Friedman Legacy for Freedom Day
Milton Friedman’s Birthday Address
Thanks to the Georgia Public Policy
Foundation, the Georgia Charter Schools
Association, and Americans for Prosperity
for sponsoring and hosting this event.
Three Victories for Freedom After
Milton Friedman’s 100th Birthday
(but lots more to do)
Ben Scafidi
Kennesaw State University
Georgia Public Policy Foundation
Friedman Foundation for Educational
Choice
Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006)
First Big Victory for Freedom
• 2012 Georgia Charter Schools Amendment
• Allows the state to authorize charter schools
• Almost 59 percent of Georgia voters approved
this amendment
• Conaway, Scafidi, and Stephenson study: 1 percentage
point increase in electorate employed by traditional public
schools led to a 4 percentage point decrease in the YES
vote; Minorities and those in areas with lower performing
traditional public schools more likely to vote YES
• RAND study
• Biggest benefit of charter schools is in getting students to
finish high school and graduate college
Milton and Rose Friedman
on School Choice
• www.edchoice.org
• Milton and Rose Friedman’s Legacy Foundation
“Our goal is to have a system in which every family
in the U.S. will be able to choose for itself the
school to which its children go. We are far from
that ultimate result. If we had that — a system of
free choice — we would also have a system of
competition, innovation, which would change the
character of education.” (2003)
More Milton and Rose Friedman
on School Choice
“Improved education is offering a hope of narrowing the
gap between the less and more skilled workers, of
fending off the prior prospect of a society divided
between the “haves” and “have nots,” of a class society
in which an educated elite provided welfare for a
permanent class of unemployables.” (1998)
“Parents generally have both greater interest in their
children's schooling and more intimate knowledge of
their capacities and needs than anyone else.” (1979)
Second Big Victory for Freedom
• Georgia Income Tax Limitation Constitutional
Amendment (Shafer Amendment)
• Caps personal and corporate income tax rate at 6
percent (where they are now)
• Speaker Ralston cast the deciding vote in the
House
• Every County in Georgia voted in favor of the
Amendment
Statewide Vote on the
Income Tax Limitation Amendment
73.9%
26.1%
YES
NO
Chatham County Vote on the Income
Tax Limitation Amendment
69.5%
30.5%
YES
NO
Milton Friedman on the
Tax Limitation Amendment
• Milton Friedman did not support a
balanced budget amendment
• He supported a balanced budget
amendment with a tax or spending
limitation amendment
»Georgia had only a balanced budget
amendment
Milton Friedman (1983)
• “I have never supported an amendment
directed solely at a balanced budget. I have
written repeatedly that while I would prefer
that the budget be balanced, I would rather
have government spend $500 billion and run
a deficit of $100 billion than have it spend
$800 billion with a balanced budget. It
matters greatly how the budget is balanced,
whether by cutting spending or by raising
taxes.”
Third Big Victory for Freedom
Universal School Choice
Nevada
Nevada Universal Education Savings
Account (ESA) Plan
• On June 2, 2015, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval signed a
bill that offers Education Savings Accounts to all Nevada
public school students who have been enrolled for at least
100 days in the prior year.
– For children with disabilities or students from
families with incomes less than 185 percent of
the federal poverty level ($44,863 for a family of
four), students will receive about $5,700.
– For other families, the funding amount is about
$5,100.
Nevada ESA Details
• Primary Sponsor Senator Scott Hammond
• Nevada ESAs may be used for
– Private school tuition
– Tutoring
– Services for special needs students
– Textbooks
– Dual-enrollment fees
– Standardized test fees
Only One Regulation of Note
• All Nevada ESA recipients must take a
nationally recognized norm-referenced test
(Iowa, Stanford, CogAT, etc.).
• The state will aggregate the results and
report average test scores for the entire ESA
program.
• The state will also report high school graduation rates
starting three years after the program begins.
Three Opportunities to Expand
Educational Freedom in Georgia
• Raise the Cap on the Tax Credit Scholarship
Program
• Education Savings Accounts
• More Equitable Funding for Charter Schools
May 2014 Survey of Georgia Adults
on their Attitudes Regarding School
Choice
The 2014 Georgia Education Survey
1,000 Georgia adults
The 2014 Georgia Education Survey
• Funded by the Economics of Education Policy Center
at Georgia College
• Survey conducted by Braun Research, Princeton, NJ
– Nonpartisan polling firm
– Member of AAPOR
• Margin of Error = +/- 3.1%
• Results weighted to match Georgia’s demographics
The state of Georgia allows individual taxpayers, married
couples, and corporate taxpayers to redirect some of their
state income tax payments to student scholarship
organizations. These student scholarship organizations
provide scholarships to public school students whose
parents wish to enroll them in private school. This tax
credit scholarship program, also called Georgia’s Education
Expense Credit Program, has a statewide donation limit of
$58 million. Have you heard of this program?
