Steven Singer, who teaches in Pennsylvania, lists the top ten reasons why school choice is no choice.
Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos believe that school choice is the best possible education ponies, including vouchers, charter schools, perhaps trade schools and home schooling. Maybe anyone who puts the word “School” on a building will get part of the bobanza.
Singer shows what is wrong with school choice. Here are four of his ten reasons why school choice is no choice. Open the post to see the links and read the other six:
“On the surface of it, school choice sounds like a great idea.
“Parents will get to shop for schools and pick the one that best suits their children.
“Oh! Look, Honey! This one has an exceptional music program! That one excels in math and science! The drama program at this one is first in the state!
“But that’s not at all what school choice actually is.
“In reality, it’s just a scam to make private schools cheaper for rich people, further erode the public school system and allow for-profit corporations to gobble up education dollars meant to help children succeed.
“Here’s why:
“1) Voucher programs almost never provide students with full tuition.
“Voucher programs are all the rage especially among conservatives. Legislation has been proposed throughout the country taking a portion of tax dollars that would normally go to a public school and allowing parents to put it toward tuition at a private or parochial school. However, the cost of going to these schools is much higher than going to public schools. So even with your tax dollars in hand, you don’t have the money to go to these schools. For the majority of impoverished students attending public schools, vouchers don’t help. Parents still have to find more money somewhere to make this happen. Poor folks just can’t afford it. But rich folks can so let’s reduce their bill!? They thank you for letting them buy another Ferrari with money that should have gone to give poor and middle class kids get an education.
“2) Charter and voucher schools don’t have to accept everyone
“When you choose to go to one of these schools, they don’t have to choose to accept you. In fact, the choice is really all up to them. Does your child make good grades? Is he or she well-behaved, in the special education program, learning disabled, etc.? If they don’t like your answers, they won’t accept you. They have all the power. It has nothing to do with providing a good education for your child. It’s all about whether your child will make them look good. By contrast, public schools take everyone and often achieve amazing results with the resources they have.
“3) Charter Schools are notorious for kicking out hard to teach students
“Charter schools like to tout how well they help kids learn. But they also like to brag that they accept diverse students. So they end up accepting lots of children with special needs at the beginning of the year and then giving them the boot before standardized test season. That way, these students’ low scores won’t count against the charter school’s record. They can keep bragging about their high test scores without actually having to expend all the time and energy of actually teaching difficult students. Only public schools take everyone and give everyone their all.
“4) Voucher and charter schools actually give parents less choice than traditional public schools
“Public schools are governed by different rules than charter and voucher schools. Most public schools are run by a school board made up of duly-elected members from the community. The school board is accountable to that community. Residents have the right to be present at votes and debates, have a right to access public documents about how tax money is being spent, etc. None of this is true at most charter or voucher schools. They are run by executive boards or committees that are not accountable to parents. If you don’t like what your public school is doing, you can organize, vote for new leadership or even take a leadership role, yourself. If you don’t like what your charter or voucher school is doing, your only choice is to withdraw your child. See ya.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Home school vouchers! I’d like to see those delivered to the door in large format like Publishers clearing house sweepstakes checks. $10,000 per student, Ka-ching! Now back to your device beloved munchkin.
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The assumption that poor parents have the knowledge and resources necessary to make reasonable choices among schools is ridiculous.
We’ll soon have to add classes in picking schools for your children to the HS curriculum. I understand people in NY have hired consultants to help them pick schools. What criteria can parents use? Choice seems burdensome at the start and opens parents to possible feelings of guilt if a friend’s child seems to be having more fun in the school they chose.
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Congress will rubber stamp it, too.
The “hearings” will consist of the same 150 ed reform expert witnesses saying the same things.
I don’t know why they bother with hearings. They all signed on to privatization years ago. They’re bickering over details.
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Ed reform thinking is like the Galapagos Islands. Lots of evolutionary aberrations from too much isolation.
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Most excellent posting.
