The Public Financing of Non-Public Education

Abstract

Of the approximately 52 million children attending schools in grades K-12 in the United States in 1971, 5.4 million or 10.4 percent attended private schools, with over ninety percent of this private school enroll? ment in parochial, mainly Catholic, schools [Bureau of Census]. Private schools thus play a significant role in the provision of education for the nation's youth, providing diversity and excellence often not found in the public system. In light of this, the President's Commission on School Finance recommended that use of federal, state, and local tax resources to aid private education be increased [President's Commission]. The Commission recommended such means as tax credits, tuition reimburse? ments, scholarships for needy children, and direct services such as trans? portation, books, and lunch programs. It also recommended experiments with voucher systems for public funding of private education, and the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity has supported studies of voucher schemes by the Center for the Study of Public Policy (CSPP) in Cam? bridge, Massachusetts [Areen and Jencks], [Center for Study of Public Policy]. In this paper we wish to comment on some of the possible formats that a workable system of public financial support for private and paro? chial schools might take. In the long run, provision of substantial public revenues for financing private education should be expected to result in a larger increase in secular private school enrollment than enrollment in schools with a re? ligious affiliation. The reason for this is obvious; schools with religious affiliation can draw upon considerable financial support from the church itself and thus charge lower tuition.1 The economic incentive to enroll in public schools (with no fees or charges) is strong in either case, but must have a larger effect on the decisions of those parents who choose between secular private and public education. 1 In our town, for example, the Catholic School charges $325 per year for grade school children of parents who are members of the parish, while a good secular private school with no outside support charges $950 per year.