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Presenting the Case for School Choice

January 29, 2013 By

by Jason Stverak
Roll Call
January 28, 2013

Year after year, studies release details how America’s education system is floundering. Test scores are on the decline, and math and science programs are failing. Despite an abundance of research and strong indicators for options that can help heal education in the United States, our government — at the state and federal levels — unfortunately continues to pour taxpayer money into a deteriorating infrastructure.

Sadly, Congress is sitting idly by, afraid to disrupt the status quo for fear of political retribution. A 2009 survey found that at least 44 percent of senators and 36 percent of representatives sent their children to private schools, and close to 20 percent of the members themselves attended private high schools. Unfortunately, many of them argued against giving the same opportunity to their constituents.

Now, with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act up for reauthorization, Congress has the opportunity to revolutionize how we approach education and invest in methods that work, as opposed to pursuing the same policies and simply throwing more resources at the problem.

Forcing parents to send their children to schools that fail to provide the tools they need to excel and denying them the option to choose which educational program is best suited for a child’s specific learning needs is the chief reason our children suffer. Let’s offer them a choice.

National School Choice Week, from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, promotes a common-sense notion that gives parents the freedom to choose their child’s educational environment, regardless of where they live or how much money they have.

By using public funds already set aside for education and allowing parents to choose the best option for their child, each student can receive a unique educational approach that is tailored to his or her needs. There are a variety of approaches that offer parents the option to send their children to any school, whether it is public or private, religious or secular, or brick-and-mortar or online.

Research shows that school choice programs are creating positive results. A report from The Heritage Foundation revealed that students in school choice programs graduate at significantly higher rates than their public school peers. In fact, researchers have found that 9 in 10 studies show positive academic gains for school choice students.

Not only do these programs create positive student outcomes, parents are increasingly satisfied with their children’s schools when they have the freedom to make a choice. More than 90 percent of parents whose children participated in the McKay Scholarship program — a program for special-needs children in Florida — reported they were content with their children’s schools in comparison with only 33 percent of parents whose special-needs children attended public schools.

The majority of today’s school districts dictate the conditions of education for students and schools, while taxpayers settle the bill. But even public school students have something to gain from school choice programs. As more private schools began participating, researchers found an increase in public school achievement as a result of the competitive pressure.

K-12 education is the top spending item in nearly every state budget and per-pupil spending has increased more than 65 percent over the past 25 years, according to the Digest of Education Statistics. The Cato Institute reports public schools are spending 93 percent more than the estimated median private school.

School choice has helped struggling state budgets and saved taxpayers millions. The Commonwealth Foundation reported that virtual school programs saved Pennsylvania taxpayers more than $146 million in a year by preventing school overcrowding and lessening costly construction projects.

Currently, each state’s school choice program differs, and while some have offered multiple options for parents, others have refused parents these programs entirely — effectively taking away their freedom of choice.

This session, as Congress re-examines our education policies, let’s leave everything on the table. Instead of providing grants that only benefit the public school system, Congress needs to expand funding incentives to charter schools and vouchers for private schools. Our one-size-fits-all approach to education at the federal level is falling flat, and our situation will only improve if we stop pumping resources into a broken system and invest in options with proven results and unlimited potential.

Offering parents the opportunity to choose an educational program that is committed to the success of their child is the key to creating a positive and thriving learning environment around the country.

Jason Stverak is president of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity.

Filed Under: Opinions Tagged With:

Pa. gets good grades in education reform ranking

January 29, 2013 By

by Damon C. Williams
Philadelphia Tribune
January 26, 2013

The Center for Education Reform, a national non-profit tasked with improving public education, has released an encompassing report that grades parental empowerment, solid educational choices, teacher quality and access to digital learning, among other factors. That Pennsylvania ranks in the top ten of all states can be viewed as proof educational reforms in the commonwealth are beginning to take hold.

According to the annual findings released in the Parent Power Index, Pennsylvania trails Indiana, which ranks first; Florida; Ohio; Arizona; Washington, D.C.; Louisiana and Minnesota. Wisconsin and Utah round out the top ten.

The PPI is an interactive, accessible online tool that collects and itemizes data critical to judging the gains and deficiencies in a parent’s control of their child’s education. The index is designed to provide in-depth information to not only parents, but to stakeholders, politicians and education policymakers as well.

“All across America, parents are demanding more power over their children’s education, but the task of sorting through all the information out there is daunting,” said Center for Education Reform President Jeanne Allen. “There are a variety of resources available to evaluate how students are achieving, but there is widespread disagreement about what constitutes sound education reform policy.

