Author

Special to redefinED

Avatar

Advocate VoicesCommentary and OpinionCommunity LeadersCustomizationEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedMicroschoolsParent EmpowermentParent VoicesSchool ChoiceVoices for Education Choice

Micro-schools could be answer for low-income Black students

Special to redefinED
Special to redefinED

Glenton Gilzean speaking in September on a podcast about his early entrepreneurial experiences. Listen to the full interview at https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3417597471621950.

Editor’s note: This commentary from Glenton Gilzean Jr., president and CEO of the Central Florida Urban League and former Pinellas County School Board member and Florida A&M trustee, appeared earlier today in the Orlando Sentinel.

 When I became president and CEO of the Central Florida Urban League, it was clear that our community faced some incredible challenges. Yet, I always believed that the path forward began with education.

Generational poverty stems from a vicious cycle that we’re all too familiar with. While our organization has helped upskill thousands to compete for high-paying, high-skilled jobs, this is a Band-Aid solution. If our goal is to end this cycle, our fight must begin with children.

For generations, children in low-income Black communities have endured a sub-par education model and these underperforming schools not only hurt our children, but our entire community.

According to the Orlando Economic Partnership, the average net worth for Black adults in Central Florida is less than $18,000 annually, compared to more than $215,000 for white adults. This overt discrepancy is a direct result of a failing education system. Without innovation, these failures will continue to compound as parents are forced to choose between feeding their families and supplementing their children’s education.

With a lack of support both at home and in school, the interest of our children to engage in their learning wanes. While I believe that every child is born with a thirst for knowledge, those in our community are born into a drought with no end in sight.

We can change this. Imagine a school with only a handful of students, learning in a safe and welcoming environment. With such small numbers, their teacher can work with each student, developing and following a personalized learning plan.

Aptly called micro-schools, this is the reality for those with means. But if the state passes a new education choice bill, this can become a reality for those in underserved communities too. Simply put: the low-income Black children who need them the most.

Senate Bill 48, sponsored by Sen. Manny Diaz Jr. (R-Hialeah Gardens), combines five education scholarship programs into two. The bill also extends the use of education savings accounts (ESAs), currently only available to the Gardiner Scholarship for special-needs students and the Reading Scholarship, to the newly merged income-based scholarships.

These accounts could be used to cover private-school tuition, technology, tutoring, curriculum and other approved items. Families would have the flexibility to spend their education dollars, providing them access to the learning environment that best fits their children’s needs.

This bill puts us on the cusp of providing these youth with a high-quality learning environment that will begin to close both the historical achievement gap, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the growing COVID-19 learning gap.

The past year has demonstrated that, now more than ever, families require educational options. Most children have regressed, struggling to maintain even the most basic curriculum. Throwing these students back into an unsuccessful system will further exacerbate their situation.

While the benefits for our youth are clear, micro-schools also provide economic opportunities. If parents have the freedom to spend their children’s education dollars through ESAs, they will demand providers that meet their needs. Entrepreneurs will invest in our communities and this cannot be understated.

As a result of the pandemic, over 40% of Black-owned businesses have closed, while the Black unemployment rate is hovering around 10%, four points higher than the state average. Networks of micro-schools would not only our lift up our children, but their families too.

My organization knows first-hand the success of ESAs. The Urban League partnered with several Orange County Public Schools to register more than 700 students to receive supplemental tutoring funded by the Florida Reading Scholarship. This was a blessing for parents who were unable to afford tutoring for their children.

We now have the opportunity to take ESAs to the next level and positively impact not hundreds, but thousands of children. I pray that our elected representatives listen to their constituents. Please fund students over systems, put money in the hands of parents who know what’s best for their children, and bring micro-schools to communities that desperately need them.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Charter SchoolsCommentary and OpinionEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedParental ChoicePublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

Can we stop fighting about charter schools?

Special to redefinED
Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: This commentary by Eve L. Ewing, a sociologist of education whose research focuses on racism, social inequality and urban policy and the impact of these forces on American public schools, appeared Monday in the New York Times.

As an education researcher, a writer, and a former teacher, I’ve had the opportunity to talk with people all over the country about public schools. And wherever I go, there’s one question I can usually count on being asked:

“What do you think about charter schools?”

I know people want a cut-and-dried answer. Unfortunately, the discourse about charter schools has become more of an ideological debate, split neatly into opposing factions, than it is a policy discussion informed by facts. As long as Democrats play by those rules, they miss an important chance to reframe the debate altogether.

