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Yes. It is in the law that the money scheduled to go to the public school does not, but instead goes to some fund overseen by...the state treasurer? I don't recall of the top of my head. But, no, the money does not go to the public school.I am under the impression that the remaining money continues to go the public schools. Do you have evidence to the contrary?
Nevermind, I went ahead and found it:
"In exchange for the parent's agreement pursuant to subsection B of this section, the department shall transfer from the monies that would otherwise be allocated to a recipient's prior school district, or if the child is currently eligible to attend A PRESCHOOL PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES, A kindergarten PROGRAM OR ANY OF GRADES ONE THROUGH TWELVE, the monies that the department determines would otherwise be allocated to a recipient's expected school district of attendance, to the treasurer for deposit into an Arizona empowerment scholarship account an amount that is equivalent to ninety percent of the sum of the base support level"
Source: https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/55leg/2R/bills/HB2853P.pdf
In other words, none of the money goes to the public school. And, to be quite honest with you, I didn't need to cite that for you because of how school funding works in general, but it is spelled out specifically in the bill.
But not at a 1:1 proportion.Less students requires less funding.
This has LONG been a debate in the educational world and is one of the pushbacks to IDEA.What about the students who are being held back because of those students who require special assistance? Don't those students deserve the opportunity to reach their full potential and doesn't them reaching that pinnacle better society as a whole?
Not challenging these kids creates boredom and that also creates problems.
With that said, do you think students who require special assistance should be deprived of a quality education? That's the back and forth argument.
I've already provided you a link to the bill above, and cited you the relevant text. Now I'll provide you with the funding formula for Arizona schools.I see what your saying but im skeptical of it being exactly as you describe it. I have not seen evidence to support that remaining $1800 does not stay in the public schools.
Calculating school funding is usually a very complicated system, but it can be described in basic terms as, "The school only gets money for students who attend their school, based on how many days they attend".
But not really. First of all, you can't artificially remove classrooms. Classrooms are physical locations. Secondly, you are often locked into agreements with vendors based on student population. In my experience, those contracts tend to be year to year, but some are multi-year agreements (for example, our Internet content filtering is a 3 year agreement). You definitely are not going to spend less on air conditioning because there are 18 students in a classroom, rather than 20. And the list goes on and on.Also let's please acknowledge that with less students the operating costs also go down with it. They need less books, less AC, less teachers, less classroom space, etc...
As I said, it is not a 1:1 direct cost reduction per student withdrawn.
No, it really doesn't. For many many reasons. I understand your logic here, but that's just not how it works in practice.Also it allows the class to move at a pace more appropriate for the remaining students. Teachers can spend the extra time on the lessons giving students trouble instead of just pushing students through the grade. This allows for the students at the bottom to receive better educations too.