This is the Katoro Daily Podcast for Wednesday, September 20th,

20th, 2023. I'm Caleb Brown. One concern amid the

proliferation of school choice programs throughout the United States is the possibility that the inflow of students into private schools

might raise prices for private schooling across the board.

Cato adjunct scholar Jason Bedrick weighs the concern.

There are a lot of programs. I think daycare is one of them.

College education is another one where we subsidize the consumption of those goods, of those services.

And the expectation is often that because we've subsidized the consumption of those services,

the providers of those services are relatively more free to raise prices.

And it's important to understand whether or not in areas where school choice is on the March, where it is widely available,

whether or not that is a reasonable expectation for private school tuition.

So when you approach that question, where do you begin?

Yeah, it's a great question.

And as school choice is expanding all across the country, this has been the question that a lot of

policy makers have had.

And it's a rational question, especially given what's known as the Bennett hypothesis.

So in 1987, then US Secretary of Education, William Bennett, penned an op-ed for the New York Times where he and that were caused to at least some extent, probably a great extent by higher

ed subsidies like subsidized federal student loans, Pell Grants, etc.

And, you know, in the years since, I mean, this has been demonstrated in the research literature just over and over again.

And, you know, since 19... research literature just over and over again. And since 1980 you've had a

239% increase in the average tuition in higher ed and that's after adjusting for inflation.

So I mean this is not just outpacing inflation, it's outpacing things like health care.

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