In Austin last week a newly appointed Select Committee on Public School Finance Weights, Allotments and Adjustments met for the first time to study the school finance system.

This, of course, is a variation of the “How do we pay for it?” question. To me this is a nonsense question as the answer is obvious. It is either out of the right pocket or the left pocket of the taxpayers of the state of Texas.

The question that is never discussed is, “How can we spend less in the first place?” The answer in this case, is school choice, aka a voucher system. According to the Federal Education Budget Project, in 2007, Texas spent $7,850 per K-12 student. It is important to note that recent analysis from Cato scholar, Adam B. Schaeffer, indicates that “on average, per-pupil spending in these areas is 44 percent higher than officially reported.”

Let’s give Texas the benefit of the doubt and say that we are only underreported by 30 percent. This means the actual spending is about $10,205 per student.

I believe it is past time to look into creating a voucher system. Each voucher would be valued at $7,500 per student and the parents could then decide to what school they wanted to send their children, public or private.

As Schaeffer concludes, “It’s impossible to have an honest debate about education policy, if the public schools can’t be straight forward about their spending.”

The meeting in Austin was well intentioned, but there can be no real change unless we put all options on the table.