School board President Mike Faccinetto was excplicit in condemning SB2, and said the cost of the legislation proves an unnecessary burden on school districts.

According to estimates by the PSBA based on similar programs in other states, roughly one-third of eligible students may make use of the voucher program, though Faccinetto said he doubts it. And at any rate, the cost of thousands of theoretical voucher students can be made by any one. He said the money BASD gets from the state per student is about $4,000, but a voucher to attend a private school costs about $5,700. So not only will a student who leaves the district for a private institution take state funding with him or her, but the district will be charged an additional $1,700.

What makes it worse in his opinion is that today there are so many more options already available, specifically charter schools. “There are a multitude of charter schools [here] and we’re lucky some of the existing brick and morters are fairly high performing.”

“This is basically providing a means for private school,” Faccinetto said, by drawing resources from public education.