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Sue Legg: Florida Supreme Court Rules Against Public Schools, 4-3

By dianeravitch
January 6, 2019 //
12

Sue Legg, former education director of the Florida League of Women Voters and a newly elected member of the board of the Network for Public Education, writes here about a decision rendered by the Florida Supreme Court on January 4. This decision bodes ill for the children and public schools of Florida.

Sue Legg writes:

Article IX of Florida’s constitution, ratified by the state’s voters in 1998, called for the state to make adequate provision for the education of all children to have a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools…. In 2009, the Citizens for Strong Schools lawsuit began its arduous journey to the Florida Supreme Court. The plaintiffs had argued that Florida’s choice system failed its constitutional mandate. In one example, the plaintiffs cited data showing “one million Florida minority students (1/2 of all students), moreover, do not read at grade level”.

The defense defined educational quality as ‘continuous progress’. Thus, in the state’s view, if test scores go up, the system is working. NAEP was the standard used to show improvement. There has been improvement in Florida’s NAEP scores over the past twenty years. The state claimed that the improvement in achievement was attributed to the quality of teachers and administrators and the pressure from school choice. The plaintiffs argued that improvement is fine, but the achievement is still low. Moreover, a high quality system gives access to all children, not just some.

At its core, the lawsuit was about adequate funding to meet children’s needs. If the plaintiffs had won the lawsuit, they would have asked for a cost study so that requirements would be aligned with resources. In the current choice system, funding to support charter and private schools drains needed resources from public schools. Florida’s per student funding is one of the lowest in the nation.

In January 2019, the Court in a contentious 4/3 split decision, rejected the claims of the plaintiff. The majority opinion of the court was that the terms ‘high quality’ and ‘efficient’ are ambiguous and do not create judiciable standards. Education policy and funding are in the domain of the legislature, not the judicial system. Chief Justice Canady said: the plaintiffs “failed to provide any manageable standard by which to avoid judicial intrusion into other branches of government”. The minority opinions stated that the majority opinion “eviscerates the 1998 opinion…only time will truly reveal the depth of the injury inflicted upon Florida’s children”.

What is the correct basis for the legal argument? is it a rational basis or must the state comply with specific requirements to provide a high quality education? A Wikipedia explanation stated that it is easier to define a rational basis by what it is not. It is not a genuine effort…to inquire whether a statute does in fact further a legitimate end of government. I found a quote attributed to Thurgood Marshall…the constitution does not prohibit legislatures from enacting stupid laws. The case may may have hinged on the interpretation of the legal basis of the case. It reminds me of a saying I have heard often: Is it close enough for government work or do we have to get it right?

Where do Florida citizenss go next to garner support for the education of its children?

Categories Accountability, Florida, School Choice

Florida: Government Watchdog Agency Reports on Charter Corruption, Cronyism, Lack of Accountability

By dianeravitch
January 5, 2019 //
16

Betsy DeVos often says that Florida is a national model of choice. You will understand why she says this when you read the report from a government watchdog agency called Integrity Florida. This group, which is not focused on education but on government ethics, reveals in detail what happens when government money is handed out freely to entrepreneurs without any oversight or accountability.

Corruption and malfeasance run rampant.

The biggest money to finance the privatization of Florida’s schools came from Betsy DeVos and the Walton Family and a gaggle of rightwing out-of-state elites.

Betsy and the Waltons and their rightwing allies bought the privatization of Florida’s schools.

Here is the executive summary:

Underfunding, coupled with the continual adoption of tax cuts that make adequate public-school spending harder and harder to attain, prompts a look into the future. How much further growth in the number of charter schools is likely? How will that growth affect traditional schools and the public education system?

The answer to the first question appears to be that growth will continue unabated as long as private charter companies consider public schools a profit-making opportunity and they find receptive audiences in the legislature. If current trends continue, a 2015 national report concluded, “Charter schools will educate 20-40 percent of all U.S. public-school students by 2035.”1 Reaching those percentages in Florida would require doubling to quadrupling charters’ current 10 percent share of all public school students.

Some charter and school choice advocates are clear about their goal. Charters already have “created an entire new sector of public education” and they ultimately may “become the predominant system of schools,” the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has said.2 And the ultimate hope of many, as Milton Friedman wrote (see Page 8), is to bring about a transfer of government to private enterprise, in part by “enabling a private, for-profit industry to develop” in education.