As the mother of college students, I liken the PPI to a cumulative GPA, which is a composite of grades from varying professors,” Allen continued. “In this case, these professors are among the nation’s leading authorities and critical evaluators of education policy.”

Each state is graded on five broad categories: school choice, charter schools, online learning, teacher quality and transparency, and the findings related to Pennsylvania are interesting.

For example, the state received points for having a pro-education reform governor in Tom Corbett, but suffered due to limitations in the so-called parent-trigger law, which allows parents to force a change of district leadership if said district doesn’t meet the parents’ standards. The state also received credit for the number and quality of charter schools, for providing school choice and supporting a performance-based pay structure.

Pennsylvania’s overall PPI grade is 74.5 percent.

“A high number of digital learning options prevail alongside charter schools that serve a significant number of students throughout the state. The state affords parents many good information sources and allows them to vote for their elected school boards in traditionally-timed elections,” read PPI’s Pennsylvania summary. “The state’s teacher quality measures are weak, however, and more and better options across all schooling structures are needed and much in demand.”

Pennsylvania was shown to be slightly deficient is several areas, however. On the matter of school choice, the index found that Pennsylvania has two private school choice programs, and that the commonwealth does have a charter school law. Pennsylvania enables public virtual schooling, but needs to address its limited open enrollment policies.

In terms of transparency, the index singled out the School District of Philadelphia and the School Reform Commission for their openness; however, improvements must be made in terms of educating parents about other, less traditional modes of education.

“Pennsylvania’s department of education website is parent-friendly and school report cards are accessible. It is next to impossible, however, to find information on charter or cyber school options. Generally, elections for the 501 local school boards in Pennsylvania are held in November of odd-numbered years,” read the index. “Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission is governed by an appointed panel. Harrisburg and Chester Upland are governed by state appointed boards of control, although their local boards still operate with limited authority.”

The index also shows that Pennsylvania graduates 80.5 percent of its high school students, while the average SAT score is 1473 and the average ACT score is 22.3; of import, Pennsylvania spends an average of $12,418 on per-pupil funding.

“The index’s ‘Top Ten’ prove that when parents have access to options and good information, all children can succeed,” Allen said. “Lawmakers need to look to these exemplars and the policies that have afforded parents greater power elsewhere and act as fast to bring real education reform to their respective states.

“Parents and voters have declared that mediocrity is no longer acceptable,” Allen added, “and our elected officials have a mandate to fix out educational and economic problems for good.”

Filed Under: CER in the News Tagged With: , , , ,

Common Core Pushes Edith Wharton Aside

January 28, 2013 By

January 28, 2013

Who knew Edith Wharton might lose her place in history because of the Common Core? In yet another article about how state standards are being negatively affected by the new wave of national standards, this pioneering piece from the Pioneer Institute makes clear that there’s more at stake than meets the eye.

Seems that there’s no shortage of issues with content and approach bubbling to the surface in the multi-million effort, so much so that the Foundation For Educational Excellence, Jeb Bush’s group, has taken to debunking what they are calling Common Core myths on a regular basis. Myth or reality, the point is that things are going missing. Perhaps we need to dig deeper before going all in.

Filed Under: Commentary, Edspresso Tagged With: ,

RADIO: Jeanne Allen talks School Choice, Parent Power

January 28, 2013 By

Radio Interview
Arizona Politics & Culture
January 27, 2013

CER Founder & President Jeanne Allen talks about school choice, parent power, teacher quality, and more during National School Choice Week kickoff.

Filed Under: CER in the News

National School Choice Week 2013

January 24, 2013 By


Filed Under: Choice & Charter Schools

MS House Passes Charter School Bill

January 24, 2013 By

“House passes charter school bill in wee hours of morning”
by Associated Press
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
January 24, 2013

Bleary-eyed charter schools supporters took a few minutes to bask in a big victory early today, but were quick to acknowledge that the fight’s not over.

The Mississippi House voted 64-55 to pass House Bill 369, which would expand charter schools in the state. The vote came after more than seven hours of debate and three hours of a computer reading the 251-page bill.

Last year, proposals for charter schools — public schools that agree to meet certain standards in exchange for freedom from regulations — never reached the House floor. This year, House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, muscled a carefully tailored bill through his chamber. The bill’s managers conceded enough changes that even a group that had fought the proposal swung over to endorse it during debate yesterday.

“I’m proud we could deliver this for Mississippi children, but we’ve still got a long way to go,” Rep. Charles Busby, R-Pascagoula, said after the debate. The freshman was tapped to handle the bill on the floor, enduring hours of sometimes repetitive questions from mainly Democratic opponents.

