First Coast News deserves a Wink for giving both sides of the story after government school officials complained about being short-changed.

Reporter Andrew Badillo did a story about the exodus from government schools to private schools via vouchers, which Eye on Jacksonville covered recently.

Badillo was told by a school official that the government schools, which pass through the money, were being short-changed $17 million and had to make up the difference.

But he didn’t swallow that whole. Badillo did what good reporters do – get the other side of the story.

As a spokesman for Step Up for Students told him, the local school district is not losing $17 million.

In fact, school choice saves taxpayers a lot of money. The cost of scholarships is considerably less than the cost of sending a child to a government school.

About 5,000 more students applied for scholarships in Duval County this year than the previous year, after the Florida Legislature expanded the program. This benefits the government schools, which claim to have a teacher shortage.

Teacher unions, major supporters of the Democrat Party, say vouchers take money from government schools and lack accountability.

Both statements are false. Government schools are funded based on student population. If they don’t have the expense of educating a child, they are not paid to educate the child. As for accountability, school choice offers the highest level of accountability by giving parents the choice of where to educate their child.

Those parents who choose to send their child to private schools, incidentally, continue to pay to educate children in government schools as well.