Thursday reads
Couple quick headlines to start off the morning.
WISH-TV 8: Bush backs governor on education reform
Governor Mitch Daniels recruited a big name politician to help him sell education reform ideas Wednesday.Jeb Bush came to the Governor’s Education Roundtable to tell a success story of improved test scores in Florida schools. He told Indiana educators looking for similar results to start out by taking the ISTEP test themselves.“Take it,” said Bush. “Take the test and then say, ‘Is this what you want your children to aspire to?’”Bush then told how teacher bonuses, charter schools and virtual schools helped improve learning in his home state.Afterward, the brother of former President George W. Bush made a pitch for school choice.“I think if you created a system where the money follows the child, sometimes that child might go to an option that may not be a public option and that’s alright with me too, that’s kind of the American way,” said Bush.
And for more on Florida and special needs education vouchers:
Jay P. Greene Blog: Tampa Tribune Op-Ed
In Florida, as in most other states, schools receive additional funding for each student identified as disabled. Often, these additional resources are greater than the actual cost of providing special-education services, giving schools a financial incentive to increase their diagnoses.
The financial incentive to misdiagnose is particularly apparent when classifying students as having a specific learning disability (SLD). That’s because SLD is the most common, the most ambiguous, and the least costly category of special education. In many cases, school officials might simply be trying to get extra resources to help struggling students. But the net effect is the misclassification of a huge number of students as having an SLD.
The McKay program reduces the financial incentive for Florida’s schools to misdiagnose learning disabilities by placing revenue at risk whenever a student is placed into special education…
And, from the School Choice Ohio Blog: Back to School with Scholarships. (While Ohio is still working out the kinks in the system, wouldn’t it be nice if some of Virginia’s kids had a choice as they headed back to school this fall?)
Nearly 2 million students across Ohio have headed back to school. Around 20,000 of these precious little Buckeyes are attending local private schools thanks to tax-funded scholarships they receive from the state of Ohio.
Families always tell us how excited they are to choose where their children go to school, rather than relying on default options.
“I feel like I’ve won the lottery!” - Rose, grandmother from Lorain
“EdChoice has empowered me to sustain that my children will have a strong foundation on which to build their lives. It has opened a door of opportunity for a community of children whose parents may not be as successful as they want to be, but they work hard everyday trying to get there!”- Angelnique, parent from Dayton