Now come negotiations with the Senate, which passed a broader bill last week. The House and the Senate must agree on a version before it can go to Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who during his State of the State address Tuesday reiterated a desire to sign an expanded charter law.

The House version differs from the Senate bill, limiting charters to 15 a year, giving school boards in districts rated “A,” ”B” or “C” a veto, and prohibiting students from crossing district lines. The Senate bill doesn’t impose a limit, doesn’t give a veto to C-rated districts, and allows students to cross lines statewide. Gunn offered concessions to opponents because charter opposition is stronger in the House.

Rep. Pat Nelson, R-Southaven, said the endorsement of the bill by The Parents Campaign, which had been lobbying against it, as one factor that pushed it toward passage. As debate began yesterday afternoon, authors amended the measure to bar charter school boards from hiring for-profit management organizations to run schools.

The lobbying group, which had voiced fears of for-profit groups, announced its support after the nonprofit amendment was adopted.

“We are close to getting a bill that can provide good charter schools for our children who need them — those trapped in chronically underperforming schools,” executive director Nancy Loome wrote in an email to supporters urging them to call lawmakers and tell them to vote ‘yes.’

Still, Nelson and five other Republicans ended up voting against the final bill. But some of those opponents voted to protect the bill against hostile amendments. Republicans managing the bill confirmed an agreement with GOP opponents to vote against amendments proposed by Democrats before voting against the final bill.

Members voted down 17 amendments after approving the first one. Statewatch, a bill-tracking service, said that was the largest number of amendments offered to any proposed legislation in at least six years. Among rejected proposals were ones mandating that charter school teachers join the Public Employees Retirement System, allowing for public referendums before charter schools could be set up, or requiring lawmakers to fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program before setting up charter schools.

The debate was the longest since Republicans took over the House in 2012. Rep. Bob Evans, D-Monticello, forced the 251-page bill to be read, delaying the vote until 12:52 am.

That marathon was still ahead of House members when Busby started the debate by asking: “What will we do today that is different than yesterday that will put our children in a better place tomorrow?”

Busby joined the Education Committee when House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, kicked charter school opponent Linda Whittington, D-Schlater, off the panel. He quoted former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as saying there is no time for evolution in education.

“I want you to help me start the education revolution in Mississippi today,” he said.

But a number of black Democrats said they mistrusted Republicans’ claims of wanting to improve education for black children, a current that flows strongly through their opposition to charter schools.

Several became indignant after Rep. Brad Mayo, a white Oxford Republican, compared his father’s segregated schooling in the Sunflower County town of Drew to the struggling state of schools there today. State education officials forced a merger of the Drew district and the Sunflower County district in July, closing Drew High School, which graduated Archie Manning.

“I don’t believe for one second that you care about improving the plight of our children,” said Rep. Adrienne Wooten, D-Jackson.

Filed Under: Breaking News Tagged With: ,

Utah ranks 11th in U.S. for charter school policy

January 24, 2013 By

by Rachel Lowry
Deseret News
January 23, 2013

Utah charter school policy ranks 11th in the nation, scoring a B grade, according to the Center for Education Reform.

The center, which has been analyzing state charter school laws since 1996, also ranked Utah in the top 10 for online learning, parental choice, teacher quality and transparency in the latest evaluation of charter education.

“Utah is a leader when it comes to hitting those hot-button issues that empower parents to be in the driver’s seat of their children’s education,” said Kara Kerwin, director of external affairs at the Center for Education Reform, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C.

The state’s transparency is exemplary, Kerwin said.

“Utah’s website is parent-friendly and accessible, containing easy-to-understand data,” she said.

Another critical piece, Kerwin said, is the election of local school boards.

“Held during the general elections in November, parents have the convenience, as well as the power, to make decisions about who runs their schools,” she said.

“Utah’s charter school law is considered strong because it provides equitable funding to charter schools, facilities funding and a strong authorizing system that includes capable independent bodies such as universities and the semi-independent state charter board,” according to the center’s website.

Utah ranked high in school choice, as well. “Utah has one private school choice program (special-needs vouchers). The state does have a charter school law. Utah allows for limited public virtual schooling. Open enrollment exists, both for intra-district and inter-district public school choice,” the website said.

According to the website, Utah has adopted “multiple student-centric policies designed specifically to harness the power of technology.” This is due, largely in part, to the passage of SB65 and the Statewide Online Education Program.

Robert Ralphs, executive director of Alianza Academy in Salt Lake City, said state laws and policies allow charter schools to be flexible and encourage the creation of new models. For him, that means online learning.

A hybrid school that combines traditional instruction with nearly three hours of online instruction, Alianza Academy is not the only model for digital learning. Four or five charter schools are modeling such techniques, and nearly every school is moving in that direction, Ralphs said.

