School choice tax credit impact on public schools

Chalkbeat Ideas is a new section featuring reported columns on the big ideas and debates shaping American schools. Sign up for the Ideas newsletter to follow our work.In the last decade, enrollment in California’s public schools has fallen by about half a million students, or 8%. At the same time, funding for the students who have remained in public schools has shot up, as the state implemented a new funding formula. California once lagged behind the national average in education funding per student; now it’s above average.These seemingly paradoxical trends are worth considering at a moment when many state governors, including California’s Gavin Newsom, are deciding whether to participate in a school choice program subsidized by a new federal tax credit.Public education associations are urging states to stay away. They say that offering this voucher-like credit will drain students, and thus resources, away from public schools. That could happen, especially if political support for fund