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Tag:

education equity

Blog GuestCommentary and OpinionEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedParental ChoiceSchool Choice

Attendance zone boundaries: Barriers to educational opportunity

Special to redefinED March 1, 2021
Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: Jude Schwalbach, a research associate in the Institute for Family, Community and Opportunity at The Heritage Foundation, wrote this commentary expressly for redefinED.

For a century, public schools have been billed as the center of a community, with Friday night football games, clubs, theater, and arts activities. But not all students have access to these “community” schools.

Within school districts, most public schools have attendance zones determined by district officials. These “lines within districts,” as author Tim DeRoche describes them, mean all families that reside within the geographic boundaries of the attendance zone are assigned to the public school in that zone. These zones, however, often divide communities by race, socio-economic divisions, and social capital.

In his book, A Fine Line, DeRoche illustrates how much school zones can affect the make-up of a school’s community. For instance, students attending Mount Washington in Los Angeles during 2019 lived in a zip code with a median home value of $847,522. Mount Washington Elementary is ranked a B+ school on Niche.com – a school rating website – with nearly 68% and 75% of students meeting or exceeding state standards in math and reading, respectively.

Meanwhile, just a little more than a mile away, Aldama Elementary School’s student body lives in a zip code where the typical home value is $47,000 less than in Mt. Washington’s zip code. Niche ranked the school a C school, with only 33% of students meeting or exceeding state standards in both math and reading.

At the same time, each school’s number of eligible students for the Free Lunch and Reduced-Price Lunch Programs — historical poverty proxies—illustrate a marked difference in student body. More than 70% of Aldama Elementary students — nearly seven times the number of eligible students at Mt. Washington — are eligible for the Free and Reduced-Price Lunch program.

Depending on which side of the boundary line a student lives on, she will be assigned to either Mount Washington or Aldama — likely having a significant impact on the educational opportunities available to her.

Even though students who attend Aldama and Mount Washington are in the same school district, paying the same property taxes to support all public schools within the district, government officials draw lines around which “public” schools they may attend. This hardly seems fair.

The school zone boundaries sharply divide families that live literally next door to each other. Which side of the street a family lives on can determine the educational opportunities fostered by their “free” public school.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon is all too common; families in cities across America, such as New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Chicago, to name a few, find themselves in similar situations.

For example, in 2019 the Senate’s Joint Economic Committee reported that enrollment in a high-performing public school and greater educational opportunities is often associated with purchasing a more expensive home.

The committee’s report found that “The average U.S. zip code associated with the highest quality (A+) public elementary school has a 4-fold ($486,104) higher median home price than the average neighborhood associated with the lowest quality (D or less) public elementary schools ($122,061).”

At the same time, the gerrymandered nature of school zones means that in many cases some children assigned to a poorly performing school actually live closer to a higher performing school.

For instance, children living between San Adreas Ave and Oneonta Dr. in Los Angeles are closer to the high-performing Mt. Washington Elementary — just a 15-minute walk — but are assigned to the lower-performing and more distant Aldama Elementary.

“No matter the goal, an attendance zone always creates sharp inequalities of opportunity for families who live in the same neighborhood. Some children will be allowed to enroll in the best public schools, and their playmates across the street will be excluded because of where they live,” writes DeRoche.

School zones can divide communities, shepherding children from different social and economic backgrounds into different schools. Such divisions are antithetical to the free and voluntary collaboration essential to American institutions.

Instead of assigning students to schools based on attendance zone boundaries, school districts should stop drawing attendance zone boundaries and instead adopt open enrollment policies, which would allow students to enroll in any school within their school district. Open enrollment, Heritage’s Lindsey Burke and Jonathan Butcher write, “effectively separates housing from schooling.”

However, Burke and Butcher note that even though 47 states in addition to the District of Columbia already allow some type of open enrollment policy, many school districts choose to not participate.

For instance, Alaska only requires that school districts provide open enrollment to students in persistently dangerous schools. By contrast, families in Florida can enroll their children in any school operating in the state’s 67 districts that is not at full capacity.

Expanding open enrollment to benefit all children would mean all children within a district have equal opportunities to attend public schools that are the right fit for them. 

March 1, 2021 0 comment
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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 February 27, 2021
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.

February 27, 2021 0 comment
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Choice is empowering, not racist

Special to redefinED February 22, 2021
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.

