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This time, Florida education reformers hand ammo to critics

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On May 17, 2012 in Education and Public Policy, General, School Choice, Testing and Accountability

The last thing you want to give people waging a scorched-earth campaign against you is a gas can and a match.

Though well intended, the hard-charging Florida Board of Education moved too far, too fast last year when it raised the bar on academic standards. The short-term result for the state’s standardized writing test isn’t pretty. According to scores released this week, the percentage of passing fourth graders alone dropped from 81 to 27.

In an emergency session, the board tried to mitigate. It revised the passing scores downward so the percent passing will be roughly the same this year as it was last year. Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson also admitted the state should have better communicated the new scoring criteria to teachers.

But (sigh) the damage was done. The people who have bitterly fought every major education reform in Florida since Jeb Bush was elected governor – and who will never admit there has been real progress – now have a bit of real ammo. They’ll use it to take fresh aim at everything from new teacher evaluations to expanded school choice. They’ll be even more aggressive ripping into the next batch of reading and math scores, which will also look a lot starker this year.

Conspiracy theories are spinning wildly. This was a well orchestrated plot, goes one, to make traditional public schools look bad so charter schools shine by comparison and the privatization agenda can reign supreme. Never mind that just a few years ago, the state had a record number of A and B schools. Or that charter schools take the same tests. Or that, if the past is any guide, a disproportionate number of them will be tagged with F’s.

You won’t read this in the papers (except, thankfully, in this Orlando Sentinel column), so here’s the backdrop for Florida’s latest ed reform flap. Continue Reading →

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“Vouchers” for all? Good reasons for all to have access to education marketplace

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On May 15, 2012 in Education and Public Policy, Education Research, General, Parental Choice, School Choice

Editor’s note: After posting Howard Fuller’s concerns about universal vouchers last week, we asked Andrew J. Coulson, director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, to offer his perspective.

It’s not hard to see why Howard Fuller might be skeptical of universal government education programs. Public schooling is one such program and it has done an atrocious job of serving the poor. But is its universality the cause of its failure? Fuller believes that the poor are forgotten and given short shrift under universal programs and that the wealthy are favored by them. If that were the case in public schooling, we would expect schools serving the poor to receive less funding than those serving the wealthy. In responding to Fuller, Matthew Ladner contends that this is indeed the case: that public schooling “systematically distributes more money per pupil” to wealthier kids.

Actually, though, that doesn’t appear to be true. According to the federal Department of Education’s Condition of Education 2010, Indicator 36-1, districts with the poorest students are the highest spending. Public schools serving these students are not atrocious because they are underfunded, they are atrocious despite the fact that they are the best funded districts in the nation.

Having voted to raise public school spending relentlessly for generations, and having chosen to direct the highest level of per-pupil spending to the poorest children, it is hard to believe that Americans are indifferent to the education of the poor.

A more plausible explanation of the facts is that Americans would love to see their poorest countrymen thrive educationally but don’t know how to make that happen. For generations they have been told by the media, academics, and political leaders that the solution is higher spending. They have gone along with that recommendation and it has failed utterly. A few are finally beginning to realize that, but they still don’t know how to improve matters.

But the school choice movement believes it does know the cause of the problem: the lack of alternatives. Middle and upper income families find it easier to pay for private schooling or to relocate away from the worst public schools. They have alternatives that the poor do not. As a result, they get better service. The movement’s solution is thus to ensure that everyone has alternatives.

And this brings us back to Fuller’s claim: that the poor will be better served by a school choice program targeted exclusively at them. Is he right? In answering that question, it helps to consider a few facts and distinctions that are usually overlooked:

• First, there is a difference between universal access to the education marketplace and universal participation in a government program;
• Second, tiny markets are dramatically inferior to vast ones;
• And third, it actually matters who is footing the bill for a child’s education.

Saying that everyone should have educational choice is not the same thing as saying that everyone should participate in a particular government program. Continue Reading →

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California’s toe in the water on school “vouchers”?

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On May 14, 2012 in Education and Public Policy, Funding, General, Parental Choice, School Choice

Editor’s note: Progress in the parental school choice movement is measured not only by big gains in states like Indiana and Louisiana, but by the flurry of incremental developments in more states every year. Peter Hanley, executive director of the California-based American Center for School Choice, offers a look at encouraging developments in his home state.