Continued growth in the charter sector will exacerbate a problem that seemingly runs against the Florida Constitution’s decree that the state must provide “a uniform system” of high-quality education. As the number of charters has grown, with different rules than in traditional schools, some question whether a uniform system actually exists today. If Amendment 8 had remained on the November ballot and passed, a state charter authorizer could have approved new charter schools without the consent of the school district. In that case, the school district would not “operate, control and supervise all free public schools within the school district,” as another provision of the Constitution requires.

As the Miami Herald has said during a charter school investigation,
“Charter schools have become a parallel school system unto themselves, a system controlled largely by for-profit management companies and private landlords – one and the same, in many cases – and rife with insider deals and potential conflicts of interest.”

Key Findings

• Charter school enrollment continues to grow in Florida and nationwide, although at a slower rate than in previous years.

• The number of charter schools managed by for-profit companies in Florida continues to grow at a rapid pace and now makes up nearly half of all charter schools in the state.

• Although many charter schools in Florida are high performing, research has found no significant difference in academic performance between charter schools and traditional public schools.

• Numerous studies have found that charter schools strain traditional schools and school districts financially.

• Charter schools were originally proposed as teacher-run schools that would use innovative techniques to be shared with traditional schools. Over time, the concept changed to set up a competitive relationship between charters and traditional schools rather than a cooperative one.

• Charter schools have largely failed to deliver the education innovation that was originally promised and envisioned.

• Some charter advocates have explicitly said their goal is to privatize education by encouraging a for-profit K-12 industry. Today some charter proponents see charter schools, rather than traditional ones, as the “predominant system of schools.”

• Since 1998, at least 373 charter schools have closed their doors in Florida.

• Local school boards have seen reduced ability to manage charter schools in their
districts.

• The Florida Supreme Court removed Constitutional Amendment 8 from the November 2018 ballot that would have created a statewide charter school authorizer. However, future attempts by the legislature to establish a statewide charter authorizer may occur and should be opposed. A state charter authorizer would preempt voters’ rights to local control of education through their elected school boards, even though local tax dollars would pay for charter expansion.

• The charter school industry has spent more than $13 million since 1998 to influence state education policy through contributions to political campaigns.

• The charter school industry has spent more than $8 million in legislative lobbying expenditures since 2007 to influence education policy.

• The legislature has modified the original Florida charter school law significantly over the years to encourage creation of new charters, increase the number of students in charter schools and enhance funding of charters, sometimes at the expense of traditional schools.

• Some public officials who decide education policy and their families are profiting personally from ownership and employment with the charter school industry, creating the appearance of a conflict of interest.

• Lax regulation of charter schools has created opportunities for financial mismanagement and criminal corruption.

Policy Options to Consider

• Inasmuch as charter schools can be an inefficient and wasteful option for “school choice,” the legislature should evaluate the appropriate amount of funding the state can afford to offer in educational choices to parents and students.

• Require for-profit companies associated with charter schools to report their expenditures and profits for each school they operate.

• Require charter schools to post on their website their original application and charter contract along with their annual report, audit and school grade.

• Charter school websites should include lease agreements, including terms and conditions and who profits from the lease payments.

• Companies managing charter schools in more than one school district should have annual audits ensuring local tax revenue is being spent locally.

• Add additional criteria for school boards to consider when reviewing and deciding on a charter school application.

• Give local school boards more tools to manage the charter schools in their districts, including greater contractual oversight and the ability to negotiate charter contracts.

• Increase education funding to sufficiently fund all public schools to eliminate competition between traditional schools and charter schools for inadequate public education dollars.

• Prohibit charter schools from using public education funds for advertising to attract new students.

• Limit the amount of public funds that can be used for charter school facility leases to a certain percentage of the school’s operating budget.

• Require charter schools to report annually the number of dropouts, the number of withdrawals and the number of expulsions.

Go to pages 26-30 to see where the money came from to finance this plunder and privatization of Florida’s public schools. You will see familiar names.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Bob Shepherd: On the Fate of Frogs and Florida

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2018 //
14

Bob Shepherd, author, educator, curriculum and assessment designer, and frequent commenter, lives and teaches in Florida. He posted these post-election thoughts.


Tis the Season, I Think

For a while there—for several years—
I didn’t see ANY frogs here in Florida,
which is odd because, you know, Florida, frogs.

Where did all the frogs go? I kept asking
anyone who would listen.