“As an outsider who came into the charter school scene only three years ago, I applaud what the people in Utah who’ve been at it for 14 years have done,” he said. “It’s really quite remarkable. And it’s served kids well.”

But there is always room for improvement. Teacher evaluations could use some work, Kerwin said.

“Right now in Utah, eligibility for dismissal is not a consequence of unsatisfactory evaluations,” she said. “Ineffective classroom performance is not grounds for dismissal. That’s not right for our kids. Utah should be thinking about how to better evaluate schools, teachers and students.”

But one consideration must be made, said Sonia Woodbury, director of City Academy, a Salt Lake City charter school.

“The charter school movement started about 20 years ago,” Woodbury said. “So while it’s good that we have people looking at our schools, we have to remember how relatively new this is, in a sense. There’s no clear settling of how things are going to look.”

In terms of state policy and law, Woodbury said she’s been impressed by the Legislature’s willingness to listen.

“Every year, legislators come out of session to speak with us on the hill,” she said. “I attend meetings in small and large groups where I have a voice, and people are listening to us. They seem very accessible to me.”

Of the 43 U.S. states with charter school laws, four states received an A, nine earned a B, 19 got a C, and 11 ranked in D or F categories.

Filed Under: CER in the News

Parent Power Index Rates Each State on Education Options

January 24, 2013 By

by Kelly Ni
The Epoch Times
January 23, 2013

It is well-known that if parents are engaged in their children’s education, then their children will likely be more successful in school, and now for the first time, parents are provided with a Web gateway that indexes and details how much power each state gives to parents regarding their children’s education.

The new tool is called the Parent Power Index (PPI). Parent Power refers to parents’ access to quality education and information, according to the PPI website. The index, created by the Center for Education Reform (CER), is much like an interactive report card.

Parent Power is made up of five elements: charter schools, school choice, teacher quality, transparency, and online learning. If a state does well in these areas, then their PPI is high.

Indiana ranked number one, followed by Florida, Ohio, Arizona, District of Columbia, Louisiana, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Utah, in that order.

Kara Kerwin, director of external affairs at the CER, helped develop the PPI. She said that the elements of Parent Power have been under study since 1996.

“The value that these schools have where parents can make a choice is so critical and increases student achievement,” she said. With systems and policies in place that do not put parents in charge, Kerwin said that parent engagement is very hard.

“For example, one element on the PPI is transparency, so how good the information parents have about their schools is really important,” she added.

“Whether or not school board elections are held during the general election in November, or whether or not they’re held at odd times can really disenfranchise parents from what’s going on in their schools,” Kerwin said, adding that some schools in some towns have moved school board elections to April or March or to the third Monday of an unexpected month.

“It’s not really clear or transparent when they can be voting for the officials that run and operate the schools. So, that’s an important aspect of what gives people power,” Kerwin said.

Vouchers, which give students the tax funds to go to any school of their choice, and scholarships can change lives dramatically, according to Kerwin.

Also taken into account in the PPI are whether or not the state has a parent trigger law, how pro-reform the governor is, and how well the state’s media reports education reforms. The Media Bullpen tracks and rates media’s reporting on education reforms.

According to Kerwin, PPI is all about giving parents information and the power to know they can do something. It’s about informing them on whether or not they have access to choices—and letting them know that they can make choices.

A pioneer in school choice, famed economist Milton Friedman, who pushed for free and open markets and once advised Ronald Regan, dedicated the last years of his life together with his wife, economist Rose Director Friedman, pushing for school choice. Their view, according to the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, is that schools educate better when they are forced to compete. The Friedman Foundation is a source for considering school choice in the PPI.

The element of charter schools in the PPI is ranked by The Essential Guide to Charter School Law 2013 National Ranking and Scorecard, online learning is ranked by Digital Learning Now!, and teacher quality is ranked by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Filed Under: CER in the News

Graduation Rate Moves Up, Hits 78%

January 23, 2013 By

“High school graduation rate tops 78 percent – highest since 1976”
by Allison Terry
Christian Science Monitor
January 22, 2013

Public high school students are graduating at the highest rate since 1976, motivated in part by grim economic conditions and the need to be competitive in a crowded job market.

More than 3.1 million high school students received their diplomas in spring 2010, with 78.2 percent finishing in four years, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported Tuesday. The rate is a 2.7-percentage-point increase over the previous year, and those two rates are the highest since the 75 percent rate in 1975 and 1976.

The report does not analyze for causes, but education officials say the increasing rate can certainly be linked to the struggling economy.

