Does this scholarship program hurt public schools by taking money away?
No. Since these scholarships will be funded entirely by private, charitable donations, the public schools will retain all the money they would normally receive under the state’s school finance formula. The effect on the public schools will be exactly the same as when a non-scholarship student goes to a private school or moves to another school district. In fact, since educating special needs children is so resource-intensive and many public schools are not well-equipped for that task, the scholarship program may even make it easier for public schools to focus on traditional education. A study published by the Show-Me Institute shows that tax credit scholarship programs would allow thousands of Missouri’s children to have access to better, more personalized educational opportunities—but they would also save the state millions of dollars each year because the scholarships would be paid for with charitable donations instead of tax dollars.