Maybe they were on a Carnival cruise in Norway
or someplace cold like that
because when it rained hard here, recently,
the frogs appeared, suddenly, again,
THOUSANDS OF THEM on the lawn.
Only they were no longer green.
They were pasty, white, like milk
with a dash of Crème de Menthe in it

as though Fellini and John Carpenter
and Tim Burton had made a movie together
and had cast frogs as elderly albino people
streaming through the big cruise line station
in the pouring rain.

Yesterday, there was an election,
and Floridians went out and voted
against themselves again—
against themselves and the frogs.

They are righteous about how practical
they are being in pursuing this course
of killing themselves and the frogs.

And today the President held a news conference
and boxed, soundly, the ears of numerous journalists,
which he really shouldn’t have done
because not one of them even mentioned
That he must have worn goggles earlier,
when his keepers applied orange spray tan to his face.
Politely, I thought, NOT ONE OF THEM mentioned
that he looked as though a child
had painted big white racoon eyes
on an angry pumpkin.

Perhaps these are connected—
the sickly white frogs and the white-eyed Trumpkin.
Maybe I missed that we are now celebrating,
as a nation, twelve days of Halloween—
like, you know, the twelve days of Christmas.

But I’ll know when we officially switch
to celebrating the next holiday season because
I’ll hear in my head, as I do every year,
the voices of the ghosts of the Indians
who helped the white settlers to survive
after their first hard winter in New England—
voices of the ghosts of the Indians saying,
what the f**k were we thinking?

And then it will be again
the most joyous time of the year,
when our President rallies the country
to oppose the War on Christmas.
You know the holiday?–Christmas?–
the one you wouldn’t hear anything about
if it weren’t for his reminding us about it?
That’s leadership.

And what do horror movie ghost frogs say?
Knee deep. Knee deep. Come in.

Categories Florida

Florida: The DeSantis Team to Crush Public Schools Includes Religious Zealots and Profiteers

By dianeravitch
December 15, 2018 //
11

I have posted several times about the disaster that is happening in Florida, which elected a governor who is a mini-me of Betsy DeVos and Jeb Bush. His name is Ron DeSantis. He did not talk much about education during the campaign, but now that he is governor-elect, he has chosen the F-team to carry out the wishes of ALEC, the Waltons, the Koch brothers, DeVos and every other malefactor of public education.

Peter Greene describes the members of the DeSantis team, every one of them seeking to divert public money to charter schools, religious schools, or for-profit scams. If you are the kind of person who likes to see train wrecks up close, please read this post.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization, Religion, School Choice, Separation of church and state, Vouchers

Editorial: R.I.P., Public Education in Florida

By dianeravitch
December 11, 2018 //
7

The St.Augustine Record knows that the choice of privatizer Richard Corcoran as Commissioner of Education is disastrous for public schools.

He is totally unqualified and he hates public schools.

To be blunt, as the editorial is, he is a hack.

Let’s not beat around the political bush: Putting former House Speaker Richard Corcoran in charge of Florida education is like hiring Genghis Kahn to head the state Department of Corrections.

The charter school fox is heading for the Department of Education hen house and, for public schooling, that’s finger-lickin’ bad.

Corcoran is a coercer, a brawler and politician who rewards fealty while marking opponents for payback. Those who know him would say he’d be flattered by the description.

He came into politics through the back door. He ran for the House in 1998 in a district outside his own. He was dubbed a “carpetbagger” by the hometown newspaper. He lost.

But he became a rising star in the party machinery, and eventually became what many describe as a political “hitman” for Marco Rubio’s bid to gain House leadership in 2006. He was rewarded by being hired as Rubio’s chief of staff at $175,000 yearly salary — considerably more than his boss, who made $29,697 a year. The governor that year was paid around $130,000.

If this gives you pause in terms of state political priorities, go to the head of the class.

In 2007, Corcoran again ran for special election, this time in the Senate. He was again portrayed as a carpetbagger — and lost.

The third time was a charm, when Corcoran won a House seat in 2010.

Governor-elect Ron DeSantis has made his pick known. But, on paper, the decision is up to the board of education — all GOP appointees, who probably like their current status.

DeSantis has made no bones about wanting to see public education dismantled, though you heard little of that during the governor campaign.

For his part, Corcoran spearheaded the state’s ongoing effort at funding charter schools with taxpayer money. And, where that was not possible, bankrolling public schools with various funding schemes, including paying for any child who deems himself “bullied” in public school to attend a private school tuition-free — and where, we must assume, bullies do not exist.

