Emma Brown and Peter Jamison report that Congress reauthorized the D.C. Voucher program, on the heels of a federal evaluation showing that vouchers have a negative effect on students who use them.
Now we know that vouchers don’t “save poor children from failing schools.” They actually do educational harm to those children. The purpose of vouchers is choice for its own sake.
Even more surprising is that the new language in the reauthorizatuon bars the use of randomized field trials–long considered “the gold standard”–in future evaluations. RCT is a means of comparing similar groups.
Thus, Congress demonstrates that it not only doesn’t care about the effects of vouchers, but doesn’t want to learn about them in the future.
“The D.C. study was conducted using what’s known as the gold standard in scientific research: An experimental design, comparing the performance of students who received a voucher through a citywide lottery to the performance of their peers who applied for a voucher and didn’t receive one. The study was designed to comply with the law as currently written, which requires the “strongest possible research design” for determining the vouchers’ effectiveness.
“The reauthorization rolls back that language and prohibits the department’s researchers from using that gold standard. Instead, it says that researchers must use a “quasi-experimental” design, comparing voucher recipients to students with “similar backgrounds” in D.C. public and public charter schools.
“Researchers say this approach is generally weaker because it creates uncertainty about whether the comparison is fair.
“This program has been studied rigorously since it began in 2004, using an approach that the field of medical research would regard as common practice,” said Mark Dynarski, who co-authored the D.C. study released last week. “If rigor is rolled back, a future study might lead to more questions than answers.”
“Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) called the research change an “egregious dilution” of serious science, accusing his Republican counterparts of trying to escape empirical data that might not back up their school-choice philosophy.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The U.S. government, even before Trump, became a “Fact-Free Zone” with regard to more than just education. Trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost in the “War on [OF] Terror” since 9/11/01, and the Middle east, Central Asia, and Africa are worse off than ever due mostly to the arrogant, history-denying U.S. Empire.
Climate disaster is ignored by Republicans, 180 of whom in Congress got $82 million from the fossil fuel industry (180 Climate Deniers in Congress Received $82 Million in Dirty Money http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/43333-180-climate-deniers-in-congress-received-82-million-in-dirty-money).
EPA head Scott Pruitt refuses to heed scientific evidence of the harm, especially to young children, of pesticides, as he allows them to continue to be used. His previous ties to the industry implicate him.
Obama had supported fracking, despite evidence of its polluting water sources and causing earthquakes, and he allowed some offshore drilling, despite the urgent need to keep all fossil fuels in the ground as the atmospheric CO2 level reached more than 400 ppm for the first time in human history and Siberian methane being on the verge of bursting out of the ground.
Whether or not Einstein actually said this about the definition of insanity, what we see is the repetition of harmful policies with the expectation that different results will, somehow, occur. Of course, there is also the denial, by the ideologues and the legally bribed, that harmful results have already occurred.
All in all, the U.S. government, and most state governments, are clear examples of both corruption and incompetence, as the political-economic system declines into a disastrous oligarchy which rewards only the 10% Ruling Parasite Class, while the rest of us suffer. But how can this corrupt, incompetent, disastrous system be changed? Reform is simply not enough.
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Well stated. I would add our love affair with the free market that will magically “fix everything.” Both parties are guilty. The main product of the free market is that the top got a lot richer, and everyone else has suffered. Some things that serve the “common good” like health care and education are better off free from market forces, IMHO.
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The REIGN of IDIOTS: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/reign_of_idiots_20170430
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These people are driven by ideology and bias, not reason. Washington is an evidence free zone.
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(I live in Metro WashDC). The public schools in WashDC are unquestionably the worst in the nation. See
http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/28/study-dc-schools-are-literally-the-worst-in-the-nation/
And it is not because of lack of funding. In 2015, the DC public schools spent $29,349 per child on education. see
http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/dc-schools-29349-pupil-83-not-proficient-reading
It is time to give DC parents more choices, not less, in how to educate their children. I say “Bravo!” to Congress.
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Charles,
Did you see the evaluation that said that vouchers have a negative effect on children who use them? Do you care?
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Yes, I have seen it. I have seen many studies, on the perceived effects of school choice/vouchers. Some are supportive, some are not supportive.
Getting into a “you show me yours, I will show you mine”, does not achieve anything.