IMHO, #2 in particular gets to the heart of the matter: it’s not a question of abstract choice but very concretely—
Who decides what choices are accepted or rejected? Who decides when choices are to be changed or maintained? Who gets to decide what choices are offered to what people—and what choices are denied to what people? And for what reasons? Who decides such matters as transparency or opacity in decision-making?
With the leaders and chief enforcers of corporate education reform movement zealously pursuing $tudent $ucce$$, it all goes back for them to this version of the Golden Rule [I saw this in a cartoon strip about 50 years ago]:
He who has the gold, makes the rules.
Choice? We should have the right to reject rheephorm’s Golden Rule. What to put in its place?
How about whatever it takes for public schools to strive for a “better education for all”?
Lakeside School for everyone. No exceptions. No excuses.
Just sayin’…
😎
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Both charters and vouchers represent a disinvestment in the common good. They provide benefits to few at the expense of many. They dilute our capacity to do our best for the most, and the splinter schools these students attend are often much worse than regular public schools. They are often run by amateurs that use antiquated methodologies and inadequate or misinformed curricula. “Intelligent design” has no basis in science, and public dollars should not be used to underwrite this type of instruction. We need to keep the public in public education led by professionals.
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Amen, retired teacher.
And thank you, Diane and Singer!
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“When you choose to go to one of these schools, they don’t have to choose to accept you. In fact, the choice is really all up to them.” In my experience, this exactly explains the choice school game I’ve seen tearing our district apart for more than fifteen years. After fifteen years of test-core fanatic invasions our district can now brag of having one of the most notable “achievement” (opportunity) gaps in the nation.
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I am delighted with the choice of Ms. DeVos for education secretary. She will fight for parents to have school choice.
The reasons that the public school teachers unions (NEA/AFT) are going ballistic, are that they are going to get their government-mandated monopoly broken up. The liberal elites who fight school choice (vouchers/charters) for the rest of us, more often send their kids to quality private schools. Bill Clinton and barak Obama fought school choice for ordinary Americans, and then sent their kids to Sidwell Friends (an exclusive private school).
Many (not all) public school teachers send their kids to private school. Many more would do so! see
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/why-im-a-public-school-teacher-but-a-private-school-parent/386797/#article-comments
http://humanevents.com/2013/10/17/where-do-public-school-teachers-send-their-own-kids/
The “reasons” presented in the article are mostly bogus.
1- Vouchers almost never provide the full cost. True. In some cases, the cost of a private/parochial education is less than what the government spends. Vouchers will provide a portion of the costs. Vouchers can be set up on a “sliding scale”, and provide more resources to low-income families.
2) Charter and voucher schools don’t have to accept everyone
Not necessarily. Schools can be required to accept all applicants, in order to accept the voucher students. I foresee a “cafeteria” of schools, public, private,parochial.
3) Charter Schools are notorious for kicking out hard to teach students. Not always. Many charter schools offer scholarships, precisely to help lower-income, and lower-aptitude students.
4) Voucher and charter schools actually give parents less choice than traditional public schools
Ridiculous. With more diverse funding, there will be more schools and therefore more choice.
5) Charter Schools do no better and often much worse than traditional public schools
Data? Where do you come up with this? The product (education) of private/charter schools is often superior to what is offered at government schools. Else, rich parents would withdraw their kids. Market forces work to push private/parochial/charter schools to deliver quality, else their customers (parents) will pull the kids out, and send them elsewhere. Market forces have no “push” in monopoly government schools.
6) Charters and voucher schools increase segregation
Bogus. For-profit schools will take kids whose parents can pay, regardless of color or race. Government oversight can ensure that all schools take students, without regard to race/color/creed.
7) Charter and voucher schools take away funding at traditional public schools
This statement is true. Yes, when the funding that used to go to failing public schools is directed to choice schools, the dollars will go. This is a “zero-sum game”. The money will go to the schools that deliver quality and leave the schools which are failing. Good. Just like when a parent moves to a new public school district, the student (and the money)follow the student.,
8) Properly funding parallel school systems would be incredibly wasteful and expensive
This statement is true. Paying twice for each child is wasteful and expensive. Right now, only the rich liberal elites, who already pay property taxes to support their local public school, and then pay tuition at the private school, where they send their kids, can afford this waste.
