“Opponents were wrong about impact of vouchers”

MIAMI HERALD   

By Jeb Bush

April 14, 2008 “A quality education can change a life. It can lift a child out of poverty and provide young people with the skills to achieve their dreams. “Knowing this, how can anyone deny a poor child the right to a quality education? “In 1999,
Florida created Opportunity Scholarships to empower parents with financial resources to give their children a quality education. Under the program, students in chronically failing public schools were eligible for a voucher to attend a public or private school of their choice. The program was based on the principles that parents know better than bureaucracies how to best educate their children and that providing a quality education to children in low income families was the best way to prevent a life-long dependence on government. “Our history proves that the opponents were simply wrong about the impact of vouchers. Vouchers did not trigger a mass exodus of students from public schools. During the last year of the program, almost 190,000 students in public school were eligible for an Opportunity Scholarship, but only 734 students in the entire state participated; 95 percent were minority students from low income families. Moreover, participating schools could not pick and choose students. Closing the gap “Vouchers did not drain money from the public schools. Since vouchers were established in 1999,
Florida has increased funding per student by 49 percent. In fact, the program actually saved money. The state paid an average of $4,000 for an Opportunity Scholarship rather than the $7,206 provided for a student attending public school. To ensure accountability for the public funds, the state required a myriad of measures for participating schools. “Since introducing accountability and school choice,
Florida has experienced unprecedented rising student achievement in public schools. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, our fourth graders are now above the national average in reading and math. Eighth graders are ninth in the nation in writing. Overall, the state is closing the achievement gap.
Florida ’s high school graduation rate has in creased by more than 12 percent since 1999, and more students are entering college. “Unfortunately, Opportunity Scholarships were struck down as unconstitutional by a state appellate court in 2002. The appellate court ruled that vouchers represented ”indirect support” of a religious institution — even though the state was paying for a service, not funding a particular dogma. In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the decision and also ruled that vouchers for private schools violated a constitutional requirement that public education be ”uniform.” Under this tortured reasoning, a better education from a private school was unconstitutional because it was different than the education provided by a public school. “Fortunately, voters will get an opportunity to decide the merits of the first issue, which was placed on November’s ballot by the Taxation and Budget Review Commission. Opponents will again claim vouchers violate the separation of church and state, even though parents — not government — decide where to send their children to school. If the appellate court’s decision was applied ”uniformly” across the spectrum of government spending, it would end funding of dozens of programs that improve the quality of life for millions of Floridians.  Few choices“The state would end funding for similar voucher programs, including private options under Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Program and McKay Scholarships, which allow students with disabilities to opt for private programs that meet their special needs. High-achieving graduates would not be able use Bright Futures Scholarships to attend a private college. Faith-based prisons would close. The state would no longer fund programs that provide compassionate care for the elderly, support for families struggling to stay together and help for people who are dealing with addiction. The list goes on. “Disappointingly, the issue of uniformity is unlikely to make it to the ballot. The same commission decided not to put the issue to the voters, where Floridians could voice their opinion about the best way to provide a quality education.

“Meanwhile, too many children are not getting the quality education they deserve because they have few choices. As adults, many of them will lack the skills to succeed in the competitive global marketplace, leaving them dependent on government rather than their own abilities. That is the legacy of opponents of school choice.” 

Parents; remember one thing. These children are OURS. The law may mandate that we HAVE to educate, but we have the right to CHOOSE HOW WE DO IT. If they say we must… WE must  insist that we have the right to say HOW it is done. If you don’t know, FLorida law allows home schooling since 1985 and Florida law allows “Schooling at home” since 2003. This is an eductional choice we have made, and we now must let our voices be heard loud and clear above the normal din that we want to be treated the same. “TREAT US THE SAME!” Our school is no different in stature than the one on the corner or the one down the block. “TREAT US THE SAME.”

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This is the time in this struggle, that we now must all link arms, and symbolically campaign together and in large numbers. We must talk to the legislators who work FOR US and let them know that we must be TREATED THE SAME AS ANY SCHOOL. “TREAT US THE SAME!”

If you can’t be here with us be here in spirit. Register now, if you haven’t with the coalition. Do it now, while you think about it. Be here with a letter or an email, nicely worded to the legislators from your district letting them know that your vote for them was given to them and they represent you. Let them know on this issue you want them to vote for the support of and the continuation and increased limits for virtual education. You must tell them this is a bellweather issue for you and your family, and you will expect nothing less.  Let them know this is not a give and take issue for you. This is for our children and we want to have them TREAT US THE SAME.

Today we campaign for our children. Our children campaign for tomorrow. We campaign for real CHANGE. We campaign so the program that has meant so much for us is around for the children to come. TREAT US THE SAME. The mantra is school choice. We’ve made our choice. TREAT US THE SAME.

I was cruising the web and this article from the Heritage Foundation posted to their blog/website at  Heritage.org (link to follow)was brought to my attention about educational choice in America. Spend a minute and read it.

In it, the author Dan Lips, does a very good job of summarizing the school choice program, and the states that offer them. He also points out the improvements and changes brought about by parents being allowed to remove their children from underperforming public schools.

The paragraph that caught my attention (of course) was the one about virtual and distance learning. He brings out the percentage of districts that now offer Virtual and Distance Learning, and is in general very positive about the program that “would not have been possible” not very long ago.

The CONCLUSION is what summarizes the whole article and here we’ll quote.

“Across the United States, a growing number of families are benefiting from greater opportunities to choose the best schools for their children. Today, 13 states and Washington, D.C., have private school choice programs. Most states now offer at least some choice within the traditional public school system through charter schools or public school choice laws.

Still, millions of American children remain assigned to low-performing public schools. State and federal policymakers should implement educa­tion reforms to give all parents the opportunity to choose the best schools for their children.”

After all, that is what it’s all about. The ability to choose the best schools for OUR children.

Information from Heritage Foundation’s website (Heritage.org) was used in the preparation of this post.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/bg2102.cfm

“The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people.”

Sound like the education section of a current presidential candidate’s stump speech? It’s actually from the landmark 1983 Department of Education study, “A Nation at Risk.” In the 25 years since the report was released, education spending has doubled in real terms, but student achievement has flat-lined.

U.S. eighth-graders outperform fewer than half of their peers on international assessments. By 12th grade, they perform on a par with students from Lithuania and surpass only students from Cyprus and South Africa.

Such mediocrity plagues suburban public schools, too, not just the mostly poor, inner-city ones so commonly associated with substandard academic performance.

California is an acute example. At more than 10 percent of affluent, middle-class public schools, fewer than half of the students in at least one grade level are proficient in English or math on the California Standards Test.

This despite the fact that fewer than one-third of these schools’ students are poor. Few students are English-language learners or have disabilities. Most parents in the community are well educated, and most, if not all, teachers are certified.

Take Prospect High School in the wealthy Silicon Valley enclave of Saratoga, for example. The community’s median home price is $1.6 million, but only 23percent of its geometry students are proficient on their math exams, as are only 12percent of its algebra students.

With such poor scores in the tech industry’s backyard, it’s no wonder that Silicon Valley executives fret about finding enough talented foreign workers to fill the jobs their growing industry demands. Most of America’s business community believes that the current system does not prepare students for the work force, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The solution for this malaise is one the business community should be familiar with: competition.

Allowing parents to send their children to any traditional public school, regardless of where they live, raises school productivity by at least 28percent in terms of higher student achievement and more efficient spending. Competition from independent

public charter schools multiplies those effects.

For example, poorly performing schools in Michigan and Arizona saw increases in annual math and reading scores after only 6 percent of their students shopped with their feet by opting for charter schools. Those improved scores came without a penny of additional state expenditure.

We’ve already applied competition to higher education in this country, as colleges and universities – both public and private – must compete for students and their education dollars. It’s no coincidence that America’s higher-education system is the envy of the rest of the world.

Vouchers and tuition tax-credit scholarship programs introduce similar competition at the level of kindergarten through 12th grade. In fact, such programs yield the same gains in math achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress as raising per-pupil spending by more than $3,000 does.

In the District of Columbia and the 13 states that have them, school voucher and tuition tax-credit scholarship programs have saved almost half a billion dollars – all while delivering superior academic results.

It’s not too late to stem the “rising tide of mediocrity” in education that we were first warned about 25 years ago – to prepare students for the rigors of today’s global economy, end the monopoly system of assigned schooling and open the schoolhouse door to competition.

Vicki E. Murray, Ph.D., is senior fellow in education studies at the Pacific Research Institute in Sacramento. She is co-author of “Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice.”