David Safier

by David Safier

Last Saturday, I was on Robin Hiller's State of Education radio show on KVOI. For the last 10 minutes, Robin and I talked about tuition tax credits, beginning with GEICO's "generous $8 million donation" in corporate tuition tax credits, which in fact cost GEICO nothing — not one penny — while we taxpayers picked up the entire tab. More on this in an earlier post.

The show after Robin's in Emil Franzi's Inside Track. Franzi had Bruce Ash on as co-host, and Ash spent the beginning of the show disputing what I said: "David Safier was either intentionally misleading listeners, or he didn't know what the heck he's talking about."

Mostly, Ash talked about the wonderful work Bank of Tucson did by "investing" about a million-and-a-half dollars in the kids at Tucson's San Miguel High School, a private Catholic school. The only comment directed at what I said was, "These were not rich kids, they were not Jewish kids as Mr. Safier seemed to intimate." Now, I'll give Ash the benefit of the doubt and assume he garbled that sentence a bit — it happens when you're talking off the cuff — since I never mentioned Jewish kids (though I would like Mr. Ash to explain whether he was intimating in that statement that this Jew is anti-Semitic). However, Ash is right to say not all kids who receive tuition tax credits are rich. As a matter of fact, corporate tax credits can only go to kids from low income families. But personal tax credits can go to anyone, and that means kids from wealthy families can have their entire private school tuitions at the most expensive schools paid for by these backdoor vouchers — which you and I pay for, since the "donors" get 100% of their money back at tax time.

by David Safier Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) is basically a front group for the conservative "education reform" movement — i.e. privatization and corporate takeover of education. For more information, here's a detailed post I wrote about the group and its direct as well as indirect connections to conservative education groups. DFER set up an … Read more

by David Safier

U.S. education is in the pits compared to other countries, right? Maybe not. Here's another look at our scores that puts many of our states among the top 10 countries in the world in math and science. Five of the states have higher scores than any country in Europe. Looking at individual state scores explains why the U.S. average score looks bad. We're dragged down by low scoring states, which are mainly high poverty states, most of them in the south and southwest.

On the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the U.S. ranks 11th in the world in Math. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has broken our scores down by state (it created a correlation between the TIMSS test and our NAEP test). Massachusetts ranks as the 5th highest "nation" in the world, below Korea, Singapore, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong — and tied with Japan. Every European country ranks lower than Massachusetts. Vermont, Minnesota, New Hampshire and New Jersey are all in 6th place, just below Japan and above all the European countries. Maine, Wisconsin and North Carolina, in 7th place, are barely edged out by the Russian Federation. Other states in the top 10 are Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, Florida, Texas, Kansas, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Indiana, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia and Oregon.

What brings the U.S. average down are low scoring states. Here are the worst, ranked from lowest to highest, along with their world rankings and the countries whose scores they come closest to: Alabama, 26th, between Armenia and Romania; Mississippi, 24th, between Dubai and Norway; Washington D.C., 22nd, between Sweden and Ukraine; Tennessee, Oklahoma and West Virginia, tied for 19th, between Italy and New Zealand.

(You might be surprised to see countries like Norway, Sweden, Italy and New Zealand scoring below the U.S. average, along with Great Britain and Australia.  That's something the "Our schools are failing!" shriekers fail to mention, because it doesn't fit the myth they're perpetrating.)

Below the fold are two maps, one showing the high, middle and lowest scoring states, another showing the percentage of low income students in the states. It should surprise no one, the two are closely related.

by David Safier

Yesterday I wrote a quick post slamming the Star's editorial board for applauding Geico's $8 million school voucher donation even though GEICO's "generosity" won't cost it a cent. The company will get back every cent when it pays $8 million less in taxes. The money will come out of the state coffers, meaning you and I are paying for GEICO's $8 million gift. Yesterday I said I'd get back to the subject in more detail later. Later is now.

Let's start by looking at the two forms of vouchers in Arizona. The first is the Tuition Tax Credits, often referred to as backdoor vouchers. People and corporations give money directly to School Tuition Organizations (STO) out of their own pockets, and the STOs give out the money as scholarships to private schools. Come tax time, the donors get all their money back in the form of tax credits. So, for example, if I write a check for $1,000 to an STO, I'll pay $1,000 less on my state taxes, meaning I've spent no money, and the state is $1,000 poorer. That makes tuition tax credits vouchers for all intents and purposes. If there's a distinction between regular vouchers and tuition tax credits, it's a distinction without a difference. In the same way, Arizona's more recent "Empowerment scholarships" are vouchers as well. Certain students qualify for these scholarships, and money is taken from the state coffers and put into an account the students' parents or guardians can tap into for private school tuition or other educational services. Once again, the state is paying for education at non-public schools, so once again, it's a voucher.

Both vouchers were passed as law by the legislature, not voted on by the public. There's a reason for that. No voucher initiative has ever passed in the U.S. Ever. Even in conservative Utah with its strong Mormon Church where people might be especially inclined to want the state to pay for religious schooling, a 2007 voucher initiative went down, with 62% voting No. And a Gallup Poll taken this August said that 15% fewer people like vouchers now than they did in 2012 — down to 29% from 44%. Vouchers are simply unpopular. That's why you rarely hear voucher supporters use the "V" word.

There are a number of reasons why I think vouchers — which many conservatives, especially conservative libertarians, love — are a bad idea.