Cato Briefing Paper #25 March 26, 1996 WHAT WOULD A SCHOOL VOUCHER BUY? THE REAL COST OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS by David Boaz and R. Morris Barrett David Boaz is executive vice president of the Cato Institute and the editor of Liberating Schools: Education in the Inner City. R. Morris Barrett is a writer in New York -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive Summary American schools are failing because they are organized according to a bureaucratic, monopolistic model. A school voucher of $3,000 per …showed first 75 words of 2748 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2748 total…the per pupil expenditure for Marion County schools was $4,678. At private schools the median tuition was $2,180. Forty-nine of the independent primary schools in Indianapolis charged less than the public schools' per pupil expenditure, and 42 of those charged less than $3,000 (Table 3, p. 12). Fourteen independent secondary schools in Indianapolis charge less than the city's expenditure of $4,678 per student, and 11 of those charge less than $2,500. The median tuition at Indianapolis private secondary schools is $1,850 (Table 4, p. 13). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**