Corcoran was also the weight behind efforts this year to dismantle elected school boards and put the oversight of schools under direct legislative control.

In a twist of irony, Corcoran included this line is his speech after being named Speaker: “The enemy is us. … Left to our own devices, all too often, we’ll choose self-interest.”

His wife ran a charter school at the time and has since sought to expand to other areas. But his dark political history aside, might we not expect to have a person with some history in education — whether public or charter school — to lead an agency tasked with educating 3 million kids?

DeSantis has given Education Commissioner Pam Stewart her walking papers, though she has a year left on her contract. She takes with her 40-plus years of experience in education, including guidance counselor, teacher and principal at both elementary and high school levels. She was Deputy Chancellor for Educator Quality at the Department of Education and Deputy Superintendent for Academic Services here in St. Johns County, just prior to taking over as Education Commissioner — following a series of embarrassments by political appointees to that post.

She has been controversial. But juggling the hot potato tossed to her called Common Core was an unenviable trick to pull off.

Now a hack takes her place. And with one swift move, the Legislature accomplishes Job No. 1. That’s putting Florida’s $20.4 billion education budget out to bid in the private sector. That’s a frightening amount of political capital to be spread around to those who decide who gets charter school contracts and where those schools will be.

There ought to be a law…

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Florida Editorial: Corcoran is the Right Choice for GOP, the Wrong Choice For Public Schools

By dianeravitch
December 11, 2018 //
5

The Sun-Sentinel of Florida explains why Richard Corcoran is a disastrous choice for Florida’s public schools as Commissioner of Education. He is unqualified. He has no education experience. He is hostile to public schools and their teachers. He has done everything he could think of to shift local tax monies from public schools to charter schools. During his campaign for governor, Ron DeSantis never visited a public school, although 90% of Florida’s children attend them.

Put succinctly: “Richard Corcoran for state education commissioner? Sure. Why not make Tallahassee’s hostility to public education even more apparent?…

In Corcoran, DeSantis has an education soulmate. Last year, Corcoran leveraged his power as speaker to push through legislation that for the first time gave charter schools — which use public money but may be privately operated — some of the property tax revenue that school districts use for construction and maintenance. When Florida allowed charter schools in the mid-1990s, operators said they never would need such money.

“House Bill 7069, which legislators hardly got to read, did much more. It gave charter companies $200 million to build “schools of hope” near low-performing public schools but with no guarantee that the charters would take all the students. The bill made it harder for school districts to use federal money designed to help those same struggling students.

“Former Palm Beach County Superintendent Robert Avossa called Corcoran’s creation “the single largest piece of legislation to dismantle public education that I’ve ever seen.” True, but HB 7069 simply extended the attack on public education by Republicans since they took control in Tallahassee two decades ago.”

Elections have consequences. Floridians who value their public schools will have to fight for them, or see more of their tax dollars diverted to for-profit charter entrepreneurs and religious schools that teach creationism and racism.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Bias, Charter Schools, Florida, For-Profit, School Choice, Separation of church and state

Florida: Governor-Elect Appoints a Public School Hater as Commissioner of Education

By dianeravitch
December 11, 2018 //
10

Republican Ron DeSantis was elected Governor of Florida in a close election, besting Andrew Gillum. DeSantis is a Tea Party extremist who has pledged to continue Rick Scott’s ruinous policies towards the environment and education. His choice for Commissioner of Education is Richard Corcoran, Out-of-office speaker of the House, whose wife runs a charter school. Corcoran supports charters, vouchers, and every possible alternative to public schools. He sponsored legislation to award bonuses to teachers based on their high school SAT/ACT scores. He has no education experience.

The League of Women Voters of Florida published a strong statement opposing his nomination.

The League sent this letter to The State Board of Education:

Dear Chairwoman and State Board Members,

With the impending departure of Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart, the League of Women Voters of Florida reminds you that as members of the State Board of Education you not only have the opportunity, but a constitutional responsibility, to conduct a national search to find the person who is best suited to oversee Florida’s system of public education.

Article IX, Section 2 of the Constitution of Florida was overwhelmingly adopted by the people of Florida in 1998. That provision created the Board of Education, consisting of seven members serving staggered terms to oversee Florida’s system of free public schools.