California has the nation’s largest charter school program, with 982 charter schools serving 412,000 students. But with nearly a two-thirds Democratic legislature heavily influenced by the California Teachers Association, tax credit scholarships or vouchers have been entirely off the table. In fact, charter schools’ flexibility is under near constant attack. Now, though, two legislators have introduced innovative approaches that address a unique feature in California’s constitution and attempt to bring educational tax credits to the state.

Unlike any other state, California has a voter-initiated constitutional amendment (Prop. 98) that sets a floor on the percent of general fund monies that must be spent on education. Anything that removes money from the general fund will instantly trigger the public education coalition to oppose it. So these legislators, one Democrat and one Republican, have proposed models that benefit both public and private schools.

Senate Bill 1542, introduced by Democratic Sen. Gloria Negrete McCloud, provides individual and corporate tax credits to Local Educational Advancement Program (LEAP) organizations. They will assist K-12 students from families with demonstrated financial needs to receive critical services before or after school, on weekends, or during the summer. SB 1542 precisely aims to ensure academic services – such as diagnostic evaluations, tutoring, summer school, and college and career planning and counseling – that have been heavily damaged by the extraordinary recession California has experienced since 2008. Although many more fortunate families in the state continue to be able to provide such services for their children, those with low and moderate incomes cannot and are disproportionately suffering. Children from public and private schools would be eligible for these services.

The Senate Governance and Finance Committee is expected to hold a hearing on this bill within the next few weeks. The future likely depends on whether it can be fit into the state’s budget, with questions now revolving around whether both individuals and corporations will be eligible for the credit, how large the credit will be, and whether it will be a straight credit or a percentage of a donation. Notably, the committee has not raised any objections about private school participation.

Assembly Bill 2582, sponsored by Republican Assemblyman Brian Nestande, takes a more traditional approach. Continue Reading →

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From big-city superintendent to supporter of vouchers and charters – Arlene Ackerman, podcastED

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On May 11, 2012 in Charter Schools, Education and Public Policy, General, School Choice

Last fall, Arlene Ackerman, the former schools superintendent in Philadelphia, made a stunning announcement for someone of her status. In a newspaper op-ed, she forcefully came out in favor of expanded school choice options, including more charter schools and yes, even vouchers. “I’ve come to a sad realization,” she wrote. “Real reform will never come from within the system.”

In this redefinED podcast, Ackerman talks more about her evolution.

For years, she pushed change from the highest perches in K-12 education. Before Philly, she headed the school districts in Washington D.C. and San Francisco. She led the latter when it became a finalist for the prestigious Broad Prize, annually awarded to the best urban school district in the country, in 2005. But the kinds of sweeping reform needed to help poor and minority kids, she said, too often met with resistance from unions, politicians, vendors and others who benefited from not budging.

A key turning point came a few years ago. Given current trend lines, her staff told her, all students in Philadelphia won’t be proficient in reading and math until the year 2123. “It became real to me that it was important to include as many options as possible for parents,” said Ackerman, who now lives in Albuquerque, N.M. to be closer to her children and grandchildren. She said she began thinking, “What would I want for my children if my children were trapped in a school? What options and alternatives would I want available to me?”

Before the op-ed was published, Ackerman wrote a heads-up email to hundreds of friends and colleagues. Some said they understood. Some said she was almost a traitor. Most didn’t say anything.

“I hope it provided an opportunity for people I know and respect to think about why somebody like me, who spent so many years within the traditional public school system fighting for radical change, would embrace charters and vouchers for low-income families,” she said.

“If it changes the life of one child, it’s to me worth the effort,” she also said, referring to expanded choice. “The other thing it will do is force the traditional public school systems to change. It will put pressure for real reform to take place because there’s competition. Let’s face it: This country is built on competition. And it’s good.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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‘My message is that Florida is about choice in education’

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On May 9, 2012 in Charter Schools, Education and Public Policy, General, Parental Choice, School Choice

Florida’s top education official offered a strong pitch for continued expansion of school choice options Wednesday after visiting a Tampa charter school where a quarter of students are dually enrolled in community college classes.

“My message is that Florida is about choice in education,” Kathleen Shanahan, chair of the Florida Board of Education, told redefinED. The state board is “all for reform and we’re all for (school choice) options and we have to continue to be strong advocates for that.”

Shanahan’s comments come in the wake of heightened media scrutiny of charter schools in Florida, which now number more than 500 and enroll 180,000 students.

