This commentary originally appeared in the Austin American-Statesman on January 20, 2015.
There is one way to assure Texas’ dominance on the economic front in future years, a way to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, a way to boost the overall economy by up to 30 percent and increase property values in Texas by 20 percent or more. In addition to those huge economic benefits, at the same time we can drive up teacher pay, improve working conditions for teachers and improve the performance of our public schools.
A recent report by Arthur Laffer summarizes these findings. That report can be found at www.txbiz.org. Laffer found phenomenal economic benefits stemming from parental choice in education. For example, he says that passage of the Taxpayer Savings Grant program, as filed by state Sen. Donna Campbell, would have the effect of adding the economies of nine other states to the Texas economy.
The positive economic impact would be the result of several factors. First, based on research estimates, at least an additional 38,000 students would graduate each year when given additional choices of where to go to school. This improvement in the graduation rate alone would result in additional spending on automobiles, homes, and other consumer items. It would increase the state’s gross domestic product by more than $650 million and create thousands of new jobs.
Second, this type of school choice program will significantly improve academic performance. In seven double-blind studies, academic performance of students given a choice improved in math, reading or science by significant margins. But most importantly, the public schools, when faced with the risk of losing students to private schools, improved significantly.
Third, imagine the thousands of young professionals migrating to Texas from other states in order to take advantage of the enhanced educational opportunities through choice. Imagine business relocations to Texas due to new educational options for their employees. Imagine the new investments that would be made in declining urban areas, bringing those areas back to life.
As indicated, the majority of these economic benefits would emanate from enhanced public school performance. We all know that no entity will ever be the best that it can be while holding a monopoly over its customers. Excellence in any endeavor is a result of lessons learned. No school will ever be as good as it can be if it is has a monopoly over its students.
We have gone through some three decades of school reform since the “A Nation at Risk” report was published in 1982. Each new reform passed with great fanfare. We have increased spending per student dramatically in inflation-adjusted dollars. Yet, even with that huge investment, about 25 percent of our ninth-graders never graduate from high school, and almost half of those graduates who enroll in higher education must be remediated. Although we have some great schools, far too many Texas students are now being underserved. Yes, that hurts the economy and makes it difficult for employers to find qualified people to fill jobs, but the real tragedy is what this is doing to our children and grandchildren. We can and must do better.
Grusendorf is senior fellow and director of the Center for Education Freedom at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Hammond is the CEO of the Texas Association of Business.