Instead of splitting across dogmatic “pro-charter” or “anti-charter” lines, the Biden administration should take a simpler, more transformative stance: demanding high-quality, well-financed schools for all children.

The research on charter schools gives fuel to both sides of the debate. Studies have found, at varying times and in varying contexts, all of the following: Charters have improved in effectiveness, but are less effective than their non-charter peers — yet are more effective for low-income students and students of color than for white and more affluent students. Charters are more likely to suspend their students than their non-charter peers.

To continue reading, click here.

 

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Commentary and OpinionEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceFeaturedSchool Choice

podcastED: SUFS president Doug Tuthill interviews Walnut Hill Workshop’s Antonio Parés

Special to redefinED
Special to redefinED

On this episode, Tuthill speaks with the founder of a Colorado-based organization that works with public and private education organizations to create new opportunities for students to receive education outside the traditional five-days-a-week, 180 days-a-year schooling model.

 Tuthill and Parés discuss Colorado laws that allow funding to be portable and how state-sponsored schools can serve students not enrolled full time in district or charter schools. They also discuss the empowerment and business opportunities for teachers and members of local communities to create businesses such as specialized tutoring and learning pods when education funding is portable. Both men believe children are always learning, and that society devalues educational opportunities outside of “traditional” schooling.

“I hope people take the opportunity COVID has provided to reflect on the system that we’ve had and think about how its reaction only furthered the inequities many of us had already seen and (begin to) wonder how we smooth those inequities out.”

EPISODE DETAILS:

·       Parés’ background as a teacher and a disruptor of traditional education models

·       Finding state statues that make education funding portable in Colorado and what can be created in other states

·       How public-private partnerships can break down false dichotomies about education choice, create win-win solutions and lift all boats

·       Small business opportunities for communities and teachers when education funding is portable

·       How COVID-19 has reshaped perceptions around traditional schooling and how the experience will shape education’s future

LINKS MENTIONED:

Prenda – The Neighborhood School Reimagined

MyTech High – Personalized, Customized Education

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Commentary and OpinionEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedParental ChoiceSchool Choice

Choice is empowering, not racist

Special to redefinED
Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: This morning’s post is a response from Step Up For Students’ manager of external affairs Keith Jacobs to a letter to the editor published last week in the Florida Times Union.

Keith Jacobs

The Feb. 14 letter to the editor, “Public schools need to be fully funded,” represents how education choice opponents put antiquated ideologies ahead of the needs of the families they pretend to support. It used buzzwords such as “systemic racism” and “white supremacy” meant to indict education choice. That is historically inaccurate.

Yes, systemic racism has plagued our nation, but not for the reasons the letter communicates. Systemic racism is interwoven into the fabric of public education because it was a linchpin in establishing it over 400 years ago, when only white males were permitted to attend.

“Separate but Equal” denied Blacks and other minorities access to the same educational access and resources their white counterparts had. Even after the landmark decision of Brown v. Board, systemic racism persists today when low-income students of color are denied access to public schools based on their ZIP code and socioeconomic status.

Providing Black families the opportunity to exercise education choice means giving them the chance to opt out of a system that historically has worked against them. Perhaps that’s why surveys repeatedly have shown majority support for education choice among Black parents, usually at higher rates than the general public. Perhaps they know what’s best for their children.

As a Black man, education choice provided me the opportunity to attend the best schools that had seemed unattainable without the financial resources, and become a first-generation college graduate.

Instead of funding systems, we need to fund students, and give their families the choice of how best to educate them.

1 comment
1 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Commentary and OpinionEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation Savings AccountsFeaturedGardiner ScholarshipParent VoicesParental ChoicePrivate School ScholarshipsSchool Choice

Commentary: School choice helps Florida families

Special to redefinED
Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: This post from longtime Sarasota resident, mother and special education teacher Keri Zane appeared earlier today in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

As a mother with a daughter on the Gardiner Scholarship for special needs students, I was puzzled by Carol Lerner’s recent column criticizing a proposal to give parents more educational choices for their children.

Lerner wrote that while “vouchers fund only private schools, education savings accounts can fund so much more.” Yes, and thank goodness for that! 

I’m a single mom and a special needs teacher raising three children.

My oldest child, Avaryanna, is 11 years old; she is severely dyslexic and has attention deficit disorder, as well as anaphylaxis and auditory and sensory processing disorder. She has been on the Gardiner Scholarship for four years.

