Tag Archives | school voucher

Is parental choice really the enemy?

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On February 8, 2012 in Funding, General, Parent empowerment, Parental Choice

Back in December, some of the top elected and appointed officials in Seminole County schools used a public meeting covered by the Orlando Sentinel to blame Florida’s tax credit scholarship for low-income children for their financial woes. They called the program a “travesty” and “part of an agenda” to weaken public schools. The school board chairwoman also claimed “there is no accountability in the program.”

It saddened me to see officials of a quality school system such as Seminole making such factually incorrect and inflammatory remarks, but they weren’t finished. This week, Seminole school superintendent Bill Vogel was asked tough questions by county commissioners who wonder whether his district had built too many schools in the face of declining student enrollment. His response was to again blame parental choice programs, according to the Sentinel, saying his district will need to close down schools because of “a huge shift to charter schools and private school vouchers — programs that Seminole school officials do not favor.”

Please allow me to lay out some facts.

First, let’s report on what the state’s independent researcher has determined about Tax Credit Scholarships:

  • Scholarship students are poorer than their peers on free or reduced-price lunch in public schools.
  • They are among the worst performers at their public schools when they leave on scholarship.
  • Their learning gains are slighter higher than their peers in public schools — a notable achievement for kids who might normally keep trending downward.
  • The more a public school’s students participate in the scholarship, the higher the learning gains for the kids who remain at that public school.

Second, let’s look at the impact of private options on Seminole school enrollment forecasts and planning. In Seminole today, there are:

  • 588 students on the Tax Credit Scholarship for low-income students.
  • 480 students on the McKay Scholarship for disabled students.
  • 814 students in charter schools.
  • 63,872 students in public schools.

In other words, only 2.7 percent of the district’s traditional public school students are attending private options. And yet the students are cited as the main source of the financial woes of the district, and the reason public schools need to be shut down. The district has become so averse to parental choice that the School Board voted recently to restrict student transfers even within traditional public schools next year. I have to believe that restricting public school choice will only spur more parents to seek choice outside of the district-run schools.

Perhaps someday the board and the superintendent will accept a new definition of “public education.”  The old definition: all tax dollars are used by district-run schools with students assigned by zip code. The new definition: using taxpayer dollars to educate children using the best methods, and the best providers, for each individual child. Sadly, I think the day they adopt this definition is far away.

 

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He didn’t really say that, did he?

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On February 8, 2012 in Achievement Gap, General, Parent empowerment, Parental Choice, Unionism

New Jersey employs a brand of education politics that is not renowned for its nuance or subtlety, so let’s credit New Jersey Education Association Director Vincent Giordano with raising the bar. In an interview on the New Jersey Capitol Report over the weekend, Giordano was pressed on the timely subject of a legislative proposal there to give private learning options to low-income students who attend public schools that are judged to be under-performing. For context, let’s add the fact that, according to the Newark Star-Ledger, his salary in 2010 was roughly $422,000.

His response, captured in this video clip, is nothing if not succinct: “Well, you know, life’s not always fair and I’m sorry about that.”

Giordano is no doubt thinking better of his remarks today. But it does seem fair to point out that key New Jersey Democrats, including Newark Mayor Cory Booker, support the scholarship option precisely because life is unfair for children who grow up in poverty. The mayor sees the scholarship as one modest way to try to level the playing field.

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LEGISLATIVE WATCH: The Florida scene

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On February 8, 2012 in Education and Public Policy, General, Parental Choice

The legislative push in Florida on education is being generally described as light this year, with most of the emphasis on restoring financial cuts made to public schools last year. That being said, the annual 60-day legislative session has now reached its midpoint, and there are a number of important issues on the table.

Career Academies:

CS/SB 1314, Career-Themed Courses by Sen. Don Gaetz. Last Action:  2/2/12, a committee substitute was approved by the Senate Commerce & Tourism Committee, 6-0. Next up is the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Education PreK-12 Appropriations  The bill revises provisions in the Career and Professional Education Act and allows greater access to industry certifications in high demand fields.