The fact is, the public schools in our nation’s capital are a train wreck. Giving parents more choices and control, are part of the solution.
About this evaluation, I do not care.
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Charles claims “the public schools in our nation’s capital are a train wreck” and Charles doesn’t seem to care what caused this alleged train wreck.
The cause of that alleged public school train wreck is poverty. Vouchers and choice will do nothing to end the ravages of poverty. In fact, vouchers and choice will make poverty worse.
“Poverty In D.C. Is Getting Worse East of the Anacostia River, Study Finds”
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/blog/20835238/poverty-in-dc-is-getting-worse-east-of-the-anacostia-river-study-finds
In 2009, 43% of all DCPS public school students were overweight or obese. This was one of the highest rates in the United States.
Charles, when a child’s lifestyle includes poverty and a horrible diet leading to being overweight or obese that also impacts the child’s ability to learn. Studies are revealing that obesity seems to affect the ability to learn.
http://collected.jcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=honorspapers
“Almost every school district enrolling large numbers of low-income students has an average academic performance significantly below the national grade-level average, according to Stanford Graduate School of Education research based on a massive new data set recently created from more than 200 million test scores. …
“In another paper posted with the data, Reardon and colleagues focus on how geography correlates with disparities by race and ethnicity. The researchers identify large white‐black achievement gaps in such major school districts as Atlanta; Auburn City, Alabama; Oakland, California; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; and Washington, D.C. They also find significant black-white gaps in a number of smaller school districts that are home to major universities: Berkeley, California; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Charlottesville, Virginia; Evanston, Illinois; and University City, Missouri.”
http://news.stanford.edu/2016/04/29/local-education-inequities-across-u-s-revealed-new-stanford-data-set/
Charles, offering parents vouchers and the choice to send their children to corporate charter schools will do nothing to change what causes poverty.
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In my post, I did not address the causes of the terrible public schools in our nation’s capital. I agree, that there are a number of causes. There is “blame enough to go around for everyone”.
I agree that poverty is a leading cause. The rate of single-parent families in DC is very high. Estimates run as high as 78%. Unmarried women, often do not have the pre-natal care that they need. This results in low-birth weight babies, which, since they are under-nourished in the womb, are more prone to mental retardation, and other neurological problems. These women often abuse drugs, and the children are born addicted.
Children of single women, often have a substandard diet, this leads to under-development of their bodies and brains. Learning is impossible when the child is hungry and under-nourished.
Crime is rampant in DC, and children who have no safety and security, are less likely to learn. Reverse peer pressure is another problem. In some neighborhoods, children who earn good grades in school, are beaten up for “acting white”.
Housing is sub-standard in the shadow of the capitol dome. Children who live with rats and cockroaches, and in filth, will not be motivated to learn.
The minimum wage, has made entry level employment impossible for males and females who are dropouts, and have no skills.
For many DC children, the only successful males they will ever see are drug-dealers and pimps. Many neighborhoods have no male role models for the children to emulate.
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Charles,
It is important to identify causes. If you address symptoms, you will not solve problems. You are an engineer, you no doubt understand this.
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see this article, it is “on point” :
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/04/can-brain-science-pull-families-out-of-poverty/523479/
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The causes of poverty are many and varied. One excellent examination of the nature and causes of wealth and poverty is the classic book, “Wealth and Poverty”, by George Gilder.
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Yeah, rightwing extremist.
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About 30 years ago, France did something about poverty. They launched an early childhood education program. The teachers had to have a graduate degree in early childhood education and they were required to go through a full-year residency with a master teacher in the master teacher’s classroom. Oh, and no CHOICE. France’s national early childhood education program was part of the country’s public schools. And once the new teacher was teaching, that teacher had follow-up support for more than a year.
Poverty in France has fallen by 60% over that thirty years. Although it affected 15% of the population in 1970, in 2001 only 6.1% (or 3.7 million people) were below the poverty line.