Her brother, Victor – who is 9 years old – is also dyslexic; he is on the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for lower-income students. My youngest child, LeeEmry, is 4 years old and in voluntary pre-kindergarten. I already detect early signs of dyslexia in LeeEmry, and I will seek to get her on the tax credit scholarship when she starts kindergarten.

The scholarships have allowed me to put my kids in one school, Dunn Prep/Woodland Early Childhood Center, that best meets their learning needs. And it also helps me with my busy schedule: I don’t have to run around to different schools for each child.

The Gardiner program stands apart in Florida in that it operates as an education savings account, which allows parents to spend their children’s scholarship dollars on a wide variety of things – private school tuition, educational materials, therapies and other services – so that learning can be customized to suit a student’s individual needs. I believe that the Gardiner program’s flexible spending approach should be applied to other education scholarships in our state.

Children have so many unique learning needs that it makes sense to give parents as many educational options as possible: public, private, homeschool, “pod” – whatever works. That seems especially important during this pandemic, which has forced brick-and-mortar classrooms to close – and forced children to do online learning at home.

That works for some kids, but it doesn’t work for others; they need alternatives.

I’ve relied on multiple choices for my children’s education. Avaryanna cannot function in a traditional classroom, so we tried a charter school for both her and Victor. But that didn’t work out, so I homeschooled Avaryanna and Victor for a period of time.

I wish I had known about the Gardiner Scholarship back then because it would have eased the financial burden on my family. I’m thankful that I discovered Dunn Prep, which has been a great fit for all my kids. And I’m grateful that a friend told me about Gardiner; it has been a blessing for my oldest daughter.

Gardiner helped me buy an iPad for Avaryanna, which she uses to access educational apps, online learning and other programs. I would love to be able to use a portion of Victor’s tax credit scholarship to also supplement his learning.

To quote Laura Weaver and Mark Wilding, authors of “The 5 Dimensions of Engaged Teaching,” “When students feel safe and supported, they are truly able and ready to learn.” To best achieve that we should make it easier for all parents to make the best educational decisions for their children – whether it’s choosing a public school, a private school, a homeschool or another option.

At the end of the day, what matters most is that our children, all our children, reach their full potential. That’s much more important than the type of school – or the type of educational program – that allows them to reach their full potential.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Commentary and OpinionEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation LegislationFeaturedParental ChoicePublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

The 21st century ‘school bus’

Special to redefinED
Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: This post’s author, Emily Anne Gullickson, J.D., M.Ed., is president and founder of Great Leaders, Strong Schools and a former middle school teacher in Phoenix.

Emily Anne Gullickson

In 1939, representatives from 48 states developed a set of school bus standards resulting in a massive standardization of school transit systems in America. Last year, 26 million students in the United States boarded nearly 480,000 yellow school buses to go to their public school.

Almost 80 years later, a lot has changed in the technology and transportation industries, yet we continue to have a one-size-fits-all approach to transporting students.

School districts are struggling to provide efficient bus services in the face of escalating costs and increasingly complex education systems where more students attend public schools outside their neighborhoods.

Arizona recently was recognized as the most choice-y school choice state in the nation according to EdChoice. For 40 years, our state has led the way with public school options, beginning with open enrollment, which allows students to choose any school both within the boundaries of the school district in which the student rides and to transfer to public schools outside of their resident school district. With the onset of public charter schools in 1995, families truly were no longer limited to a geographically defined attendance zone in Arizona.

Yale University researchers compiled information in 2016 indicating that nearly one in two K-8 students in Maricopa County do not attend the district school to which they were assigned based on home address. The actual number is higher, as the analysis was conducted before the large pandemic shift and did not include homeschool families, online students, or students attending private or parochial schools.

Yet we still have not achieved giving all parents a real chance to truly have access to the full range of public education options. If transporting a student across town to a public school that is the right fit is a burden to a family, then that family does not actually have true access to public schools of choice.

Barriers also are experienced in our rural and remote communities. An optimal student transportation system is highly context-dependent; what works in a rural school district may not work in an urban or suburban district. Rural districts must use the same large buses to transport students as in Phoenix or Tucson, even when the number of students being transported and the geographic terrain does not justify them, resulting in empty seats, poor fuel efficiency and major wear and tear on the vehicles.

Arizona’s remote communities are not alone in having fewer alternatives than urban counterparts. According to the Community Transportation Association of America, approximately 28% of rural residents live in areas in which the level of transit service is negligible, and another 38% of rural residents live in areas without any public transit service. A choice is not a choice if you can’t get there, no matter how simple and accessible the open enrollment process is.