Charter Schools:

CS/HB 903, Charter Schools by Rep. Janet Adkins. Last Action: 1/31/12, a committee substitute was approved by the House K-20 Innovation Subcommittee, 12-0. Now in PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee. The bill requires the Commissioner of Education to annually determine a high-performing charter school or school system’s continued eligibility for “high performing” status, prohibits renewing a charter if a school received two “F” grades within a three-year period, and requires each charter school to maintain a website. It also authorizes certain Florida College System institutions to establish one charter school, and requires sponsors to distribute a charter school’s share of federal funds to the school within 60 days.

CS/SB 1852, Charter Schools by Sen. Stephen Wise. Last Action: 2/6/12, a committee substitute was approved by the Senate Education PreK -12 Committee, 5-1.  The bill authorizes certain Florida College System institutions to establish one charter school, authorizes each district to share revenue generated by its capital outlay millage levy with charter schools on a per-student basis, and requires sponsors to distribute a charter school’s share of federal funds to the school within 60 days. It also revises certain restrictions on high-performing charter schools. Continue Reading →

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Strong words, and a little cognitive dissonance

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On August 13, 2011 in Education and Public Policy, General, Parental Choice, Religious education, School Choice

A judge in Colorado on Friday blocked the Douglas County school district’s voucher experiment, insisting that allowing the program to move forward will lead to “real, immediate, and irreparable injury” to the plaintiffs and others who asked for the injunction.

Specifically, Judge Michael A. Martinez wrote in a 68-page ruling that the program provides aid to churches and faith-based schools and ignores safeguards that would ensure no public school funding would promote a participating school’s “sectarian agenda.” Further, Martinez said, there is “overwhelming evidence” to show that the voucher program violates Colorado’s constitutional provisions which call for “uniform” funding of public education across the state.

Interestingly, Martinez wasn’t persuaded by the ACLU’s argument that the program also violated the constitutional demand for a thorough and uniform “system of free public education.” A similar uniformity clause sunk the private school option in Florida’s Opportunity Scholarship Program in 2006. Martinez, though, said the plaintiffs failed to show that the scholarship program prevented students “from otherwise obtaining a free public education in Douglas County.”

Maddeningly, the judge acknowledged that the scholarship program “appears to be a well-intentioned effort to assist students in Douglas County,” further stating that he agrees that the purpose of the school district was to help students and parents, “not sectarian institutions.” The U.S. Supreme Court said the same when it came to a wholly different conclusion in the challenge to Cleveland’s voucher program.

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Indiana’s expansive voucher bill heads to governor’s desk

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On April 27, 2011 in Charter Schools, Education and Public Policy, General, Parental Choice, School Choice

From the Evansville Courier & Press:

INDIANAPOLIS — Two key planks of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ education reform platform cleared their final legislative hurdles Wednesday and are now headed to the Republican governor’s desk.

The Indiana House of Representatives approved measures Wednesday afternoon that would ease the process of opening new charter schools and launch the nation’s most broad private school voucher program.

Their passage comes as the Republican-led General Assembly enters its final two days, and despite opposition from Democrats in the House who at one point fled to Urbana, Ill. for five weeks to block progress on the education bills and others.

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Report: Senate passage expected on Pennsylvania voucher plan

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On April 12, 2011 in Education and Public Policy, General, Parental Choice, School Choice

UPDATE: The Post-Gazette now says not so fast.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

HARRISBURG — School voucher legislation is poised to pass the state Senate as early as today, following a lengthy committee debate Monday over amendments from the bill’s opponents.

The measure, which has drawn both fervent support and opposition, would make low-income students eligible for vouchers toward their tuition at a public or private school outside their district. A provision approved Monday would expand that eligibility to some middle-class students in the program’s fourth year.