The way to avoid this waste, is to have a voucher plan. This way, all parents, rich and poor, will be paying for only one educational funding plan.
9) School choice takes away attention from the real problems in our public schools – poverty and funding equity
Disagree. The most successful voucher plans tried so far, have been in inner-city areas of Milwaukee and Cleveland. Condemning all children, especially poor kids, to failing public schools will only exacerbate and perpetuate their low-quality education, and continue to condemn them to poverty and hopelessness.
10) School choice is not supported by a grass roots movement. It is supported by billionaires.
Disagree. See #9. Parents in the poorest inner-cities have been enthusiastic supporters of school choice. I live in WashingtonDC metro. The DC schools spend in excess of $10k per student per year on public schools. Yet, only 79% of DC parents send their kids to failing DC public schools.
There is widespread support for school choice all across the income spectrum. Rich, liberal elites support school choice, because they send their kids to private schools. Parents lower in the income line, would pull their kids out of bad public schools, if they had a choice. This is part of the reason for the home-schooling movement.
The loudest opponents of school choice are the teacher’s unions (AFT/NEA), and the government bureaucrats who administer bad schools.
As Deep Throat said “Follow the money”.
—
The late nobel-prize winning economist Milton Friedman was an enthusiastic supporter of school choice.
See:
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Chile and Sweden followed Milton Friedman plan of “choice” for all. It was a disaster.
Read the two books in this review: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/12/08/when-public-goes-private-as-trump-wants-what-happens/
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If public schools are so great, then why do so many public school teachers, who know the school systems best, send their kids to private schools? Why do so many parents in WashDC (which spends over $10k per student per year) send their kids to private school (79%). Why do Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton, the highest-paid shills for the public school teacher’s unions, send their kids to private schools (Sidwell Friends)?
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The public schools I attended were excellent, so I don’t get your criticism.
Charter schools are not a panacea. On average, charters don’t function quite as well as public schools – based on nationally respected NAEP scores.
Why? 95% are corporate chains governed by non-educators and motivated by profit. The biggest in my state ranks at the bottom and graduated students so far behind their peers that only 5% qualify for college.
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Every teacher and politician I personally know sends their kids to public school. Evidently you and I have had very different experiences. Our local private school is a bit better because parents donate time and funds on a scale unheard of in public schools.
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I attended some excellent public schools. I am a product of the US Public school system. I attended public schools from 1st grade, right through high school, and then Western Kentucky University. I am now a telecommunications engineer.
There are some great public schools, and some terrible public schools.
Read here about two public schools that are 15 (fifteen) miles apart.
http://thenotebook.org/articles/2016/11/22/two-schools-15-miles-and-worlds-apart
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cemab4y,
Schools that are called “failing schools” are schools that have large numbers of children who live in poverty, who don’t get medical care, who are homeless, who don’t speak English, who have profound disabilities. The charter schools and voucher schools don’t want those kids.
Do you have any idea what to do with the kids that the “choice” schools don’t want?
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See:
https://www.aei.org/publicatio…
and
http://humanevents.com/2013/10…
and
http://www.theatlantic.com/edu…
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Please, your rightwing sources are unimpressive, and I don’t have time to give you authoritative sources on the failure of school choice. Start by looking at Detroit, Milwaukee, and Cleveland.
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see
https://www.aei.org/publication/why-do-public-school-teachers-send-their-own-children-to-private-schools-at-a-rate-2x-the-national-average/
“Everyone is entitle to his own opinion, but not his own facts” D.P. Moynihan (liberal)
Facts:
General public: Nationally, 11% of all parents enroll their children in private schools, and 89% of American students attend public schools.
Public School Teachers: Nationally, more than 20% of public school teachers with school-age children enroll them in private schools, or almost twice the 11% rate for the general public.
Philadelphia Public School Teachers: 44% enroll their own children in private schools, or four times the national average.
Cincinnati Public School Teachers: 41% enroll their own children in private schools, more than three times the national rate.
