Peter Beinart, a professor at the City University of New York and a former editor of The New Republic, has a provocative opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal arguing that non-Orthodox Jews should reverse their opposition to private school vouchers in order to make Jewish education better and more affordable. Beinart writes that the U.S. “has one of the weakest Jewish school systems in the world. Less than 20% of American Jewish children attend full-time Jewish schools. That's half the rate in France, one-third the rate in Canada and Australia, and one-fourth the rate in Mexico.”
Beinart worries that allowing Jewish students to use public funds to pay for religious schooling might be challenged constitutionally, but I don't think that's an issue.
In its 2002 Zelman v. Simmons-Harris decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled parents may use public funds to pay tuition and fees at faith-based schools provided the money goes first to the parents and their choice is “genuine and independent.” That is, parents can’t be directly and indirectly coerced into attending a religious school. (more…)
That quote just had to be a headline. It’s from Louisiana’s state superintendent of education, John White, responding this week in the Baton Rouge Advocate to letters from teachers complaining about ed reform. Sometimes an op-ed is worth printing word for word:
The Advocate has recently published several letters to the editor on public education. I have to say as an educator, I’m disappointed with the prevailing tone and content of those letters opposing change.
Here are some passages that illustrate a common thread:
“We, the public school teachers of East Baton Rouge schools, can’t educate children who don’t want to be educated. We can’t educate children whose parents don’t care and are not involved.”
“ … the state is going to require that very poor students take the ACT … . The weaker of these students are not college-bound students who have no intention to attend college, yet he has to be compared and compete.”
And one writer simply stated, “Poverty is a significant factor affecting academic scores,” leaving it at that — as if that absolves us of any responsibility to educate the child.
I’m so disappointed in these comments for two reasons. First, they betray a mindset that forsakes the American dream. They show a sad belief among some that poverty is destiny in America, defying our core value that any child, no matter race, class or creed, can be the adult he or she dreams of being. Yes, poverty matters. Yes, it impacts learning. And that fact should only embolden us to do everything we can to break the cycle of poverty so another generation of children does not face the same challenges.
Second, and perhaps more disappointing, is that these letters were written by professional educators. (more…)
Louisiana is the center of the school choice universe right now. Last week, the state House passed a bill that creates a statewide voucher program for low-income students (expanding the one now limited to New Orleans). And this week, it passed a bill that creates a statewide tax-rebate scholarship (which is something like a tax credit scholarship).
The Louisiana campaign has been “historic” and “rewarding,” Eric Lewis, director of the state chapter of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, says in this podcast. The choice programs, which are expected to clear the Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal, are “going to greatly change the landscape of education in Louisiana,” he says.
Clearly, though, the debate isn’t over. The bill that includes the voucher program leaves creation of accountability provisions to the Louisiana Department of Education and Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. BAEO supports some type of regulatory action, Lewis says, for private schools that don’t show academic gains for voucher students.
“We want parents to be able to exercise choice, and we want to empower them to do so,” he says. “But we also want to make certain that while we’re fighting to pull the poor kids out of failing public schools, we’re not putting them in a situation where they’re entering sub-par private schools.”
“What we will want to see is the department and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education set up some process where, if at some point in time, after some given period of time, schools are not able to show growth with the kids, then some measure needs to be put in place to recompense that,” Lewis continues. “There needs to be some type of threshold where you know it’s clear that it’s not working with a particular school, and so kids shouldn’t continue to matriculate within that school.”
Lewis also credits the 12 Democrats, including six black Democrats, who voted for vouchers despite what he calls “incredible heat.” One political blog said the 12 “Jindal Democrats” were motivated by politics, money, re-election, selfishness, fear and “general spinelessness.”
“It was intense,” Lewis says. “I applaud all 12 of them for standing up for kids, and standing up for what they felt was right.”
Michelle Rhee and I are members of the same political tribe. We’re progressive Democrats. Throughout most of the 1800s and into the mid-1970s, our tribe supported school choice, including allowing parents to use public funds to help pay for private school tuition. Our group’s position began to change in the late 1960s as urban teachers, who are core tribal members, began to unionize. By the time Jimmy Carter ran for president in 1976, the transition was complete. Progressive Democrats opposed school choice.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, school districts began using within-district school choice to promote voluntary desegregation, so our tribal position began to gradually evolve. I say gradually because in 1986, I led a floor fight at the annual National Education Association convention, on behalf of then-NEA President Mary Hatwood Futrell, for a resolution endorsing within-district magnet schools. The opposition argued that magnet schools were voucher programs which siphoned off money and the best students from neighborhood schools. The resolution failed.
As the number of unionized teachers working in magnet schools expanded, the NEA eventually embraced magnet schools and other within-district school choice programs, and progressive Democrats followed. Today most progressive Democrats support within-district school choice programs that employ unionized teachers, and they oppose publicly-funded private school choice. But this latter position is evolving. Increasingly, core progressive constituencies, such as African-Americans and Hispanics, are embracing full school choice, as are some progressive leaders.
At Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s annual education reform conference a few years ago, Michelle Rhee began her morning speech by saying she was hired in Washington D.C. to reverse the flow of students into charter schools. But in her new position as founder and CEO of StudentsFirst, Michelle is slowly becoming more open to school choice. (more…)
Two weeks ago, Gloria Romero, the former California state senator who wrote the original parent trigger law, wrote in this redefinED piece that the "status quo" killed the parent trigger bill in Florida. Today in this op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, Romero uses much tougher language - and singles out a specific foe - to describe the parent trigger battle in two California locales. Some excerpts:
In both Adelanto and Compton, parents trying to exercise their rights felt the full onslaught of a "sweep and destroy" mission launched by the California Teachers Assn. and its affiliates. What had taken weeks to build was destroyed in a few days of heavy-handed lobbying. Parents have reported being told outright lies about charter law and about their rights. Some parents reported that they were even threatened with deportation if they didn't rescind their signatures ...
