Education policy analysts debate the best way to support low-income households to afford quality education. One strategy—the demand-side strategy—is to provide people with education vouchers, paid for by the government, that can be used to pay a part of tuition fee for private schools. Another—the supply-side strategy—is to have the government subsidize private schools or to establish more public schools.

a. Illustrate these supply- and demand-side strategies using supply and demand curves. Which results in higher tuition fees?

b. Critics of education vouchers (the demand-side strategy) argue that because the supply of education to low-income households is limited and does not respond to higher tuition fees, demand vouchers will serve only to drive up tuition fees and make private schools better off. Illustrate their point with supply and demand curves.