Accountability?
This headline in the DC Examiner this morning caught my eye: “To save D.C. school vouchers, senators want accountability.” Well that sounds good- right? Yes, sure, we want ALL our schools to be accountable. So of course my next question was: “what about the (complete lack of) accountability in the DC public schools?” Humm… any of you guys want to give me an answer on that one? Accountability goes both ways.
Fortunately, the reporter gets it, and from the very beginning, she acknowledges that:
The call for more data to determine student success gets at the heart of the school choice debate: What determines the viability of a school: parental standards or government standards?
Sadly, it seems most politicians have lost all trust in the human race and our ability to do anything without the wise and wonderful hand of government telling us what to do and helping to make sure we know exactly how to live our lives.
I am ALL for accountability- especially when it comes to spending of taxpayer dollars. It is a good thing- but it must also be balanced. As we’ve argued here before- what should our education dollars be funding- education or schools? If we believe that education is the goal- let’s put accountability back in the hands of consumers. If parents have the ability to take their child out of a failing school- isn’t that accountability? If a parent has no options- and a school is failing their child- isn’t that a lack of accountability? Simply providing test scores and statistics to a government bureaucracy does not make a school accountable- does it?
Senator Dick Durbin and his cronies want us to believe that they are really looking out for the best interest of students with their empty talk about accountability for voucher students, when they have shown little genuine concern about the accountability of the DC public schools that are consistently failing students. Sure- maybe they have the enrollment numbers, the test scores, the drop-out rates- but when those public schools are consistently performing the worst in the entire nation- is there any real accountability?
I know that by now I shouldn’t be surprised, and that perhaps I shouldn’t let it get to me as much as it does, but our kids deserve better.
Arianna Huffington supports school choice?
Sounds like she does.
We mentioned this article briefly in passing over the holiday weekend (in a link from Democrats for Education Reform), but in case you missed it, Ms. Huffington’s article, “So We Can’t Have Single Payer for Health Care, But How About Single Payer for Education?” is definitely worth a read.
Comments about healthcare aside, Ms. Huffington actually does make the case about the urgent need for education reform.
It’s time we start looking at education reform in bold and different ways, to stop protecting little parcels of partisan turf and start thinking outside the box. To consider the possibilities. To look past our own political backyards at what might lie on the other side of the mountain.
What I see on the other side of the mountain is a single-payer education system.
Yes, it appears the Ms. Huffington is advocating for education vouchers- having existing education funding follow the child- regardless of where they go to school.
In a single-payer education plan, the federal government, in conjunction with the states, would provide an education allotment for every parent of a K-12 child. Parents would then be free to enroll their child in the school of their choice.
Imagine that- a system where PARENTS, not bureaucrats make decisions about where best to educate their child. A system where we are truly funding education- not simply funding schools.
We applaud Ms. Huffington for recognizing the need for real education reforms- reforms that put kids and parents first- not unions and bureaucracies. The time for these changes are now. Our children deserve more than grown ups playing politics with their futures.
What Abraham Lincoln said in his second annual address to Congress in 1862 applies powerfully to today’s education crisis: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present…. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”
And when it comes to saving out children, there is not a moment to waste.
Big day for school choice!
We’ll be posting updates throughout the morning- and of course you can follow us on Twitter for all the latest, but this is going to be an exciting day for the school choice movement.
The Washington Post already has the scoop: Ex-Council Member to Lead Protest of D.C. School Voucher Cuts
School choice advocates, already trying to pressure the White House to reverse an end to school vouchers in the District, are planning to block the entrance of the U.S. Department of Education headquarters starting at 9:30 a.m. this morning.
Former Council member Kevin P. Chavous is leading the effort to bring attention to 216 low-income students who could not enter their private and parochial schools this week because President Barack Obama’s education spending plan cut funds to the controversial program.
Earlier this year, Obama compromised by extending the program to allow 1,716 students currently enrolled in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program to graduate. But the compromise nixed scholarships to new students, affecting 216 poised to enter this fall.
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
Friday must-reads: Post urges Obama to re-think vouchers and other news
More Friday headlines:
- DC Charter Schools Examiner: D.C. Mayor puts kids in public school and gets school choice at the same time
When D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty took over DCPS a couple of years ago he promised to move his two sons from private to public school. Turns out he stuck to his word although it proved difficult for the press to obtain this information. The reason? Mr. Fenty did what all arrogant politicians do and put his children not in the neighborhood school, West Elementary, at 14th and Farragut Streets that has failed to make AYP for a couple of years, but instead enrolled them at a much better institution, Lafayette Elementary, which is located in Chevy Chase, and whose students score over 90 percent proficient or above in both reading and math.
We think that it is wonderful that Mayor Fenty and his wife were able to make the best choices for educating their sons. But it is beyond frustrating that ALL families don’t have this same choice.