February 22, 2021 1 comment
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podcastED: Matt Ladner interviews Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s Chad Aldis

redefinED staff February 18, 2021
redefinED staff

In this podcast video, redefinED’s executive editor speaks with longtime education choice advocate Chad Aldis, vice president for Ohio policy and advocacy at Fordham, wo previously served as executive director of School Choice Ohio and was Ohio State director for StudentsFirst.

https://www.redefinedonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Ladner_Aldis-1.mp4

Ladner and Aldis discuss a recent Fordham study that mapped out open enrollment policies across Ohio after some media outlets questioned whether open enrollment education choice policies exacerbated school segregation. The study concluded they do not, it brought to light something more alarming.

Under state law, districts choose whether to accept nonresident students. Most suburban districts in Ohio have kept their doors shut. Despite being public agencies – often boasting of being “open to all” – these school systems deny children access just because they don’t have the right address.

“Let’s be real about this … no, you’re not to open to everybody. You’re open to everyone who can pay the price of admission … The price of admission is property taxes.”

EPISODE DETAILS:

·       Aldis’s critique of the current system, which results in high-wealth suburban school districts “walling out” poorer students from urban centers, who have been shown to benefit the most from education choice

·       How Ohio’s open enrollment system is different in rural counties

·       How rules restricting charter schools to urban areas further restricts choices for minority and low-income families

·       Comparisons with another education choice state, Arizona

·       What can be done to correct the inequities caused by Ohio’s open enrollment choice system

LINKS MENTIONED:

 https://fordhaminstitute.org/ohio/research/open-enrollment-and-student-diversity-ohios-schools

February 18, 2021 1 comment
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A parent’s perspective: Unwrapping the Senate HELP confirmation hearing of Miguel Cardona

Gwen Samuel February 17, 2021
Gwen Samuel

Editor’s note: redefinED is pleased to introduce our newest guest blogger, Gwen Samuel, founder and president of the Connecticut Parents Union. Samuel will be a regular contributor to redefinED.

February 3 was a very reflective day for this Black Connecticut mom.

There were virtual celebrations across the country honoring past and present Black leaders, of all ages, as part of Black History Month, a time during which President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

I personally rang in my double nickel birthday—55 years on this earth, much of it as a mom and grandma trying to make my home, my community, my state and my country a better place as an unapologetic activist and advocate for safe, quality educational opportunities for all children.

A few hundred miles down the road in Washington, D.C., Dr. Miguel Cardona—Connecticut’s first Latino Commissioner of Education—found himself sitting in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) answering questions in a confirmation hearing to become the next U.S. Secretary of Education.

As I contemplated the past, I found myself wanting to be so excited for the future. I thought to myself, “Yes, this Senate U.S. Secretary of Education confirmation hearing could be the best birthday gift ever!”

Finally, the voices of parents, students and families will be paramount and encouraged under the new Biden-Harris administration as education decision-makers realize that “one size fits all children” schooling has never been a best practice or sustainable solution to meet the diverse learning styles and needs of the millions of America’s children.

What could demonstrate this more clearly than the deadly COVID-19 pandemic that continues to exacerbate the many inequalities that have always existed within public education throughout the United States?

That is the message I hoped to hear as I listened intently to the senators questioning Dr. Cardona. What I heard instead were more paternalistic talking points and rhetoric, the episodic, unfulfilled promises that families—especially Black families—have heard for years, from one administration to the next.

Families and parents were mentioned so infrequently during the hearing that one would think “we” are not part of the “us” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) kept referring to. The way they were talking, you might think our children are born to classrooms, not into actual families.

Said Sen. Murray: “We have a lot of work to do, we have an excellent candidate to help us get it done, and we have no time to waste. Any senator who has heard from a parent who wants to get their child back to the classroom safely — and I am sure everyone has — should vote to advance and confirm Dr. Cardona, without hesitation. And I’m hopeful when the time comes, they will do just that.”

Obviously, we need to place a priority on the safe reopening of schools, but that’s not a progressive agenda in itself. As a former track runner in high school, I see it more as a hurdle that we need to clear so we can get to the more important conversations about our kids:

Are we doing everything in our power to get them the quality K-12 opportunities they deserve and are legally entitled to?

Let us talk facts. The Constitution and its protections do not end at the school-house door!

It’s true that parents are concerned about their kids getting back to school, though 44% say they would like to continue a mix of school and home learning after the pandemic, according to recent polling data from EdChoice and Morning Consult. That preference jumps to 64% among private school parents.

That’s a data point worth talking about in the context of how this pandemic has changed our lives forever — and why the input of parents and families matters to help ensure an equitable delivery of educational opportunities across our country — regardless of race, zip code or income level.