Attempts to limit the program’s eligibility, require districts to tally up how much vouchers cost them, and allow students to opt-out of religious classes at their new school all failed in the Appropriations Committee.

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Budget deal includes money for D.C. voucher

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On April 9, 2011 in Education and Public Policy, General, Parental Choice, School Choice

The last-minute spending deal among Congressional leaders adds money to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal are reporting. The revival of the scholarship is a top priority of House Speaker John Boehner, who has sponsored a measure that passed the House last month. That was just about the time the White House issued a statement asserting that the scholarship has proven ineffective.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid said of the eleventh-hour negotiations: “We didn’t do it at this late hour for drama, we did it because it’s been very hard to arrive at this point. Both sides have had to make tough choices.”

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Colorado school district readies voucher plan

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On March 16, 2011 in Education and Public Policy, General, Parental Choice, Private Schools, School Choice

From today’s Denver Post:

After months of study, roiling controversy and emotional debate, the Douglas County school board Tuesday night unanimously approved a groundbreaking plan to help pay tuition for hundreds of students to attend private schools.

The pilot program, which will be reviewed each year, would make up to 500 students eligible to receive $4,575 to attend a private school in the 2011-12 school year …

… The district estimates it would save about $3 million by having 500 fewer students. The district would pay about $2.29 million in voucher scholarships, but when CSAP and other expenses are deducted, the district might actually net $402,500.

After some residents complained that all but one of the 14 eligible private schools within the county are religion-based, the district revised its proposal, expanding the boundaries to include a more diverse group of private schools.

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Very little to be afraid of

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On February 14, 2011 in Education and Public Policy, Education Research, General, Parental Choice, School Choice

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer devotes considerable attention to the impact school vouchers have on public schools. At a time when opponents to publicly funded private learning options are lobbing rhetorical hand grenades in several states, particularly in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Inquirer reporter Adrienne Lu offers this fair-minded assessment:

While studies are relatively scarce, the early opinion among researchers appears to be that vouchers have done little, if any, harm to student achievement in public schools and in some cases have spurred small improvements on standardized-exam scores in public schools.

As evidence, Lu cites Northwestern University researcher David Figlio, who recently found that the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship boosted the academic performance of the public schools faced with the threat of losing students to the program.  Figlio and co-researcher Cassandra Hart had highlighted that, no matter what measure they used (the closer private schools are to a public school, the density of private schools within five-miles of a public school, etc.) the effect was generally the same:

Although these effects are relatively small, they consistently indicate a positive relationship between private school competition and student-performance in the public schools, even before any students leave for the private sector. That is, these results provide evidence that public schools responded to the increased threat of losing students to the private schools.

In an interview with the Inquirer, Figlio rightly cautioned against looking at vouchers as “the magical pill that’s going to turn the U.S. into Finland,” but he made clear that, for any state considering a voucher program, “there’s very little to be afraid of.”

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A genuine and independent choice for Catholic education

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On January 6, 2011 in Charter Schools, General, School Choice

There are 1.2 million empty seats in Catholic schools across the country and we’ve been in dialogue with Catholic educators in Florida and nationally about how to fill them. Our colleagues at the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), headquartered at the University of Notre Dame, are helping lead this effort and have identified tax credit scholarships as part of the solution.

In Florida and several other states tax credit scholarships have become a growing source of income for Catholic schools. In the 2009-10 school year, Florida Catholic schools received $12,647,900 in tax credit scholarship funds, or approximately 11 percent of all the Florida tax credit scholarship money distributed that year.

But while tax credit scholarships are a big help, whether to convert existing Catholic schools to charter schools is dominating the discussion. A handful of Catholic schools have converted to charters in the last two years and these conversions have generated intense debate within the church and throughout the school choice movement. Many Catholic educators think converting a Catholic school to a charter strips all traces of Catholic education and identity from that school, while others argue Catholic education is about a set of core values and attitudes that can be modeled and taught in a charter school even if the crucifix is taken off the wall. Continue Reading →

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