A recent survey by California Common Cause revealed that the top lobbying force in the state in 2011 was the 300,000-plus membership of the California Teachers Assn. In other words, the massive teachers union is the top political force in the eighth-largest economy in the world. The union has made it clear that it wants to take the trigger out of the hands of mothers and fathers. Parents who attempt to lobby for their children now find themselves on a collision course with this powerful organization ...
So what can we do to help parents actually see things clearly without biased interference? We need to direct attention to failing schools, so that parents understand the situation and understand that they are not alone. And when they send out cries for help, we should defend their right to occupy a political arena previously dominated by vested interests.
I’m not an education reporter anymore, but from my new gig I’m getting even more dizzy watching education evolve. So many states are adding or expanding school choice options – charters, vouchers, virtual schools, tax-credit scholarships – that it’s hard for reporters to keep up. To make it worse, newsrooms are shrinking and there’s more pressure than ever to produce daily stories. It’s really hard to master the wonky details of say, vouchers for special needs students, at the same time you’re covering a middle school brawl and school board sniping.
But reporters are going to have to adapt. They’ll have to cover more ground with more depth.
Readers won’t be well served if education coverage continues to be reflexively focused on traditional public schools. And newspapers’ bottom lines won’t be well served when growing numbers of parents see that their schools are either 1) not being covered or 2) being snared in simplistic story lines that don’t mesh with their realities.
I see plenty of stories that relate to school choice that make me cringe. But I also see some that suggest newsrooms are adjusting: (more…)
It’s a common refrain in ed reform debates: If only more parents would do the right thing, schools would be a lot easier to fix. Especially, it seems, black parents.
Whenever I wrote a newspaper story about struggling black students, it was guaranteed to make the web site’s “most commented” list. Scores of angry people would write in to berate and belittle black parents, often in blatantly racist terms. Bill Cosby makes similarly hard-line arguments in a tough-love kind of way. So do some media personalities, like nationally syndicated columnist Bill Maxwell.
In his column last Sunday, Maxwell takes on a faith-based group in Pinellas County, Florida called FAST, which stands for Faith and Action for Strength Together. FAST recently made headlines for urging the Pinellas County School Board to do something about abysmal reading scores in 20 high-poverty schools, many of them with predominantly black student populations. In a public meeting, 3,000 members of the group called on the board to adopt a “direct instruction” approach.
As he has done before, Maxwell called for more accountability from black parents. He suggested it was a waste of time to focus on what schools may or may not be doing. He said the district’s web site had plenty of good tips.
Maxwell is right to stress how much parents matter. Nobody in their right mind disagrees. But like many things in education, this isn’t a case of either-or. (more…)
As a former U.S. Commerce Department Foreign Service officer, as well as someone who worked extensively in international trade and economic policy earlier in my career, I was especially interested to read the Council on Foreign Relations new report, "U.S. Education Reform and National Security." The council’s task force was chaired by former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and former New York City schools chief Joel Klein. For anyone who spends time thinking about international competitiveness and security issues, the important link to a successful education system is readily apparent. But for many, education remains a domestic issue separate from foreign activities.
For us education policy wonks, most of the data is not new or surprising. An exception for me: the fact that now 75 percent of U. S. citizens between 17-24 are not qualified for military service because they are physically unfit, have criminal records or have inadequate levels of education. Among recent high school graduates who are eligible to apply, 30 percent score too low on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to be recruited. The achievement gap is alive and well in the military also: African American applicants are twice as likely to test ineligible as white applicants.
The report quotes from a U.S. military report that found in a staff of 250 at an intelligence headquarters in Iraq, “only 4-5 personnel were capable analysts with an aptitude to put pieces together to form a conclusion.” This included both officers and enlisted personnel. Suddenly, it becomes more plausible to understand how a military unit in Afghanistan thought burning Korans would be a good way to dispose of them! Unfortunately, data raising questions about the critical thinking and educational background of some in the officer corps correlates with the huge numbers of seemingly strong high school graduates that require remediation in college.
Rather than a long litany of recommendations, the report makes only three. And one of them is to restructure education to provide students with good choices. The task force wants parents to have a wider range of options and wants to see a system that encourages and supports innovation. (more…)
Louisiana: State House passes voucher bill (New Orleans Times Picayune) with bipartisan support. (redefinED)
Michigan: Charter school started by former basketball star Jalen Rose has more applicants than openings. (MLive)
Florida: Parent trigger bill apparently died for reasons other than pros and cons of parent triggers. (Sunshine State News)
New Hampshire: State senate gives preliminary approval to tax credit scholarships, while House is scheduled to vote later this month. (Boston.com)
Kansas: Catholic institutions and Libertarians form alliance to back tax credit scholarship bill. (Topeka Capital-Journal) (more…)
Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Friday signed into law a bill expanding the state's tax-credit scholarship program for low-income students.
Florida’s tax credit scholarship program is the largest of its kind in the country, currently serving more than 38,000 students. It’s funded by corporations that receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit in return for contributions.
The bill increases the cap on contributions by $10.25 million next year, to a total of $229 million. The current cap is $175 million, but by law it was set to rise to $218.75 million next year. More about the bill here.