“Though school isn’t mandatory in France until age 6, all 3-year-olds are guaranteed a place in maternelle, and over 95 percent of French 3-to-5-year-olds attend. It’s the one part of France’s educational system that everyone seems to agree is great. It’s also remarkably cost-efficient: France paid 12.8 billion euros in 2007 to educate just over 2.5 million preschool age children—a cost of about 5,000 euros per student, or about $6,700. (By way of comparison, the state of New Jersey spends about $13,000 per student in their own, nonuniversal pre-K program, and Mayor de Blasio proposes allocating about $10,000 per student in New York City.) In the U.S., fewer than three in 10 4-year-olds are enrolled in pre-K programs, and we rank in the bottom third of developed countries in early childhood education, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).”
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/dispatches_from_the_welfare_state/2014/02/universal_pre_k_france_is_about_180_years_ahead_of_america_on_preschool.html
Click to access Hurless.pdf
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Q It is important to identify causes. If you address symptoms, you will not solve problems. You are an engineer, you no doubt understand this. END Q
Anyone can see the causes and the symptoms. I am an engineer, not a sociologist, nor a politician. And I am certainly no economist.
I disagree, that if a person addresses symptoms, that he will not solve problems.
The symptoms are self-explanatory. Poverty, crime, drugs, HIV/AIDS, substandard housing, etc. etc. I am embarrassed at our nation’s capital. Baltimore MD, is a “combat zone”, over 100 homicides, before the end of April. Here are the murder capitals of our nation:
Rank City
30 Washington, DC
29 Milwaukee, WI
28 East Chicago, IN
27 Desert Hot Springs, CA
26 Goldsboro, NC
25 Salinas, CA
24 Myrtle Beach, SC
23 Hartford, CT
22 Banning, CA
21 Bessemer, AL
20 Baton Rouge, LA
19 Youngstown, OH
18 Riviera Beach, FL
17 Jackson, MS
16 Cleveland, OH
15 Portsmouth, VA
14 Monroe, LA
13 Newark, NJ
12 Birmingham, AL
11 Wilmington, DE
10 Camden, NJ
9 New Orleans, LA
8 Detroit, MI
7 Flint, MI
6 Petersburg, VA
5 Baltimore, MD
4 St. Louis, MO
3 Gary, IN
2 Chester, PA
1 East St. Louis, IL
(Source: Neighborhood Scout.com)
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Charles, you should inform the readers of this blog that CNS news is an ultraconservative news service, parading as a non-profit but also sharply focused on editorial and ad campaigns for conservatives. from the website:
CNSNews.com, “The Right News. Right Now,” is an indispensable online resource for conservatives in public policy, the media, and at the grassroots level. The site features the latest unbiased headlines and exclusive stories from Capitol Hill, plus current national and international news videos on culture, entertainment, sports and health. CNSNews.com showcases top conservative commentators like Brent Bozell, Patrick Buchanan, Walter E. Williams, and David Limbaugh, who present all legitimate sides of a story and debunk popular, albeit incorrect, myths about cultural and policy issues. (David Limbaugh is the younger brother of Rush, more professorial). See also the use of this news organization as a political action agency.
http://www.intermarkets.net/political-solutions/political-candidate-success-stories/
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“Worst” based on math, reading and SAT scores, as well as drop out rates. All four “metrics” (sic) are correlated almost perfectly with poverty. So all you’re really saying is that our nation’s capital has one of the highest public school poverty rates in the nation. That’s what’s truly sad.
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I agree it is sad. I have lived in national capitals (abroad), and visited many national capitals. Most foreigners have pride in their nation’s capital. I have only disgust for mine.
The national capital of the USA is a train wreck. Poverty, crime, drugs, fatherlessness, the worst public schools in the nation, the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate (per capita) in the USA. Sky-high infant mortality rate, low life expectancy, hopelessness, poverty, crime, on and on and on.
No politician ever talks about it.
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“There is “blame enough to go around for everyone”.”
Sorry, but, no, there is not enough blame for everyone since not everyone is at fault. Tis a strawman argument that bears no force. It’s a grade school excuse “Everybody does it”.
To quote my mom when I was a boy (heard it more than once, I was a slow learner in that regard): “If everybody is going to jump off a cliff, does that mean you are going to also?”
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Linking the GOP to the term serious science is an oxymoron, and the last five letters of that word, moron, defines who dominates the Republican policies of today. Troglodytes who think all life blossomed in a few days six thousand years ago and/or those who worship exclusivity at the altar of avarice and are ignorant of everything else there is to know and do not care to learn.
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