To be clear, there are some problematic charters that are underperforming and/or financially mismanaged. But the evidence suggests charter students as a whole are performing as well if not better than like students in traditional public schools. And there’s no doubt parents can’t get enough of them: In the last six years, enrollment in Florida charters has doubled.

“They’re exceeding their timeline of excellence and performance and impacting the overall system of education,” Shanahan said.

Shanahan visited the 300-student Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School along with MaryEllen Elia, superintendent of Hillsborough County schools and Mike Kooi, executive director of the Florida Department of Education’s parental choice office. Other state Board of Education members also visited charters this week as part of National Charter School Week.

Tucked away in a gritty stretch of north Tampa, Brooks-DeBartolo was co-founded five years ago by Derrick Brooks, the former All-Pro linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Continue Reading →

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Voucher, charter school advocates talk accountability, too

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On May 4, 2012 in Education and Public Policy, General, Testing and Accountability

The headlines covered Gov. Chris Christie’s passionate call for education options in New Jersey, but the fine print here was equally edifying. In papers and workshops presented Thursday afternoon at the American Federation For Children’s Annual Summit, the policy message was unambiguous and remarkably consistent:

All learning options must be scrutinized and must measure up.

Craig Barrett, the former chairman of Intel Corp. (pictured here), may have most succinctly summed up the discussions of accountability for charter schools and private learning options. 

“We have to be willing,” Barrett said, “to shut down schools that aren’t working. We have to be ruthless, and I’m hopeful we’ll have enough pragmatism to do that.”

Summit participants were also handed a three-page document from AFC that described various academic, financial and administrative accountability provisions as essential ingredients to “ensuring the highest level of program quality and sustainability.” 

“Not only are transparency and accountability smart public policies,” the document stated, “but they provide the school choice movement with readily available data and information to improve programs and illustrate the success of those programs.”

AFC has gone so far as to rate the strengths and weaknesses of voucher and tax credit scholarship accountability provisions in 26 different programs across the country. And it didn’t pull many punches. For example, it ranks Arizona’s “Empowerment Scholarships” as measuring up on only two of eight broad accountability measures.

These proclamations won’t end the division over how to measure success, of course, but they demonstrate a policy maturity that is beginning to draw a sharp contrast with some of the opponents of charter and private options - including the New Jersey teachers union with which Gov. Christie is at war. Just as it would be untenable for proponents to reject any public oversight and rely only on market mechanisms, it is also unpersuasive for opponents to argue that every option must be regulated in precisely the same way.

(Image from podtech.net)

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Florida education commissioner suggests critics have double standard with charter schools, vouchers

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On April 28, 2012 in Charter Schools, Education and Public Policy, Education reporting, General, School Choice

Do critics have a double standard when it comes to scrutinizing school choice options like charter schools and vouchers? Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson suggested as much in an interview published today by the Tampa Bay Times’ Gradebook education blog.

In response to a question from the Times editorial board, Robinson noted that charter schools that struggle academically and/or financially can be shut down (in Florida, that has happened many times) but that same ultimate penalty is rarely leveled at traditional public schools (off hand, we can’t think of any examples in Florida). “For the bad charter schools that aren’t working, they should close,” Robinson said.  “But for the traditional schools that have also failed a number of our kids, we don’t see the same level of righteous indignation.”

Robinson has deep roots in the school choice movement, having once served as president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options. And interestingly enough, the editorial board’s questions focused mostly on choice options. Here are some other excerpts:

On testing accountability in voucher schools: “The private school curriculum isn’t aligned to what we test on the FCAT (the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test). So you’re comparing apples to oranges. At the same time, there are the Stanford tests, there are Iowas, there are other tests you can take. So I’m not against assessment. What I am saying is, simply saying because they don’t take the FCAT therefore they’re not accountable is not correct…. “

On charter schools vs. magnet schools: “Charters and magnets both are theme schools. Charters and magnets both are public. And charters and magnets both take money. You often find magnets cost more than charters. But yet people say charters take money from public schools. People say charters are creaming the best and brightest kids. I can tell you from looking at the scores, that’s not the case. And yet the magnet schools … are taking the best and brightest students … Magnet schools historically have been the largest public school choice program in the country, but also been more exclusive than other programs. And yet, all the angst we put on charters.”

On closing the achievement gap: “I’ve often said what you don’t have is a political gap problem as much as you have a political crap problem.  … If white kids are reading better than black, Latino, Hispanic or Native American kids, that’s not a reading problem. We know what it takes to get kids proficient in reading. The question is, are we willing to make the tough decisions, political decisions, to get the right resources – human and financial – into the schools or after-school programs … to make it happen?”