“If you drop out of high school, how many good jobs are there out there for you? None,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan in an Associated Press interview published Tuesday.

This was not the case 10 or 15 years ago, he said.

“When I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, it wasn’t great, but I had lots of friends who dropped out, and they could go work in the stockyards or steel mills, and they could buy a home, support a family, do OK,” Secretary Duncan said.

With an average annual salary of $20,241, high school dropouts earn $10,386 less than high school graduates, who earn $30,627, according to Census Bureau data.

The need for young people to be competitive in the job market is increasingly important, especially as part-time jobs and internships available to students are decreasing, says Donna Harris-Aikens, director of education policy and practices at the National Education Association.

“Part of the impact of the economy on students is that internship slots are being taken by adults who need to switch gears or gain experience in different fields, so they can get back into the mainstream of employment,” Ms. Harris-Aikens says.

It is important for students to see how their education is relevant to their employment experience and how earning a diploma will benefit them in both the short and long term, she says.

The increasing graduation rate is “extremely promising,” Harris-Aikens says, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. “We want to be at 100 percent.”

The achievement gaps along racial lines are a noticeable area for improvement, she says.

Asian/Pacific Islander students graduate at the highest rate (93.5 percent), followed by white students (83 percent), Hispanic students (71.4 percent), American Indian/Alaska Native students (69.1 percent), and black students (66.1 percent), according to the NCES report.

“If we can work to close those gaps, the graduation rate overall will see dramatic increases,” Harris-Aikens says.

The graduation rate also varies widely across states: Lowest-ranked Nevada reported 57.8 percent graduation rate, and top-ranked Vermont reported 91.4 percent.

One next step is to do a more in-depth analysis to see which strategies are working and which strategies need to be readjusted.

The most important strategy, Harris-Aikens says, is “paying attention to details and talking to kids, helping them figure out what they need.”

NCES bases the graduation rate on the averaged freshman graduation rate (AFGR), an estimate of public high school students who graduate within four years of starting ninth grade. The US Department of Education continues to refine the way it reports graduation rates, including establishing a national formula for state reports, but the AFGR is currently the best measure, the NCES report says.

Filed Under: Breaking News

Newswire: January 23, 2013

January 23, 2013 By

Vol. 15, No. 3

CER at 20. Yep it’s that time again. Another anniversary. This one is the 20th, and we will celebrate the tried and true classics of education reform –– the people and the issues –– on October 9, 2013, in Washington DC. A conference and review of the movement during the day, a gala to beat all galas at night. Mark your calendar. You will not want to miss it! Speaking of another kind of Miss…

HIT OR MISS? The Mississippi Senate approved an amendment to the state’s weak charter law last week, creating an additional authorizer route to improve the chances that schools will be approved outside of the school board monopoly. That monopoly is drumming up myths and fear surrounding the potential for new people to come into the state to run schools (oh, my!) and that some could actually dare to be from companies that pay taxes, and who have a solid track record of education in other states. A group of status quo citizens parading around as a parent network have caused House Ed members to restrict the already modest Senate proposal. With MS education scraping the bottom, and kids in jeopardy, it’s hard to imagine why brave lawmakers would accept more mediocrity.

CHOICE IS A CIVIL RIGHT. Congratulations President Obama on your second inauguration and how fitting it fell on the day we recognize Dr. King. Many reformers tweeted with pride as you recalled “The Preamble” from our Declaration of Independence, as you called for us to equalize the playing field for all Americans. You mentioned education, but you did not mention equity there. Unshackled by union payback and votes, and as we prepare to celebrate National School Choice Week, it’s time to revisit your opposition to school choice, challenge your supporters and truly equalize opportunity in America. We were reminded of the impact politics has on one’s point of view when we uncovered again this letter from then-Gov. Clinton to Wisc. Rep. Polly Williams as she launched a movement for school choice from the African-American community, back in 1990! Her legacy took hold and grew. As president, Clinton would go on to veto the program many of us fought for in DC, and a version eventually became law, though not without opposition. Join us now, post election, in this latest horizon for civil rights.

MANDATE FOR LEADERSHIP. For our “new” leadership, even a limited federal role can accomplish much for education. Mandate for Change offers evergreen advice for any government leader or policy maker, now and in the future. Mandate is a call to action – and we must begin to act now.

BAEO. Join others united to resolve the aforementioned inequities when the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) convenes in Orlando from March 14-16, 2013 for its annual symposium.

STAY INFORMED. Get in the game at the Media Bullpen, the nation’s largest and only aggregator of education news. Set up personalized feeds, comment and share national, state, and local news from CER’s 24/7 virtual newsroom.

Filed Under: Newswire Weekly
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