A “tax-credit scholarship system” allows parents the option
of sending their child to the school of their choice, whether
that school is public or private, including both religious and
non-religious schools. In general, do you favor or oppose a
tax-credit scholarship system? [PROBE:] Would you say
strongly or somewhat favor/oppose?
Georgia Tax Credit Scholarships
70.3%
23.9%
Strongly or Somewhat Favor Strongly or Somewhat Oppose
To what extent do you agree or disagree with each
of the following statements? [INTERVIEWER
PROBE:] Would you say strongly or somewhat
agree/disagree?
[ROTATE ORDER IN WHICH A AND B ARE ASKED.]
Tax credit scholarships should be available to all
families, regardless of incomes.
Tax credit scholarships should only be available to
families based on financial need.
Scholarships Open to All “Regardless of Income”
69.4%
28.3%
Strongly or Somewhat Favor Strongly or Somewhat Oppose
The maximum of $58 million in donations to
Georgia student scholarship
organizations was used up in the first
three weeks of this year. Would you favor
or oppose raising this maximum amount
of donations to $100 million for 2015?
[PROBE:] Would you say strongly or
somewhat favor/oppose?
Increase Cap to $100 million
61.8%
29.1%
Strongly or Somewhat Favor Strongly or Somewhat Oppose
An "education savings account" – often called an
ESA – allows parents to take their child out of a
public school, and receive a payment into
a government-authorized savings account
with restricted, but multiple uses. Parents can
then use these funds to pay for private school
tuition, virtual education programs, private
tutoring or save for future college expenses. In
general, do you favor or oppose this kind of
“savings account system”? [PROBE:] Would you
say strongly or somewhat favor/oppose?
Education Savings Accounts
67.8%
27.2%
Strongly or Somewhat Favor Strongly or Somewhat Oppose
Crosstabs by Political
Identification
Democrats, Republicans,
Independents
Support for Tax Credit Scholarships by Party
71.5%
71.5%
67.2%
26.9%
Democrats
23.9%
Republicans
23.3%
Independents
Strongly or Somewhat
Favor
Strongly or Somewhat
Oppose
Support for Universal Access to
Scholarships by Party
74.8%
68.0%
64.5%
32.1%
30.6%
22.3%
Democrats
Republicans
Independents
Strongly or Somewhat
Favor
Strongly or Somewhat
Oppose
Support for Raising the Donation Cap to $100
million by Party
64.6%
63.8%
56.0%
30.5%
Democrats
32.2%
28.0%
Republicans
Independents
Strongly or Somewhat
Favor
Strongly or Somewhat
Oppose
Equity for Charter Schools
• Brick and mortar charter schools get about 80
percent of the funding that flows to traditional
public schools in the same zip code.
• Apples-to-Apples accountability
• Accountability for graduation and college
success
• The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement
could survey charter school leaders about the
quality of charter authorizers.
Why Don’t We Just
“Fix” Public Schools?
While Student
Achievement has been
Stagnant …
Growth in Students and Public School Personnel
United States, FY 1950 to FY 2009
702%
800%
700%
600%
500%
386%
400%
252%
300%
200%
100%
96%
0%
Students
Total School
Personnel
Teachers
Administrators
and Other Staff
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics 1991 Digest of Education Statistics Tables 39 and 84; 2008 Digest of Education
Statistics Table 87
:
Growth in Students and Public School Personnel
United States, FY 1992 to FY 2009
50%
39%
45%
40%
35%
46%
32%
30%
25%
20%
17%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Students
Total School
Personnel
Teachers
Administrators
and Other Staff
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
1994 Digest of Education Statistics Tables 40 and 85;
2010 Digest of Education Statistics Tables 36 and 87
34
Fixing the VA and Fixing Public Schools
• Give veterans who have sacrificed so much
for our country the opportunity to get
medical care they deem better—while we fix
the VA
• Give parents of innocent students an
opportunity to send their children to schools
they deem better—while we fix public
schools