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Valerie Strauss

Twisted words and imagined conspiracy

Jon East March 31, 2014

Having written editorials for a metropolitan newspaper for more than 20 years, I’ve had more than my share of those who have adamantly disagreed. But I’m not sure I’ve ever had someone so willfully distort what I wrote as Valerie Strauss did on Saturday.

Whether you think the original post on Friday, “The genuine surge in scholarship applications,” was fact or fiction, the point was to demonstrate the clear uptick in enrollment demand for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship over the past four years. In turn, the Washington Post blogger responded with a headline that read “Long ‘waiting list’ for Florida vouchers doesn’t actually exist” and a lead that said: “This belongs in the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff category.” Her only seeming recognition that I made precisely the opposite point was a cryptic introductory phrase in the last sentence: “Whatever the demand …”

For the record, the scholarship processing team at Step Up For Students, which administers the scholarship and sponsors this blog, stopped keeping a waiting list not because the list had dwindled but because it had become unmanageably large. Being on a waiting list carries with it an expectation that you might still have a chance, and our applications experts felt it had come to the point where Step Up was peddling false hope.

That’s why applications in 2013 were cut off earlier than in 2012 even though the program expanded by 8,690 students. It’s why they are likely to be cut off in 2014 earlier than in both previous years, even though enrollment will increase again by another 8,000 students (more if legislation this year passes). Though students were not placed on a waiting list last year, the reality is that 94,104 of them had begun an application before Step Up stopped processing. As of Sunday, 80,354 had started applications for the fall.

The most befuddling part about the way scholarship opponents have seized on this scholarship demand question is that it doesn’t really matter under the law. The program will grow in size only if eligible students sign up for it. The tax-credited contributions made to scholarship organizations, under any-sized tax credit cap, must be used for scholarships or returned to the state treasury. That’s in the law. So the cap could be increased to $1 billion next year but if only 60,000 students showed up, the same as this year, roughly three-fourths of those dollars would end up back in the government’s bank.

As a conspiracy theory, this lacks even the conspiracy.

March 31, 2014 4 comments

Courts Education and Public Policy Education Legislation Education Politics Education Reporting Parental Choice Private Schools School Choice Tax Credit Scholarships Vouchers

The Fact Checker Valerie Strauss might have used on school choice

Patrick R. Gibbons March 20, 2014

Patrick R. Gibbons

Washington Post education reporter Valerie Strauss is not known for an open mind on school choice, but she would have been wise to do a little homework before reprinting a 1,300-word oped from an anti-voucher activist in Florida. Had this column been submitted to The Fact Checker at the Post, 4 Pinocchios might not have done it justice.

The op-ed is written by a Palm Beach parent activist, Rita Solnet, who sincerely believes every parent wants his or her child to attend the school down the street. But her attack on a proposed expansion of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship suffers not only from a lack of sensitivity to the plight of desperately poor parents, mostly of color, who have their children on waiting lists. Unfortunately, it also shows a remarkable indifference to basic facts.

Let’s walk through some of the highlights:

“The courts ruled Jeb’s first voucher program unconstitutional. Not to be outdone by the courts, Jeb created another ‘corporate voucher’ program that sidestepped the court’s concern over separation of church and state by using a middleman agency.”

This is a two-fer. The Florida Supreme Court did in fact rule against Opportunity Scholarships, but not on the no-aid-to-religion clause. Instead it found the first voucher program to violate the uniformity clause in the state’s public education article. More striking, the claim that former Gov. Bush rushed to enact a tax credit scholarship after the decision as a legal subterfuge is more than a little time-challenged. The court issued its decision in 2006. The scholarship program was created in 2001.

“This year, a massive voucher expansion bill was filed seeking a limit of close to the “B” word – nearly a billion dollars.”

That bill was actually passed back in 2010.That legislation created an automatic escalator allowing the program to grow up to 25 percent per year, so long as corporations are willing to donate, and so long as parents desire scholarships for their children. The current bill allows the program to grow slightly faster in order to reduce the current 34,000 waiting list quicker, but ultimately, provides only $44 million extra.

March 20, 2014 14 comments

Blog Administration Education Reporting Parental Choice School Choice Tax Credit Scholarships

Parents’ voices would make this school choice debate even better

Doug Tuthill March 11, 2013

Doug Tuthill

Civility and respect are core values we promote at redefinED, so we were pleased to read the well-mannered exchange between Jason Bedrick and Kevin Welner about the pros and cons of tax credit scholarships. Readers who missed their back and forth can get caught up beginning here, and continuing here, here, here, here and here.

Unfortunately, their exchange was motivated by a column by Washington Post blogger Valerie Strauss, which was a collection of false assertions and hyperbolic rhetoric. After Bedrick rebutted Strauss’ attacks, she had the good sense to step back and let Professor Welner take over.

Welner has chosen to build his career around opposing tax credit scholarships, and, while some of his previous writings have also suffered from over generalizations and unsubstantiated assertions, his rhetoric has become more measured in recent months, as my colleague Jon East noted last December.

I can’t add much to Bedrick’s outstanding rebuttals, but I do wish the parents’ voices could be included in these exchanges. I spend hours every week talking with parents, grandparents, and foster parents about the extraordinary challenges they face raising low-income children. For them the tax credit scholarships are not about ideology or politics; they’re about another tool they can use to keep their children alive, out of jail and on the path to becoming a successful adult.

