Saturday, December 04, 2010
Susan Edmondson
Education Centers
This holiday season New Yorkers will go for the best deals and be responsible with their spending habits and manage efficiently within their tight budgets. The state of New York should in turn do the same for the residents and support their cost-cutting measures this holiday season.
Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo has been preparing for the gap in the $9-billion budget, when he assumes office. As of now, public education takes away a chunk of the state budget and hence education cuts could be in the offing. However, the cuts do not have to be very painful, as a considerable chunk of the population that was part of the recent poll in New York has supported policy changes that will help parents as well as in improving schools in cutting costs.
As per the new survey results released by ‘Milton Friedman’s Foundation for Educational Choice,’ and conducted by ‘Braun Research Inc,’ at least 66% of those polled in New York are in support of vouchers and 70% are in support of tax-credit scholarships. Both these measures will help families in accessing part or the entire government funding that is being allotted for their children and this would enable parents to choose the private schools that they wish to send their children to.
A lot of money can be saved through the tax-credit scholarships and here is how:
A new school choice program in Oklahoma, helps parents of disabled children by giving them vouchers that are worth almost 95% of the local and state dollars that are currently ‘attached’ either to their private school tuition or to their child, the lesser of the two. This is a fiscally neutral program which has the potential to even save the taxpayers’ money.
There are other school programs in the country that might provide only a percentage of the private tuition fee or there might be cap on the scholarship where only a percentage of the total expenses could be availed. However, New Yorkers want more benefits with regard to the education system. Most people think that funding for public education was low. However, only 7% actually identified the combined funding such as local, state and federal ‘per-pupil funding’ in the state of New York.
If parents are given a choice of school, they would like to know exactly how much money is being spent, as they are the ones who would be spending it on their children.