Instead, the politicians only seem to be able to focus on which political party is better, bickering about ideologies, quick-fix vaccinations and HVAC systems. Why are they not talking about money following each child to a school or a schooling option that best meets their academic and life needs?

Why are we not talking about a massive, nationwide tutoring effort to combat critical learning loss? Why are we not talking about whether we need all these aging school buildings or if there might be different ways or places to efficiently and effectively educate our country’s future leaders — our kids?

It has been almost one year since our country engaged in mass school closures, and we are still trying to apply pre-pandemic educational solutions to what will be a post-pandemic education landscape. This business as usual approach has resulted in millions of  children across the U.S. not having received any formal education since their schools closed in March, a sobering new estimate of the havoc the coronavirus pandemic is wreaking on the country’s most vulnerable students.

If you were looking for a commitment from education decision-makers to really listen to families back in that Feb. 3 hearing, you probably were as disappointed as I was.

What I did not hear was that families that look like mine would be more than window dressing under this administration. I did not hear that diverse parents would be at the decision-making table alongside those we voted into office.

This would change the business-as-usual practice of the status quo long deciding what’s best for us even though we are supposedly free to choose. I did not hear about an education revolution that will break down barriers and upend a K-12 framework designed for the wealthy.

In the coming days, months and years, Dr. Cardona has a chance to find his own voice, transform this one size fits some educational system from the inside out, and do what’s right for all families, not just the ones who’ve been blessed with privilege and connections. Many parents like me will not stop fighting until we reach that day.

To quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle.”

I hope that in a year’s time, on my next birthday, I can write that our struggle for educational freedom — which is a form of justice and the persistent fight for our kids and their kids and grandkids’ future — led to change that started at the bottom and rippled out to every single family in this country.

Only then will this Black mom be satisfied. Only then will I be able to congratulate our elected officials and Dr. Cardona on a job well done.

February 17, 2021 0 comment
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Black Minds Matter website promotes school choice as solution to racial injustice in public education

Lisa Buie February 16, 2021
Lisa Buie

Joshua Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Florida, is one of 160 schools in a running list of about 500 Black-owned schools featured on a new website called Black Minds Matter.

As she watched another unarmed Black man die at the hands of a police officer and witnessed protesters filling the streets, Denisha Merriweather vowed to do her part to raise awareness of the link between systemic racism in the criminal justice system and the public education system.

From an early age, she was all too familiar with that relationship.

The daughter of a 16-year-old girl high school dropout, Merriweather easily could have been pushed along with many of her Black classmates through the school-to-prison pipeline. At her zoned district school, she was told she was “never going to amount to anything.” She failed third grade twice.

What saved her was moving in with her godmother, who got Merriweather a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship to attend a private school. The new environment put her on a path to success. She became the first member of her family to graduate from high school. She went on to graduate from college and earn a master’s degree.

Her career has allowed her rub shoulders with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. She’s been recognized before Congress. She’s also had the chance to call former U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos “boss.”

Denisha Merriweather

Today, Merriweather serves as engagement director at the American Federation for Children, an organization that promotes school choice and partners with Step Up For Students, where she interned as a student and which hosts this blog. The 29-year-old shudders when she thinks of how differently things could have turned out had it not been for the opportunities afforded her by school choice.

“I could have easily gone to prison,” she said. “The public system was not set up in its beginning for Black people to succeed. The school-to-prison pipeline is very real in communities like where I come from.”

Seeing George Floyd die face down in the street with a white police officer’s foot pressed against his neck last summer brought back of a flood of emotions and inspired an op-ed that made the case for swift education reform as a way to break the cycle of racial injustice.

Merriweather wrote:

“Families with children who languish in a system that kills them cannot afford to wait any longer. If we really care about breaking down racist structures and institutions in America, we must also give every child access to a great education of their family’s choice.”

But she went further. She decided to create a website, www.BlackMindsMatter.net (not affiliated with Black Minds Matter, a grassroots initiative in Los Angeles to prepare Black youth for leadership or a course of the same name geared to raise the national consciousness about issues facing Black boys and men in education), to gather all the resources Black families need to pursue high-quality education options in one place. The non-partisan site supports “all forms of choices under sun,” Merriweather said, from private schools to charter schools, micro-schools and district magnet schools.

It also includes a national Black-owned schools directory. Merriweather estimates there are about 500 such schools across the nation, and she wants to capture as many as possible on the list. So far, she has found 160, and includes a submission form on the site. To promote the directory as well as the website, she has set up virtual tours of six schools on Feb. 18 and 19.