- Appeal Democrat: Our View: A step toward school choice
Even if parents prefer their children attend lower-performing charter schools, their choice should prevail. To assert otherwise assumes that arbitrary standards must dictate, rather than parental rights. There may be myriad reasons parents prefer alternative programs. That decision should rest with them, not with bureaucrats or politicians and not with unions. That’s about to be the case in Los Angeles. Next, we hope, the rest of the state.
I couldn’t put it better myself. Parents’ choices should prevail. Period.
- Washington Post: Beach Reading for Mr. Obama: Useful literature on school vouchers
…we enthusiastically support public school reform and quality charter schools, too. But vouchers are an answer for some children whose options otherwise are bleak. In Washington, they also are part of a carefully designed social-science experiment that may provide useful evidence for all schools on helping low-income children learn. Why would a Democratic administration and Congress want to cut such an experiment short?
That says it all. Let’s make all schools better- let’s make education better. And when something is working, like the DC Opportunity Scholarships, why wouldn’t we all embrace it as positive change for our students?
Monday morning updates
Hope that everyone had a nice weekend. A few headlines this morning to start off the week.
K12 Leads the Way Back To School
Virginia-based business, K12 Inc, is “the nation’s leading provider of proprietary curriculum and online school programs for students in kindergarten through high school (K-12), is engaged in the largest back-to-school effort in the company’s history. With innovative web-based courses, over 2,000 online school teachers, and the delivery of more than 1,500 tons of education materials, K12 is bringing school directly to tens of thousands of students in the U.S. and across the world.”
We’ve said it before- school choice is about more than just one “choice,” it’s about innovation and creating a vibrant educational system with lots of choices to meet the unique needs of all of our children. K12 Inc is playing an important role in that.
The K12® virtual school program combines an award-winning curriculum – using engaging online lessons and hands-on education materials – with professional teachers, advisors, and state-of-the-art technology that connect students to a vibrant world-wide school community. This gives K12 students the opportunity to receive a complete education in their home, on the road, or wherever an Internet connection can be found.
DCPS Enrollment at 37,000, charter facility allotment must be restored
Despite Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s prediction that there would be 45,000 students in her system this term, an increase from the 44,681 that attended last year, it looks like the flood gates allowing parents to enroll their children in charters shows no sign of closing. Bill Turque of the Washington Post reports today that DCPS enrollment dropped to approximately 37,000.
These figures represent a decrease 17 percent decrease for DCPS and mean that charters now educate 43 percent of all public students in the nation’s capital at just over 28,000, a 10 percent increase over last year.
There is now no excuse for not restoring the extremely painful reduction in the Mayor’s current budget of the charter school facility fund. Remember that Mr. Fenty proposed cutting these dollars by $24 million in a scheme to pay schools only what they were currently spending on space. The Council put back $16.7 million of the allotment resulting in charters receiving $309 less money per pupil this term.
But it is much more expensive to teach a kid in DCPS compared to a charter.
Jay P. Greene’s Blog: The Special Ed DC Bubble
We mentioned last week the Manhattan Institute’s new study by Drs. Jay Greene and Marcus Winters on the impact of special education vouchers.
Dr. Greene has another informative post on his blog, noting that, “One of the (many) problems with education policy analysts is that a large number of them live in or around Washington, D.C.”
He goes on to elaborate:
The problem is that people tend to generalize from their immediate experiences. If something happens to you, you hear about it from people you know, or you read about it in your local paper, you tend to think that’s the way it is for everyone. So, DC education analysts are always at-risk of drawing policy conclusions based on incredibly atypical experiences.
Which is very true- and not just for DC education analysts.
Giuliani, Pawlenty talk school choice
School Choice Virginia Chairman, Delegate Chris Saxman, traveled to Chicago last week for GOPAC’s healthcare summit. While there, he had the opportunity to talk to several leaders from around the country on the topic of education and school choice. We asked Delegate Saxman to give us a quick update.
SCVa: We know that the summit was focused on healthcare, but we understand that you did get a chance to talk to at least a few folks about school choice.
Saxman: Yes, we had some time at lunch and between sessions, and I had a chance to talk with both Governor Pawlenty and Mayor Giuliani about education reform issues.
SCVa: Can you give us a quick recap?
Saxman: Giuliani basically said that vouchers are a key reason why higher education does so well and K-12 does not. Lack of public-private collaboration and no choice hurt education.
Pawlenty echoes comments from Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton that school choice is the #1 civil rights issue of the 21st century and said that forcing someone to go to a bad school is “disgraceful.”
He told those in attendance (as reported by Politico.com):
“We have an educational system in the United States that isn’t cash for clunkers, it’s clash for flunkers,” he said. “This idea in this country that anyone is forced to go to a bad school is disgraceful.”
“This is the civil rights issue of our time,” he said, describing the plight of inner city schools and urging the state lawmakers in the crowd to address the lower performances of schools in some of their states more depressed areas. “It is a disgrace and it is a moral imperative…we need to rise up and fix this.”
SCVa: Any other thoughts?
Saxman: It was great talking with both of these guys. You can tell that they both believe in school choice- we need more leaders in every level of government who are willing to stand up and fight for education reforms that will give parents greater access to educational options. We need leaders willing to stand up to the status quo and challenge the system to do what is right for our kids and their future.