Chicago Public School Teachers: 39% enroll their own children in private schools, more than three times the national average.
Rochester, NY Public School Teachers: 38% enroll their own children in private schools, or more than three times the national rate.
San Francisco-Oakland Public School Teachers: 34% enroll their own children in private schools, slightly more than three times the national average.
New York City Public School Teachers: 33% enroll their own children in private schools, three times the national rate.
Members of Congress: 33% to 44% enroll their children in private schools, three to four times the national average.
If you want to see where public schools are failing, then see what the teachers who work in these schools do with their own kids.
My opinion is: Sending children to schools where the teachers will not send their own children, is a form of child abuse!
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FYI: NYC public school teachers cannot afford to send their children to private schools. Private school tuition in NYC is about $40,000-50,000. I don’t know the average teacher’s salary, but it is likely no more than twice that.
Stop wasting space on my blog. You are spewing propaganda from rightwing sources. AEI is funded by the DeVos family.
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Be Fair. I am not dealing with propaganda. I am dealing only with facts (except where I clearly state my opinion).
People on both sides of the issue should agree that (in many cases) public schools are failing.
I live in Fairfax county VA, where the public schools are some of the best in the nation.
Can we agree, that all children, rich and poor, are entitled to a decent high-quality education?
see
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/99093-two-schools-15-miles-and-worlds-apart?linktype=hp_impact
I want only for the education of all children to be excellent. Our nation put a man on the moon, we can ensure a quality education for all.
Part of the solution is to have some equality of funding. Financing public education, with property taxes, is inherently unfair.
see
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec92/vol50/num04/On-Savage-Inequalities@-A-Conversation-with-Jonathan-Kozol.aspx
No one, including myself, feels that school choice is a panacea.
Our nation has Pell grants, that families can use at the university of their choice. Students can attend public/private/parochial universities. Pell grants do not pay the entire cost of the tuition/education. The result is a robust “mix” of public/private/parochial higher education. You can go to Jesuit university (Georgetown, Notre Dame), or a public university (I attended Western Kentucky University, a public tax-supported college), or a private university.
Why not try a similar program at the K-12 level? The result would be a robust “mix” of public/private/parochial education at the K-12 level.
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see this from the Fordham Institute.
Click to access Fwd-1.1_7.pdf
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Can’t you find anything from a source that is not rightwing?
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See
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/stop-presses-some-liberals-favor-school-choice
There are a large number of people from all over the political spectrum who endorse school choice.
“From 1964 to 1984, the Democrat Party formally supported the public funding of students in private schools,” Tuthill wrote. (President of StepUp, a liberal educational organization.
https://www.redefinedonline.org/2014/11/went-teachers-union-president-school-choice-leader/
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see
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/why-im-a-public-school-teacher-but-a-private-school-parent/386797/#article-comments
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School choice has support from people all across the income spectrum, and all across the political spectrum. Liberals support school choice (at least where their own kids are concerned). Further down the income line, Middle income people support school choice, primarily through the home-schooling movements. Lower income people support school choice, because the charter school slots in inner-cities (where they are available) are snapped up very quickly. WashDC has to hold a lottery.
Look at who is going apoplectic. The school teachers unions (AFT/NEA) have fought, and will continue to fight to keep their monopoly. The administrators of public schools, want to keep the gravy train moving. The politicians who are beholden to public school unions will fight school choice tooth and nail (all the while sending their kids to private schools).
Only the private sector can deliver innovation. Look at FedEx, and the telecommunications industry. AT&T bought the patents for cell-phone technology in 1946, and sat on them for decades. Only when the monopoly was broken up, did we experience the innovation of cell phones.
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cemab4y,
You are flooding my blog with comments–at least a dozen, perhaps more today. This is a blog dedicated to a better education for all, not vouchers and charters for some. I oppose privatization. Period. I will allow you one comment per day from now on, so make it good.
As to this comment, if school choice is so popular, why hasn’t it been approved by voters EVER? The programs that exist all come from bought-and-paid-for legislatures. No public vote has ever approved school choice.
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