By enacting that provision, the people of Florida made it clear in the Constitution that it is the Board of Education — not the Governor — that has the responsibility to appoint a Commissioner of Education. Further, the Board of Education members’ terms of office were purposely staggered to ensure that as governors change, the Florida education system would be insulated from the disruption caused by political patronage appointments of a Commissioner of Education.

At a minimum, Floridians expect you to carry out a due diligence process aimed at ensuring Florida’s students that an individual of the highest possible caliber oversees public education. We urge you to take this important duty seriously and not simply “rubber stamp” a politically motivated choice.

Under our state’s current constitution, the Governor retains input to the process by filling vacancies which occur as Board Members terms expire, however, the Board must carry out its constitutional duty and make appointments based upon merit, not political patronage. While members of the Board may ultimately concur with the recommendation of the incoming Governor regarding who to appoint, the Board of Education should decline to opt for an expedient political patronage selection.

In sum, the Board should be guided by the constitutional statement that imposes upon the State a “paramount duty” to make “adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.” Included in such a paramount duty is the selection of the best person possible to lead the effort. Finding such a person mandates that the Board conduct a national search and not just grant perfunctory approval to a political patronage appointment.

Florida’s children deserve nothing less.

Patricia Brigham
President

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Florida

Florida: Charter School Closes Without Notice to Parents or Students or Teachers

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2018 //
25

The Unity Charter School suddenly closed, without any advance notice to parents, students, or teachers.

Parents at Unity Charter School are having to look for new arrangements for their children after the school suddenly closed Thursday and is being foreclosed on. Parents received an automated message Wednesday evening reporting that there would be no school Thursday, due to circumstances beyond their control. Calls and emails to the school on Thursday received no response.

A bank foreclosed on the property for nonpayment on the mortgage. The property will be auctioned off in a few weeks.

School leaders had some personal financial issues involving misuse of school funds that turned up in an audit last year, but none rose to the level of criminal acts.

Isn’t “School Choice” wonderful (not)?

Charter schools open and close like day lilies. The entrepreneurs lobby legislators to get money and tax breaks. They pay teachers as little as they have to. They siphon money away from public schools, which are stable fixtures in their community.

And the Florida Legislature, controlled by choice zealots and by people who have a direct financial interest in charters, are diverting more money away from real public schools to benefit charters. Nearly half the charters in the state are now run by for-profit operators.

Real public schools don’t close without a struggle to keep them open. Real public schools are the heart of their community. Real public schools don’t close on a whim of their corporate owner, because they are public schools, not charter schools.

Make no mistake: the growth of the charter sector in Florida is driven by greed, not by the needs of children.

#GreedNotNeed

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, Florida, Privatization

Florida: Leadership Changes Put For-Profit Charter Allies in Charge

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2018 //
16

Sue Legg, who chaired the education division of the Florida League of Women Voters, describes the leadership shake up in the state.

The new chair of the Florida House Education Committee, as I reported yesterday, is a woman who was home-schooled and dropped out of college. She has no education experience.

The likely state commissioner is Richard Corcoran, whose wife runs a charter school.

Legg reports that the fabulously wealthy for-profit charter chain Academica has scored a big win.

She writes:

“Manny Diaz will head the Senate Education Policy committee. Vice Chair is Senator Bill Montford D Tallahassee. Diaz was appointed in 2013 by Academica to head Doral College. This is the college that the Miami Herald skewered. It had no students and was created to provide online dual enrollment credit taught by Academica high school teachers. Remember that former Representative Erik Fresen, the brother-in-law of Academica’s CEO and a consultant to Academica, was convicted of tax evasion in 2018 for the eight years he served in the Florida House. We really do not need to have Academica lead educational policy for the state of Florida.”

She further notes that with DeSantis as governor and a choice-friendly State Board That is bostile to the public schools that enroll most students, Florida will follow the Jeb Bush-ALEC party line of privatization.

This is an agenda guaranteed to keep Florida anchored in mediocrity, perhaps falling like Michigan to the bottom 10 on NAEP.

Florida casts a vote for mediocrity!

Categories Charter Schools, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud

John Thompson: Oklahoma Republicans Long to Copy Florida’s Mediocrity

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2018 //
1

Betsy DeVos says that Florida is a national model.

She loves Florida because she invested millions of dollars imposing vouchers and charters, despite the provision of the State Constitution that requires a uniform system of common schools.

