In October 2001, your humble author was in Austin, Texas, at a Hank Williams III concert, and had to make a decision. Williams’ first set featured very catchy roadhouse rock/country, but before the second set, Hank delivered a stark warning, something to the effect of:
“If you are only a country music fan, you are not necessarily going to like what happens next!” An explosion of punk rock and one of the most violent mosh pits I’ve witnessed unfolded.
Thrilled, I took off my glasses, put them in my front pocket, and prepared to enter the melee. Then, alas, the voice of reason made itself heard over the din of punk rock, reminding me that I was only about 10 hours away from boarding a flight to D.C. to make a conference presentation.
“If you get your nose broken in there, you might not make the conference,” my inner McBossypants cautioned. Sourly, I took my glasses out of my pocket and observed the shoves, elbows, and punches from a positively boring but safe distance.
I’ve regretted it ever since. I should have listened to the other voice, the one I’ll introduce you to momentarily.
My ESP just informed me that some of you are wondering why I’m telling this story on an education blog. I’m getting to that part presently. The point is: Sometimes you just have to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.
This is basically the situation the school choice movement finds itself in after its 2023 victories.
As recently as at some point last year, America had zero choice programs with universal, or even nearly universal, funded eligibility. Two programs passed in 2022, followed by a whole gaggle more in 2023, and 2023 isn’t over yet.
Like a Hank III mosh pit, this is GLORIOUS, but it’s also going to be a bit unruly. It’s currently unavoidable regarding choice implementation, so gird your proverbial loins, ignore your inner McBossypants, and prepare to MOSH.
It’ll be fine in the end, and if you approach the task with the correct mindset, you just might have fun.
Yes, yes, I know: Some of you still live in fear of what the New York Times thinks. Meh. Give them something to cry about. Some of you feel a special kind of terror that someone, somewhere, will misuse choice funding. Duh. There is a certain level of misspending in any publicly funded program.
Reasonable steps should be taken to minimize it, but only reasonable steps that continue to allow programs to function well for families.
As Jason Bedrick helpfully noted regarding the original ESA program in Arizona:
Under the new system, the latest auditor general’s “review of all 168,020 approved transactions identified in the Department’s Program account transaction data” over the prior fiscal year had “found only 1 successful transaction at an unapproved merchant totaling $30.”
In other words, the rate of improper payments to unapproved merchants has fallen to 0.001 percent.
Indeed, education savings accounts have proven far more financially accountable than other government programs. According to a 2021 analysis by the federal Office of Management and Budget, the government-wide improper payment rate is 7.2 percent. Federal school meals programs are among the worst offenders.
A 2019 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that “the school meals programs have reported high improper payment error rates, as high as almost 16 percent for the National School Lunch Program and almost 23 percent for the School Breakfast Program over the past 4 years.”
Approximately zero percent of choice opponents would support abolishing the National School Lunch Program despite the fact that the mispending rate is btween 160,000 to 230,000 times greater than the mispending rate of the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Program.
We interrupt this blog post to bring you a live debate between your inner voice of reason and your inner punk rocker:
“But … but … but … even that $30 misspending will be seized upon by opponents! It has to be ZERO misspent dollars!”
Are you willing to seize up the entire program, make parents afraid to spend their money, and wind up with misspending anyway? Put your glasses in your pocket and stop being a chinless wonder.
“Someone in the blatantly partisan press might criticize the program!”
They are going to criticize it anyway! Don’t be a gutless knob! Your nose would look better after a break anyway!
The school choice movement is about setting families free. This is a task too great to entrust to the timid. We’ve already watched one choice movement regulate itself to death, and we sadly watch on as its ability to liberate fades.
If we are going to make mistakes, it’s time to make some new mistakes rather than repeat the old ones.