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Reaction roundup to expansion of private school vouchers in Louisiana

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On April 18, 2012 in Catholic education, Education and Public Policy, General, Parental Choice, School Choice

Editor’s note: I just updated the post at 7:15 p.m. I’ll continue to update it as I see more reaction in news stories, press releases, etc.

It’s official: Louisiana has a new, statewide voucher program. With a Catholic school as a backdrop, Gov. Bobby Jindal today signed into law a bill that allows the state to pay private-school tuition for many low- and moderate-income students.

Jindal also signed off on other sweeping education changes, including making it easier to fire ineffective teachers and to create charter schools. Here is a roundup of the immediate reaction from supporters of school choice and ed reform:

From the American Federation for Children: “This is a great day for low-income children in Louisiana, whose parents will finally have the opportunity to give them the chance at an amazing education that they deserve,” said Kevin P. Chavous, senior adviser to AFC. “Thousands of students who were stuck in schools that were not working for them will now have an opportunity to attend a school that fits their needs and, ultimately, allows them to succeed.”

From the Foundation for Excellence in Education: “Louisiana is clearly committed to adopting and implementing reforms that will improve the quality of education for their students. These policies allow more families to select the best education options for their students and empower schools’ superintendents and principals to retain effective teachers in their schools,” said Patricia Levesque, the foundation’s executive director. “Building on the data-driven accountability system they adopted in 2010, Louisiana is on the fast track towards becoming a national leader on student-centered reform. Thanks to the bold leadership of Governor Jindal, Superintendent John White and state lawmakers, Louisiana and its students will have a brighter future.”

From the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice: “States are realizing that school choice works,” said Robert Enlow, the foundation’s president and CEO. “The more that states can move from limited school choice to universal availability, the greater its benefits will be to those in need. Indiana is witnessing this now. So, too, will Louisiana.” Continue Reading →

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redefinED roundup: charter school performance in Florida, school shopping in Michigan and more

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On April 16, 2012 in Charter Schools, Education and Public Policy, General, Parental Choice, School Choice, Unionism

Florida: State report says charter school students perform better than peers in traditional public schools. (Florida Times Union) State task force will begin planning for digital learning. (Orlando Sentinel)

Washington, D.C.: President Obama should support the D.C. voucher program, which has shown good results and enjoys bipartisan support, the Washington Post editorializes.

Montana: Businessman gives $4.6 million to expand private school choice. (Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

New Hampshire: Lawmakers begin planning override of Gov. John Lynch’s potential veto of a bill to establish tax credit scholarships. (New Hampshire Union Leader) Continue Reading →

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Expanded school choice will strengthen society and democracy, not undermine it

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On April 11, 2012 in Education and Public Policy, General, Parental Choice, School Choice

Valerie Strauss recently reprinted a commentary on her Washington Post blog, Answer Sheet, from Ann Geiger, a former Orange County, Fla. school board member, who asserted that empowering parents to select their child’s school is undermining our country’s religious and social cohesion. Geiger quotes extensively from Ross Douthat’s recent New York Times column, in which he argues that the religious center in the United States is breaking apart and that this polarization has negative consequences for our democracy.

Geiger concurs with Douthat’s views and blames, in part, school choice for exacerbating this problem by allowing parents – especially immigrant parents – to focus on their personal needs instead of the greater good. Geiger writes that public education “was strongest when most agreed children educated together within public-funded, community-based schools was in the best interests of the individual child and society at large … With many immigrant families flowing into the United States, often from countries with pronounced educational inequities, instead of hearing the traditional American value of children learning together as the foundation of a strong democracy and healthy society, they hear, look out for your own interests, your own child, your own world. This haunts and disturbs me. What are the long-term consequences if so many of our young families, native-born and immigrant, hear that message?”

While I agree social cohesion is an essential component of a healthy democracy, denying low-income and immigrant parents the freedom and resources to select their child’s school will weaken our common bonds, not strengthen them. But I acknowledge Geiger’s views have deep historical roots. 

In the 1830s, state governments, which were controlled by Protestants, started assuming greater control of publicly-funded education in response to the influx of Catholic immigrants into Catholic schools. The goal of these mid-19th century Protestants wasn’t the nurturing of religious pluralism. They wanted to diminish Catholicism while enhancing their power and influence. Continue Reading →

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