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at all private schools is $5,140, which is 42 percent less than public school per student spending, amounting to a difference NOTE: The authors sampled big city school systems in several parts of the country for which data were available. For the special case of Washington, where foreign diplomats, congressional people, and well-heeled lobbyists reside, more realistic estimates of median tuition were obtained for neighboring Maryland and Virginia counties; they accord well with the other comparisons. of $3,690 based on the figures in Table 4-4. Multiplying this difference by the number of public school students (54.5 million in 2005) yields $201 billion, the hypothetical and roughly estimated savings if all public school students joined those in private schools (assuming no subsequent rise in average tuition attributable to that shift).

Table 4-4 PUBLIC SPENDING AND PRIVATE TUITION IN SIX LARGE AND MIDSIZED CITIES AND THE UNITED STATES FOR THE 2002-03 SCHOOL YEAR

Since private schools cost so much less than public schools, allowing parents to choose private schools for their children should in principle allow huge taxpayer savings while leaving per pupil spending by public schools unchanged. To estimate these savings, David Salisbury27 compiled analyses of available costs of school choice programs in Arizona, Cleveland, Florida, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Vermont and for proposed plans for Baltimore, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Utah, and Vermont. Of course, estimating such savings requires assumptions about enrollment trends and public spending decisions that would have occurred in the absence of the choice programs, which make calculations questionable.28

Even so, such estimates with reasonable assumptions nearly always point to large savings for taxpayers. For example, Milwaukee’s public schools estimate that they would have to spend $70 million more a year on operations and up to $70 million on capital projects if the Milwaukee School Choice program were to end.29 A taxpayer organization in Florida estimates that the Florida Corporate Income Tax for Scholarships Program will save the state $1 billion over eight years.30 Pennsylvania’s Education Improvement Tax Credit is estimated to have saved the state’s taxpayers between $147 million and $205 million.31

In conclusion, the assertion that private schools are more efficient than public schools is amply documented in the literature. Private schools, on average, spend thousands of dollars less per pupil than do public schools. Since private schools achieve at least as much as public schools and probably more, they are obviously more efficient economically. Expanding school choice programs to enable more parents to choose private schools should save taxpayers large amounts of money, or enable more educational services to be purchased without exceeding current spending levels.

Effects of Private Schools on Tolerance, Civic Participation, and Social Integration

Even if private schools are more efficient, they might still be criticized for being homogeneous enclaves of intolerance, un-Americanism, or even tribalism. Such criticism ignores the traditional American right to congregate and the lessons of the first two American centuries, a period when private education was prevalent and private schools helped assimilate millions of immigrants into the American economy and society. Still, it is an empirical question whether or not private schools foster intolerance and civic indifference.

To answer this question, David Campbell32 analyzed a large national data set on secondary school students that contains several questions on tolerance for anti-religious activities. Perhaps surprisingly, he found that Catholic school and nonsectarian private school students were more likely to be tolerant than were public school students. These students were also more likely than public school students to participate in civic activities such as volunteering, public speaking, and writing editorial letters on public issues.

Private, alternative, and magnet schools apparently have stronger