This fall, our sister organization A for Arizona hosted focus groups with school partners and community members about transportation barriers and solutions. The feedback that was shared served as inspiration for Arizona Senate Bill 1683, championed by Senate Education Chairman Paul Boyer, which provides innovation grants as an incentive and support to public school leaders wanting to rethink our school transportation system to better serve public school families.

These grants will allow a series of locally driven solutions to be tried and evaluated to lead to greater efficiency and cost savings, recognizing geographic and local needs and providing access for more families to the public learning options that best meet each child’s needs. 

With this transportation grant program, public school systems could leverage partners to improve operational and cost-efficiency as well as data collection, such as length of ride times, radio-frequency identification cards to track student ridership daily, and the latest GPS technology utilized in other modes of mass transit. GPS tracking for school buses also would empower parents to monitor a school bus’s status and exact location while capturing data for more efficient routing.

Other ideas such as neighborhood carpools and grants to parents are on the table here, too. Whatever it is that district and charter leaders are thinking about trying, they can pilot it with these grant dollars before trying to expand statewide. Transportation regularly is the least efficient component of a school budget and is about to break the budget of smaller schools and systems. Innovation is necessary, and these grants put some money on the table to help leaders do just that.

Under this bill, local school leaders who want to opt in with a grant proposal have the flexibility to design community-driven solutions while maintaining necessary protections for student safety and educational opportunity.

Now is the time to reimagine and rethink education – which must include how to get students to where they can learn best. 

 

 

 

 

 

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Commentary and OpinionCoronavirus / COVID-19CustomizationEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation EquityEducation LegislationEducation Savings AccountsEducation SpendingFeaturedParental ChoiceSchool Choice

Commentary: Why education savings accounts are the great equalizer for school children

Special to redefinED
Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: In this opinion piece, Shaka Mitchell, Tennessee state director of American Federation for Children, and Justin Owen, president and CEO of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, explain how the Tennessee Supreme Court’s decision to take up an education savings account case would create a win for both parents and school systems. The piece appeared recently in The Tennessean.

On Thursday, the Tennessee Supreme Court accepted the widely publicized Education Savings Accounts—or ESA—case.

In 2019, the state Legislature offered a lifeline to families in our worst-performing school districts. They passed the ESA program, which would allow parents to take a portion of the dollars we already spend on their child’s education and use those dollars to send their child to a school of their choice.

Almost immediately, the city of Nashville and Shelby County sued the state to stop parents from utilizing this important program.

While lower courts sided with these local governments, we are optimistic that the Supreme Court will reverse those lower courts and allow the program to launch this fall.

Even before COVID-19, many families struggled to access a quality education in these two school districts. Fast forward to the current school year where nearly 200,000 students lack access to school buildings and tens of thousands haven’t been able to access the admittedly second-class online environment.

If they weren’t fortunate enough to be zoned into a good school or one that was open for in-person instruction, they were out of luck. Unlike families with means, lower-income families can’t just pick up and move to a better school district, nor can they afford private school tuition to send their child to a school of their choice. They are completely stuck.

We must do better.

The ESA program would be the great equalizer for these families. Regardless of their ZIP code or how much money they make, parents in Memphis and Nashville would finally have options. They could get their children into the school that best serves their needs by simply allowing the money to follow them to the school of their choice.

Yet, local government leaders are more concerned about money than fixing their schools or even allowing those most in need to leave for better schools. They chose to stand at the schoolhouse door, this time to keep these families in the schools they have failed to improve decade after decade.

Despite their claims, research shows that these local governments would save money under the ESA program. When a child leaves with an ESA, the public school district no longer has the expense of educating that child, but the program would still let the district keep a portion of the funding.

A recent Beacon Center study — using data reported by the school districts themselves — found that Nashville would save $500 each time a student left with an ESA. Shelby County would save an even greater $2,000 per child.

When the program is fully up and running, that translates into an additional $21 million these two districts would save. Metro Nashville Public Schools could add 65 classroom teachers or pay its existing teachers $670 a year more as a result. Shelby County Schools, meanwhile, could hire an additional 310 teachers or give each of its current teachers a $2,900 raise.

Fortunately, courts in nearly a dozen other states and the United States Supreme Court have found programs like Tennessee’s to be constitutional.

The state Supreme Court can now affirm the legislature’s authority to extend this lifeline to families by ruling that the Tennessee ESA program is in fact constitutional. And if they do so, thousands of families in dire need of a better education will finally have the options they deserve.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail