Educate Nevada Now, which advocates for public schools, documents the damage that vouchers will cause to public schools and the great majority if students who attend them. ENN is funded by the Rogers Foundation.
ENN reports:
MOST NEVADA SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO FACE BUDGET DEFICITS
Las Vegas, NV – Proponents of the new “education savings account” (ESA) law, enacted in June by the Nevada Legislature, are touting ESAs as beneficial for public school children. On closer inspection, it is clear that ESA’s, the transfer of potentially large amounts of public funding to pay for tuition at private and religious schools and other entities, poses a grave threat to the 450,000 children enrolled in Nevada public schools.
The new law requires the State Treasurer to transfer public school funding to an ESA for any student who leaves Nevada’s public schools. These transferred public funds are similar to a “voucher” that can be used to pay for all or part of private or religious school tuition. But the Nevada ESA law goes beyond private school vouchers, allowing the public funds deposited into an ESA to pay for an unlimited array of services, fees and other expenses provided by any for-profit or non-profit “participating entity.”
The ESA law is intended and designed to divert millions of taxpayer dollars from public schools to pay for private and religious schooling. Moreover, it could support an unlimited variety of other services, with little or no accountability for education outcomes and the use of those dollars.
ESAs will impact Nevada’s public school children in three critical ways:
Reducing public school funding and resources,
Increasing student segregation and isolation in public schools,
Limited or no accountability for the private schools and other entities accepting ESA funds.
Reduced Resources
The ESA law requires the “statewide average basic support per pupil” — $5,100 per student and $5,710 for low-income, and students with disabilities — be deposited into each ESA from local district budgets, a process that will divert, over time, substantial resources from the public schools. Studies have shown that Nevada substantially underfunds K-12 public education. For example, calculations by the Guinn Center show that Nevada K-12 funding is over $3,000 per pupil, or $1.5 billion, below the amount determined adequate by a 2015 education cost study. A recent ENN analysis shows that, even after the Legislature increased funding in the biennium budget, most Nevada school districts, including Clark County, are once again facing shortfalls in their operating budgets for the 2015-16 school year.
ESAs will trigger an outflow of funds from already inadequate school district budgets, beginning in the 2015-16 school year. This loss of funding to ESAs will further impede districts’ ability to provide sufficient qualified teachers, reasonable class size, English language instruction, and gifted and talented programs. Furthermore, services for students academically at-risk and special education, will undermine the opportunity for public school students to achieve and graduate ready for college or the workforce.
As children leave public schools with ESA funds, some of the costs to educate those students, will leave with them. But, ESAs will cause a deficit for the local district, given the fixed costs of operating the school system for all children. As ESAs take funds out of the school system, the cost of educating the remaining students – e.g., providing teachers, maintaining buildings, offering rigorous curriculum – must still be covered by the district. As more ESAs are established, the budget deficits in the districts will increase, resulting in fewer teachers, larger class sizes, and cuts to gifted and talented, art and music, and other essential resources.
ESAs also create instability in district and school budgets. Districts will not know how many students will exit and how much money will be taken out of the budget during the school year. This unpredictability will make it difficult to manage public school budgets, as local administrators won’t know how many teachers and staff to hire, whether to fix buildings in disrepair, or how to allocate funds to provide sufficient resources to schools throughout the school year. It is also difficult for districts to increase or lower the teacher workforce during the school year, as hiring is done in the spring and summer before the start of the school year. Teacher vacancies and reliance on unqualified substitutes – already a major problem – could rise, impeding the recruitment and retention of effective teachers.
Student Isolation and Segregation
ESAs, by design, will increase segregation of students by disability, economic status, and other factors. The ESA law does not require the private and religious schools and other entities accepting ESA funds to educate students with special needs, does not prohibit discrimination, and does not ban selective admissions practices, such as pre-testing. Similar to the current record of Nevada charter schools, ESA schools will serve disproportionately fewer students with disabilities, students in poverty, and students learning English, than many public schools serving the same communities and neighborhoods.
Because the ESA per student amount does not cover the full cost of tuition at private and religious schools, families must have the personal means to cover any remaining tuition. This will also include the cost of fees, uniforms, books, transportation and other expenses associated with private and religious schooling.
The ESA law has no limit on the income of households that can obtain ESA funds. There is only a handful of private schools in Nevada with tuition low enough to be covered by $5,100 or $5,710, the annual ESA amount. ESAs are designed to be a “subsidy” by more affluent families who can already afford to send their children to selective private and religious schools. Conversely, ESAs are insufficient for students from low-income families, and those who need more costly English language instruction or special education services. At-risk students will stay in the public schools, therefore, increasing the segregation of students based on race, socio-economic status, disability, English language proficiency, and other factors in those schools.
No Accountability
The ESA law is vague, allowing ESA funds to pay for tuition, services, fees and other expenses, not just to private schools, but to any “participating entity,” including for-profit businesses. ESAs can be used not only for private or religious schools, but also online education, a tutor or tutoring facility, or, as one lawmaker testified, reimbursement for home schooling. The law also allows ESAs to buy textbooks and curriculum, pay for transportation, and even to reimburse financial institutions to manage the voucher “savings account” itself. Any ESA funds not spent on K-12 can be reserved for post-secondary tuition or fees.
In enacting this law, the Legislature cites no evidence that private and religious schools, online schooling – or the unlimited array of services offered by for-profit and non-profit providers – paid for by ESA funds, will produce better education outcomes for Nevada’s public school children.
The ESA law has virtually none of the accountability measures imposed by the Legislature on public schools. The law requires student tests in math and English language arts, but the tests can be any “norm-referenced achievement exams.” They need not be comparable to Nevada public school tests. There is no requirement that private school teachers be qualified or offer a curriculum based on Nevada common core standards. The law provides no way to know whether students are achieving sufficient outcomes, and there is no protection for parents and students from being victimized by low-performing, under-performing and non-performing schools or other “participating entities.”
The ESA law has no meaningful mechanism for state oversight or review, let alone the type of rigorous fiscal and education standards public schools must adhere to. For example, there is no mechanism for investigating and closing schools or sanctioning “participating entities” that fail to properly educate students.
Unlike Nevada public schools, the private and religious schools accepting ESA funds are not prohibited from discriminating based on race, gender or disability. Although they will receive funds appropriated by the Legislature for public education, the private institutions, businesses and other organizations that participate in the ESA program are exempt from the most basic protections that prevent discrimination of disadvantaged and vulnerable student populations.
Finally, the private for-profit or non-profit education providers that accept ESA funds can use their admissions rules, including competitive pretesting, transcript evaluation and letters of recommendation. These schools and entities are free to select students based on who they decide fit their religious or secular mission, culture and program. In contrast, Nevada public schools have a constitutional duty to educate all children, including those with disabilities and other special needs, and those children whom private and religious schools choose not to admit or decide to remove from school.
ESAs Harm Public Schools and Students
ESAs, by design, will weaken Nevada’s public education system and undermine the efforts of public school teachers, administrators and parents to improve outcomes for all students, including at-risk children. Over half of Nevada public school students are economically disadvantaged. Nevada has the largest percentage of English language learner students in the nation. ESAs will further concentrate and isolate those students in the public schools while taking away critical resources necessary for a quality education.
ESAs are a serious setback for Nevada public schools and students. ESAs will erode already inadequate funding and budgets, reduce essential education resources, widen achievement gaps and increase segregation. Most important, ESAs will impede progress in ensuring that all students have a meaningful opportunity for a sound basic education as guaranteed by the Nevada Constitution.
Contact: Stavan Corbett | Director of Outreach
702.657.3114 | scorbett@educatenevadanow.com
http://www.educatenevadanow.com
About ENN
Educate Nevada Now! (ENN) is a non-partisan coalition of education stakeholders whose mission is to bring equity to the distribution of Nevada State educational funding. ENN’s membership is comprised of education groups, teachers, community organizations, parents, and students across the State. The reform of the State education funding will ensure that all of Nevada’s children receive the same educational opportunities regardless of location or wealth of the community.
Is anyone challenging this on Constitutional grounds? I can see folks like the Duggars lining up to cash in on hone-schooling their brood.
This is the plan.
As ESAs take funds out of the school system, the cost of educating the remaining students – e.g., providing teachers, maintaining buildings, offering rigorous curriculum – must still be covered by the district. As more ESAs are established, the budget deficits in the districts will increase, resulting in fewer teachers, larger class sizes, and cuts to gifted and talented, art and music, and other essential resources.
And this is the endorcement of Nevada’s plan from the Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2015. Begin excerpt
“For the first time since the nation’s first voucher program was enacted in Milwaukee 25 years ago, this year more than half of the states plus the District of Columbia have some form of private school choice.
Teachers unions fiercely opposed the bill. “This is a ploy by those who deplore public education and want to destroy it,” charged Democratic state Sen. Joyce Woodhouse. But that tired argument lost.
The emergence of education savings accounts may mark the beginning of the end for an ossified education-delivery system that is has changed little since the 19th century. It begins an important shift of government from a monopoly provider of education into an enabler of education in whatever form or forum it most benefits the child.
By reducing the need for bureaucracies and capital construction, education savings accounts can reverse the ever-growing costs of public education, even as the accounts provide resources for families to save for college. They can help surmount Blaine Amendment obstacles that appear in about two-thirds of state constitutions. Most important, they hitch public policy to infinite technological possibilities, creating the first truly 21st-century education model wherein public funding follows the child. Mr. Bolick is vice president for litigation at the Goldwater Institute. “ End excerpt.
The 43 comments are filled with demeaning venom toward public schools and teacher unions. Really sickening portrayals.
It sounds like a lot of “double speak” used to justify the abrogation of responsibility of the state to its children, and more opportunities for corporations to insert themselves in education for PROFIT.
So when will be see a court challenge? The voucher law surely violates the state constitution.
Great piece on the Ohio ed reform movement failure on transparency and accountability:
“It wasn’t long ago when I wrote here that while there was much hope for reforming Ohio’s nationally ridiculed charter school system, there remained major hurdles – specifically the politically powerful for-profit, poor performing charter school lobby.
Well, it appears that the poor-performing charter school sector has again won the day. A substantive, meaningful reform package that passed unanimously out of the Ohio Senate late last month wasn’t even taken up by the Ohio House in time for the summer recess, even though there were the votes to pass it.”
It’ll happen in Nevada too, where media will fall out of love with ed reform. It has to reach a kind of tipping point.
http://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2015/07/09/money_talks_reform_walks_ohio_fails_to_fix_its_nationally_ridiculed_charter_school_system_1207.html
Vouchers have been a rousing success in AZ. People are using the voucher money for all kinds of things…even abortions!
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2015/06/17/attorney-general-investigation-public-education-funds-abortion/28903183/
The Rogers Foundation supported this? Bob Rogers was very proud of the education he obtained in NV and one of the tag lines on his TV station ads referred to being proud graduates. Can’t imagine how the Foundation would be taken in by this crazy bill.
The Rogers Foundation funded the critique of the bill. It did not support the choice program. It supports Nevada’s public schools.
Thank you.
From the Nevada Constitution:
Article 11, Sections 9-10
Sec: 9. Sectarian instruction prohibited in common schools and university. No sectarian instruction shall be imparted or tolerated in any school or University that may be established under this Constitution.
Section Ten. No public money to be used for sectarian purposes. No public funds of any kind or character whatever, State, County or Municipal, shall be used for sectarian purpose.
[Added in 1880. Proposed and passed by the 1877 legislature; agreed to and passed by the 1879 legislature; and approved and ratified by the people at the 1880 general election. See: Statutes of Nevada 1877, p. 221; Statutes of Nevada 1879, p. 149.]
Seems rather straight forward to me.
From the post: “The new law requires the State Treasurer to transfer public school funding to an ESA for any student who leaves Nevada’s public schools.”
And in more news: “The new law requires the State Treasurer to transfer public school funding to any ESA for any white student who leaves Nevada’s public schools.”
The first would be constitutional??? but not the second???
Not from my “close reading” of the wording of the Constitution.
The vouchers aren’t enough for a private school. It’s just yet another way to cut education funding.
Maybe they won’t be popular. They were basically a big flop in Ohio. Despite constant dishonest attacks from politicians and their lobbyists, people seem to like public schools.
I have a question, though. If you take your voucher and that harms the vast majority of kids in public schools, why isn’t it “opting out” and why are only the people who opt out of tests scolded?
So opting out of standardized tests is bad but opting out of the public education system and taking funding with you isn’t? Or is this just another ed reform political alliance, where they approve of opting out of the public school system but not the standardized testing system because they have political allies in the voucher crowd?
“The ESA law requires the “statewide average basic support per pupil” — $5,100 per student and $5,710 for low-income, and students with disabilities — be deposited into each ESA from local district budgets, a process that will divert, over time, substantial resources from the public schools.”
Let us examine this carefully. Nevada spends about $8400 per student in public schools as of 2013. If a student leaves the school district and takes away $5100 he leaves behind $3300 to the public school district. This improves the finances of the school district (per student basis) because the district no longer has the responsibility of educating those students that left the system.
“ESAs will trigger an outflow of funds from already inadequate school district budgets, beginning in the 2015-16 school year. This loss of funding to ESAs will further impede districts’ ability to provide sufficient qualified teachers, reasonable class size, English language instruction, and gifted and talented programs.”
The public schools district has more funds per student now that some of the students are cashing in their ESA money and going to private schools and are no longer the responsibility of the public school district. Now the public school districts have more money per student they should be able to provide better education, smaller class sizes, more gifted programs etc. There is no loss of funding on a per student basis.
But if for example 20% of the students leave the public schools, the public schools will need to get rid of about 20% of the teachers and support staff. The unions will have lost membership. LAUSD is a perfect example of this. They have 21% students in charter schools and the UTLA has lost 20% of its membership.
As more students leave the public school system, the public school teachers jobs are no longer guaranteed and they may have to work a little harder. Therefore there is an incentive for the school districts and the teachers to improve such that they retain the students in the public school district. Is that such a bad thing for the students of the public schools on Nevada? The days of the teacher saying “I am safe, I have tenure and my union dues are paid up” will be in the past.
Moral, “Every one has to work hard to retain his/her job in the private sector and now in Nevada the teachers also must work hard.”
Therefore, the assumption is that teachers don’t work hard because they have tenure. Nothing could be further from the truth. Clearly, you know little about public education. In all my decades of teaching, I would love to know where all these lazy teachers are. All I ever came across was teachers swallowing food whole to rush back to class, teachers giving up their lunch to help students, or teachers coming in early to help students or meet with parents. There is so much more teachers do for which they do not receive compensation. While they are giving of their skills and their time, they are not thinking about tenure. In fact, they hardly have enough time to go to the bathroom so they rarely have any time to think about tenure.
Because teachers weren’t working hard before? How dare you insinuate that? Why do you keep commenting in here when you hate public education and teachers?
You sound like Jeb! saying Americans must work harder. Not everyone has to work hard in the private sector to keep a job. I’ve worked for plenty of relatives of the boss. If you truly think the private sector is a cozy meritocracy, you are pretty uninformed. They call it crony capitalism for reason. But I always tell people like you “if teaching is such a cushy job, become one”.
Raj,
Read the language of the constitution. Please, tell me how what is suggested by these ESA accounts doesn’t countermand the constitution.
Nevada is a “right to work”for less state. No teacher unions.
And when the fly by night operators close and students are booted from the private schools the now crippled public schools will have to absorb them without the teachers they need, leading to more problems. Your moral is bogus Raj: Teachers do work hard to keep their jobs. Job retention is now a capricious thing due to in large part greed. The oligarchs in France thought like you, but remember, when jobs are scarce, crime goes up….it is more expensive.
Here are a couple more “gems” that came out of this year’s legislative session in Nevada:
A.B. 448: Assembly Bill 448 creates the Achievement School District (ASD), a sweeping education reform which will convert the lowest performing schools in our state to achievement charter schools. The State Board of Education will review and approve the schools placed into the new District as recommended by the ASD Executive Director.
A.B. 483: This measure was one of Governor Sandoval’s five allotted bills following his State of the State address. A.B. 483 will require school districts to reward their top performing teachers through salary increases. Pay-for-Performance compensation plans will be exempt from collective bargaining and districts will be required to set aside sufficient funding to provide bonuses for highly effective teachers and principals.
In addition, 50% of teachers’ evaluations will be based on student test scores. The other 50% comes from the 5 standards of the NEPF (an example found here:) http://rpdp.net/admin/images/uploads/resource_146.pdf
My principal informed the (middle school) staff at the close of last school year that beginning next year students who submit work late will not be penalized. In fact, they have until the end of the grading period to turn assignments in. Moreover, they are allowed to redo any assignment as many times as they’d like, regardless of the score they earned. We had a policy in which students could redo assignments/tests below 80%, but the new policy states there is no minimum score. I feel these new policies will create a nightmare for record-keeping. I also feel that we are not teaching our students to be responsible/accountable by allowing them to turn things in whenever they feel like it (and then to be able to redo it if they score poorly)!
Thoughts?
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
This link http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/busting-myths-about-nevadas-groundbreaking-education-savings-accounts is to an article.Chantall Lovell about the great deal parents in Nevada are getting. My comment to her follows..
Aloha Chantall,
I found your comments about the use of the new vouchers to be of interest because when we look up the tuition at a variety of well known “high quality” independent schools, we find that the tuition for attendance is $20,000/year annually and higher. Some schools in the LA area are close to $40,000.00 per year. These schools also have large endowments that keep the fees lower than they might otherwise be. $5,000.00 might pay for lunches and the graduation and lab fees for seniors at some of them. What is a parent to do? We’ve been blind-sided by the politicos once more.
Joe Weldon