Our View - Friday

SCHOOL CHOICE SAVES KIDS
Public money should follow students

   Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law last week a universal school-choice program that uses corporate and individual tax credits to create $50 million in scholarships to private schools.
The law is the latest advance in the school-choice movement, which has seen programs approved in a growing number of states.

   The Georgia scholarship program allows corporations to receive a 100 percent tax credit, up to 75 percent of their total state tax liability, for donations to 501(c)(3), nonprofit charitable Student Scholarship Organizations that award private-school scholarships. Individuals can also donate up to $1,000 ($2,500 for married couples) to SSOs and receive a 100 percent credit against their state income taxes. An estimated 10,000 Georgia schoolchildren will benefit.

   Lydia Glaize, a Fairburn, Ga., parent who supported the legislation, said, "Children who will receive these scholarships will translate into less kids into juvenile detention, more who will graduate and more who will wind up in the labor force. That's a better standard of living for the entire Georgia community."

   There are now 23 parental choice programs in 15 states, including Washington, D.C. The number of state legislatures passing parental-choice legislation has also nearly tripled in the past five years, from six in 2003 to 16 so far this legislative session.

   Colorado has limited school choice; students can attend any public school if the receiving school has space for them. But students in public schools don't have the option to take the money attached to them and attend private schools. A few programs to enable them to do so have passed the legislature in the past, but the teachers unions have sued and courts have agreed with them. That's been a mistake the Legislature should remedy, although with Democrats in control in the Legislature and the governor's office, and that party's slavish devotion to unions, there is little likelihood of that happening anytime soon. Colorado's students will pay the price.

   Thirty years ago California was an undisputed national education leader. Today, California students rank 48th in reading and math achievement. Students in West Virginia, a state long associated with Appalachian poverty, outscored California students on three of the four 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments.

   A decade ago, the Golden State and Sunshine State chose radically different education reform paths. California ratcheted up its rate of school spending, while Florida maintained steady annual increases. Florida also implemented tax-credit and publicly funded scholarships so parents of children with disabilities and students trapped in failing schools could enroll their kids in better schools. Thanks to competition for students and their education dollars, overall school quality has improved in Florida.

   Currently, low-income Hispanic students in Florida outperform average California students on the fourth-grade NAEP reading assessment, conducted in English. This despite the fact that California's per-pupil funding is $2,300 more than Florida's, and California median household income is nearly $12,000 higher.

   Such comparisons make it difficult to defend public education's near monopoly, especially since not one doomsday scenario predicted by status-quo apologists has ever materialized in any state with parental-choice programs. Education monopolists are still repeating their tired myths, but fewer lawmakers are buying them.

HOUSING MARKET NOT ALL BAD

   It's probably inevitable in an election year that politicians of both parties are proposing plans to save homeowners from the results of a burst housing bubble. Prices dropped rather quickly in California, which has become the nation's foreclosure capital. How quickly things have changed. A couple years ago, prospective buyers were often writing notes to sellers explaining why theirs was the most worthy of the dozen or so offers. These days, sellers have to provide more than a note to lure a potential buyer.

   Here in the Pikes Peak region, some national homebuilders seem to be pulling out of the local market, often deeply discounting their prices to shed inventory.

   The falling prices have caused legitimate problems for those buyers who got in late in the game, and for lenders who are now getting stuck with foreclosures. The problem was caused in part by government-encouraged easy credit schemes, which put unqualified buyers into houses they could barely afford. When adjustable-rate mortgages went up, many owners struggled to meet the payments. When the Ponzi-style scheme collapsed, and there weren't many new buyers to keep the bidding wars going, upsidedown homeowners saw no purpose in paying high mortgages on homes with negative equity.

   Unlike in government, businesses that make bad decisions face a day of reckoning. It usually comes sooner rather than later. And so lenders are forced to abandon their foolish lending practices as they have resulted in losses for mortgage companies. Home prices around the nation and locally have plummeted. That's how the free market operates. The results are not always pretty, but they always are necessary.

   The market is showing signs of life. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that real estate, especially in the absurdly pricey Bay Area, is rebounding a bit as bargain-hunting shoppers get good deals on foreclosed and reduced-priced properties. If you're a buyer this is great. Everyone likes a bargain. It also helps the market rebound as shrinking inventories of cheaper homes push prices higher. This is how markets react. They go up; they go down.

   There is no denying the housing industry and some home buyers are suffering. But there is no crisis in real estate - unless the government gets involved and distorts the normal workings of the market.