A Priceless Education...

... isn't worth the money you don't pay for it.

It's an uncomfortable truth, but a common thread that emerges from studies comparing alternative school finance structures is that schools paid for at least in part by parents tend to be more responsive, more efficient, and more effective than schooling given away for free.

Folks in Milwaukee are apparently finding this out for themselves in the context of a program that gives away free tutoring on top of the existing free public schooling. It's like this: what we pay for, we pay attention to, and what we get for free we feel free to ignore.

But this reality bites, since low income families can afford to pay little toward their children's education, and hence are disproportionately likely to be stuck in unresponsive, inefficient, academically craptastic "free" schools.

On a positive note, the research shows that even a small co-payment can make a big improvement in school performance when compared to a situation in which parents pay nothing. Choice programs should take this evidence seriously, and try to ensure some level of parental co-payment, however small, wherever and whenever possible.