More on Special Ed Voucher Study
We mentioned it this morning in the news clips that the Manhattan Institute has released a new study by Drs. Jay Greene and Marcus Winters examining the impact of special education vouchers.
Countrary to what some had predicted, Winters and Greene found that ”offering disabled students special education vouchers reduces the likelihood that public schools will identify students as disabled.”
Jay Greene shares more about the study on his blog today, and gives some insight into the findings.
The reason special education vouchers restrained growth in disabilities, rather than exacerbate it, is that the vouchers check public schools’ financial incentives to identify more students as disabled. Public schools may get additional subsidies when they shift more students into special education, but if they then make students eligible for special education vouchers, they risk having those students walk out the door with all of their funding. It makes the public schools think twice before over-identifying disabilities for financial reasons.
Read more from Jay Greene’s blog or read the full report from the Manhattan Institute.
Who will think of the children?
As we mentioned yesterday, back-to-school time means education is making headlines. A few more for your consideration today:
From the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives’ PolicyBlog: Won’t Somebody Think of the Children!?
Jim Roxbury brought to my attention a quote by Governor Rendell that “the one group that has no lobbyist here in Pennsylvania is our children” as well as too a commenter, who suggest that children have plenty of lobbyists, including those from school boards, agencies that get taxpayer funding for programs ostensibly serving children, and the PSEA lobbyists.
Sorry “edstem”, but Governor Rendell and I agree on this. And I am glad he has finally come around to the view that those that feed at the trough of taxpayers - and in particular the PSEA - are no friends of children. In fact, outside of child predators and Miley Ray Cyrus, no one does more to exploit children than the teachers’ unions. The PSEA uses its influence to undermine school choice, promote strikes, and oppose merit pay and reforms to improve school performance.
From The Examiner: Study backs vouchers for special education
Offering vouchers for students diagnosed with special needs to attend private schools leads to fewer diagnoses and could save state and federal dollars, according to a new study by the pro-school-choice Manhattan Institute.
More than 20 percent of D.C. public school students are diagnosed with learning disabilities, compared with about 12 percent in Montgomery County and about 14 percent in Fairfax. Educators have long worried that failing districts label students as disabled when, in reality, they are behind academically for other reasons.
Vouchers could help the District, according to the study’s authors, because the city has a disproportionate number of special needs students and is obligated to send about 2,400 of them to private and boarding schools, which sometimes cost nearly $100,000 per student per year.
And from the Heartland Institute, September’s School Reform News is now available online. School Reform News is a great publication sharing lots of news and information about education reform and school choice efforts from around the country. Check it out- lots of great articles including:
- Fight Underway to Save DC Voucher Program
- Florida Expands Corporate K-12 Tax Credit Program
- Iowa Expands Tax Credit Scholarship Program
- Private Choice Program in Colorado Beats State Graduation Rate
It’s that time of the year…
Back to school season, that is. And back to school season means lots of news about education.
A few more headlines worth a read:
From the Washington Post: Age-Old Problem, Perpetually Absent Solution: Fitting Special Education to Students’ Needs
Here we go again. Is there an alternative, some innovative way to help kids like Miguel? Special education vouchers? Charter schools for the learning disabled? The old way is rutted, bumpy and slow. It is not taking us very far. We need something new.
From Baugh Humbug!: International Support for DC School Choice
In a surprise demonstration, representatives from the four corners of the world distributed pamphlets to passers-by in the China Town area of Washington DC.
With the principles of human rights and individual liberty as their foundation, five volunteers from Turkey, Mexico, Afghanistan, Argentina, and Maine and New Mexico, USA met in the early morning with Virginia Walden Ford, Executive Director of DC Parents for School Choice, a grassroots organization working to prevent the end of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program.
From In the Lobby: Could School Choice Impact the Race?
Could school choice and education reform be the issue that shakes loose some traditional Democratic constituencies?Both independent Chris Daggett and Republican Chris Christie clearly think so.Both have come out for school choice, vouchers and more charter schools. Daggett goes farther and wants to abolish tenure.That puts the two candidates in the same camp as a group of urban parents, politicians and ministers who are fighting for better education in city schools. It also puts them at odds with the NJEA and Gov. Corzine, who oppose school choice.
How can we give working families genuine choice in education? Choice exists for those blessed with talent or geography or wealth, but for most it’s an illusion. Even where alternatives are available, they’re either carbon copy comps (maybe with a superficial ’specialism’ in drama) or religious schools requiring regular church attendance until your kid’s ‘confirmed’. The traditional Labour response is “we’ll make all schools excellent so all kids get the best education possible”. The madness of this mantra is never unpacked and curiously, no costs or timescales for achieving ‘excellence everywhere’ are ever given. It amounts to “don’t rock the state school boat, the model’s not changing”. “Education, education, education” was New Labour’s mission; it’s a pity we never discussed how to deliver on it.