Merriweather stressed that the website has been designed to be a safe space for those who oppose education choice and those who are unsure about it and want more information.

“This is a neutral zone for all of us in moving to point people who are on the fence or who see all the reasons people should not support choice,” she said. “I really hope that this new effort would dismantle all of that.”

February 16, 2021 0 comment
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Centuries-old fight for equal education opportunity an ongoing struggle

Keith Jacobs February 11, 2021
Keith Jacobs

“History will show that this is the downfall of public education.” 

That was Florida Sen. Perry Thurston (D-Fort Lauderdale) last week, responding to legislation that would expand opportunities and provide flexibility for low-income families. Many opponents of school choice share his sentiments. It’s a misconception of choice used to deny equity in education to the country’s most disenfranchised populations – low-income and Black families. 

In recognition of Black History Month, we must take a historical approach to analyze the long and hard struggle for equity and equality in public education for Blacks. 

The first recorded notion of a free public school was in the 17th century, and it was later proposed to use taxpayer dollars for education long before our country was founded. This was also during a time when the first enslaved Africans were shipped to Virginia in 1619 and threatened with death if they even attempted to become literate. As a Black man, I feel compelled to highlight that this injustice, coupled with over three centuries of systemic oppression, should have been deemed the downfall of public education. 

Too often, opponents of education choice deny or ignore the fact that a government-funded public education system was established to exclude enslaved Africans, women and low-income families. In fact, public education originally was established to teach Puritan values and reading the Bible to sons of white, elite families. 

This newly created system of public education required an additional 350 years to ensure Blacks could even attend school with their white counterparts, with a government content with “separate but equal.” There was no choice. There were no options for an equitable school experience. Blacks were forced to learn in schools with insufficient financial support and negligible resources. This gave birth to the opportunity gaps we see today. 

As a result, Blacks had to use ingenuity and scarce resources to establish schools, including historically Black colleges and universities to address the growing need for knowledge in agriculture. They were created out of necessity, not choice. Prominent Black leaders from these institutions, such as W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, had to advocate for equity and equality rights in a public education system that should have been afforded to them.   

This is not entirely different from the education choice advocacy we see today. Black and low-income families are advocating to lawmakers for an equal opportunity in education.

The government has had more than 400 years to address the funding equity for predominantly Black and low-income neighborhoods, and the quality of the education has suffered. Conversely, government funding combined with education choice has yielded positive results. A 2019 Urban Institute study found that tax-credit scholarship students are up to 43% more likely than their public-school peers to enroll in four-year colleges, and up to 20% more likely to earn bachelor’s degrees.

In addition, a 2020 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research of the impact of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship found positive impacts even on public schools – that as the program for students in private schools expanded, students who remained in public schools also benefited: “In particular, higher levels of private school choice exposure are associated with lower rates of suspensions and absences, and with higher standardized test scores in reading and math.”

But opponents ignore this because it demonstrates that when parents have a sense of empowerment, they are more engaged, and their kids have more positive experiences and success in school. Choice provides parents the opportunity to find schools that best match their children’s learning needs.

Florida school districts provide public education to the students within their assigned zones. It’s a right established by the state constitution. But the assumption that traditional public education customizes – or has ever customized – the learning experience for every child it serves is misguided.

In his eloquent response to Sen. Thurston at the Feb. 3 Senate Education Committee hearing, Jon Arguello, a member of the Osceola County School Board, argued that not every public school can meet the unique needs of every child in the district – just as the senator cannot satisfy the needs of every voter in his district. Some students need options and flexibility in their learning experience.

Unfortunately, education choice opponents will have you believe that only traditional public education can ensure that all students are adequately served with resources that are equitably distributed. The unfortunate reality is that the areas where these families reside are not equal, and neither are the resources.

That’s a big reason why 1.5 million students in Florida are exercising some form of choice. Families have explored charter schools, magnet schools, and voucher programs that have provided more options for students.

Our society has such a sordid history of discriminatory practices and systemic racism in education that it’s absurd to decry parental choice as the “downfall of public education.” For many low-income and Black Americans, the system has never had anywhere to go but up. The populations that historically have benefited from public education will continue to be successful, because they already have the means to exercise choice. 

We must level the playing field so that every child will have the opportunity to succeed regardless of socio-economic status.   

February 11, 2021 0 comment
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Commentary: Why education savings accounts are the great equalizer for school children

Special to redefinED February 9, 2021
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.

February 9, 2021 0 comment
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