvania, have finally given parents the freedom to choose. In doing so, they have also provided America's public schools with a powerful incentive to improve.