I suspect Welner would be a lot slower to condemn these scholarships if he spent more time talking to the parents and children who are using them.

March 11, 2013 0 comment

Blog Administration Charter Schools Customization Education Politics Education Reporting Funding Parental Choice School Choice Teacher Empowerment Technology and Innovation Virtual Education

Florida roundup: Online pioneer, Rick Scott’s plan, “Republican hubris” & more

Ron Matus November 12, 2012

Ron Matus

Promise of online learning. Pinellas math and statistics teacher Rob Tarrou puts his lessons online, a la Khan Academy, and wins fans around the world, reports the Tampa Bay Times. My favorite graph: “A reporter recently asked students in that statistics class how many had other teachers post educational videos online. No one raised a hand. Next, students were asked how many wished their other teachers would post videos online. Nearly all raised their hands.” See a “Tarrou’s Chalk Talk” video here.

Valerie Strauss on Tony Bennett coming to Florida: Column here.

Rick Scott’s ed plan falls short. Especially on charter schools, editorializes the Tampa Bay Times.

Republican hubris and Amendment 8: In its roundup of election winners and losers, the Tampa Bay Times suggests Amendment 8 had a lot to do with vouchers – and that it fits into the narrative about GOP overreach.

Contracting complaints. At the Division of Blind Services, which falls under the Florida Department of Education, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

November 12, 2012 0 comment

Education Reporting School Boards School Choice Testing and Accountability

Time for a deep breath in the divide over education reform in Florida

Jon East August 2, 2012

Jon East

Florida education commissioner Gerard Robinson has made what appears to be an anguishing personal decision to return to his family in Virginia, because his wife, a law professor, has been unable to find a comparable position in Florida. And yet the announcement Tuesday was greeted with a level of vitriol that can only speak to the state’s nasty educational divide.

An anti-testing group released a statement deriding Robinson’s “so-called accomplishments” as tied to a testing system that “has been completely discredited.” A Democratic lawmaker called the departure “a clear indicator … that recent destructive education reform measures … are harmful to the morale and productivity of students and teachers.” A Florida School Boards Association leader accused Robinson of “doing the bidding” of the state Board of Education, as though she doesn’t expect the same of her own superintendent. Predictably, the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss offered a conspiracy theory – that Robinson was being offered as a “scapegoat” to divert attention from the FCAT. A Democratic congresswoman who should know better actually called for a federal review of the FCAT.

You get the picture.

Now, it is certainly true that the Department of Education had issues with the FCAT writing test and bungled the initial release of school grades this year. And it is also true that much – maybe too much – rides on the performance of students on state testing. But nothing in Robinson’s 13 months on the job warrants such public venom, and you don’t have to defend him to recognize his convenience as a punching bag. So let’s call this another temperature check in the fever over educational accountability.

August 2, 2012 3 comments

Blog Administration Education Reporting Parental Choice Religious Education School Choice

Science literacy, the Loch Ness Monster and the evolution of public education

Ron Matus June 28, 2012

Ron Matus

What’s more off the wall? A Christian school teaching students that the Loch Ness Monster is a living dinosaur and proof of creationism? Or science supporters who continue to believe that public schools can significantly boost science literacy?

The Cato Institute’s Neal McCluskey suggests it’s a toss-up. He responded yesterday to the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss, who predictably skewered vouchers after reports surfaced about some private schools using a biology textbook that says, “Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence. Have you heard of the ‘Loch Ness Monster’ in Scotland?”

“I can certainly see why paying for this sort of thing would disturb a lot of people … ,” McCluskey wrote. “Let’s, however, use this to confront another, extremely dubious belief that many would never challenge: Government schooling leads to good science instruction.”

McCluskey efficiently lines up the evidence. A Gallup poll this month found only 15 percent of Americans believe human beings evolved without any involvement from God. National test scores show more private school students are proficient in science than public school students. And surveys show many public school biology teachers give short shrift to evolution because it’s too much of a mine field. “The result is that no one, no matter what their beliefs, gets coherent biology instruction,” McCluskey wrote.

I took a whack at this issue a few weeks ago, after a New York Times piece on tax credit scholarships cited examples of creationist teaching in private schools.

June 28, 2012 0 comment

Blog Administration Charter Schools Education and Public Policy Parental Choice School Choice

What Congressional pressure can accomplish

Adam Emerson February 21, 2011

Adam Emerson

Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews today engaged his colleague, Valerie Strauss, on the merits of Congressional pressure and school reform. While today’s Class Struggle headline may lead the casual reader to wonder if Mathews has now come to advocate for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship — he has not — the more cogent argument is a response to Strauss’ charge that Sen. Joseph Lieberman is “making a mockery of thoughtful school reform” by threatening to cut funds for D.C. schools if Congress fails to revive the Opportunity Scholarship.

Mathews writes:

Strauss quotes a study saying the voucher program, as it is called, has not raised student achievement. But she ignores the fact that another program imposed on the District by Congress 15 years ago, public charter schools, has had marked benefits for D.C. students. Two separate studies by the Washington Post, and other studies by independent scholars, have shown that D.C. public school students with the same backgrounds have done better in charters than in regular public schools.

That is not the case nationally. The results throughout the country show charters and regular schools making similar progress after you average out the many studies of the subject. But we are talking about D.C. schools. If Congress had not pressured a very reluctant D.C. school board to allow charters, the city’s overall achievement level would likely be worse now than it is.

February 21, 2011 0 comment