Actually, Florida’s performance on NAEP is mediocre. Its fourth grade scores are swell because low-scoring third-graders are not allowed to enter fourth grade. A really neat trick! Pay attention to eighth grade scores: In eighth grade math, students in Florida are well below the national average. In eighth grade reading, Florida is right at the national average. Nothing impressive about Florida, other than gaming the fourth grade scores by holding back third-graders with low scores. By eighth grade, the game is over, and the results are not impressive.

Thompson says that Oklahoma lawmakers are in love with a libertarian study claiming that spending less produces the best education! Is that why the elites spend $50,000 a year or more on tuition to get lower class sizes and experienced teachers? The only time that money doesn’t matter is if you have a lot of it.

Despite Florida being average on NAEP, Oklahoma legislators hope to be just like Florida!

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher, brings us up to date:

Oklahoma edu-politics remains in the spotlight after the 2018 election and it illustrates plenty of national issues. Despite many electoral gains, educators must worry about the state’s inexperienced governor, Kevin Stitt. It sometimes seems like Jeb Bush’s “astroturf” think tank, ExcelinEd, has found a second home in our State Capitol. Will the governor believe their spin?

Even worse, as reported by Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post, Republicans are being pressured by their own party to even “‘abolish public education, which is not a proper role of government, and allow the free market to determine pay and funding, eliminating the annual heartache we experience over this subject.’” The claim is that the state can reduce “‘its dependence on the tax structure by funding it through such means as sponsorships, advertising, endowments, tuition fees, etc.’”

https://www.excelined.org/team/matthew-h-joseph-2/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2018/11/27/republican-party-an-oklahoma-county-makes-clear-its-opposition-public-education/?utm_term=.e7b666b89e01

More importantly, the Oklahoman newspaper recently editorialized that our state should learn from the Reason Foundation, and from Florida, which supposedly is “the state achieving the greatest efficacy in education spending.” The editorial mistakenly claimed that the reforms Oklahoma implemented in 2011 and 2012, but that have been watered down in our state, have worked in Florida. The newspaper concludes, “Instead of backing off, Reason’s education rankings indicate Oklahoma lawmakers should double down” on their accountability-driven, choice-driven reforms.

https://newsok.com/article/5616294/education-report-merits-review-in-spending-debate

In fact, Florida’s 3rd grade retention policy has not been shown to do more good than harm to students, although “if you hold back low-performing third graders, the fourth grade scores the next year will appear to jump.” Even charter supporters such as those at CREDO acknowledge that Florida’s charters have not increased student outcomes, largely resulting in a decline of student performance. And the state’s online for-profit charters have a three-year attrition rate of 99 percent, and have driven down student performance gains by as much as -.46 std, which is approaching the loss of a year of learning, per year.

Click to access TT_Mathis_BushEd.pdf

http://credo.stanford.edu/reading-state-charter-impacts/

Click to access Online%20Charter%20Study%20Final.pdf

Reason’s “Find Everything You Know about State Education Rankings Is Wrong,” by Stan J. Liebowitz and Matthew L. Kelly claims to be the antithesis of “the self-serving interests of education functionaries who only gain from higher spending.” If the tone of the article doesn’t set off alarms, a review of its methodology shows its conclusions were preordained by a journal devoted to “Free Markets.” These sorts of papers serve as props for advancing the claim that money doesn’t matter.

https://reason.com/archives/2018/10/07/everything-you-know-about-stat

As Rutgers’ Bruce Baker explains, Reason’s authors “confidently assert that the higher performing states are those with a) weaker teachers’ unions and b) more children in charter schools.” However, they overlook a vast body of research to the contrary. They also ignore economic status and weight racial groups as equal factors in a way that is “specious at best,” and produced findings that “would only mislead policymakers.”

https://nepc.colorado.edu/newsletter/2018/11/rankings

Student performance is determined more by the kids’ zip code than by the classroom. So why didn’t Reason and its paper attempt to control for economic disadvantage?

https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-life-outside-of-a-school-affects-student-performance-in-school/

Reason uses race as a substitute for economic advantage and disadvantage in a manner that is not only methodologically indefensible; it is likely a tactic which predetermines the ideology-driven conclusion that Florida and other border states (that oppose unions and support choice) are more efficient. I will just cite Hispanic student data as one example why their analysis is invalid.

The term “Hispanic” includes a wide range of subgroups, longterm citizens who are more likely to be affluent than the recent immigrants to places like Oklahoma City; Cubans who came to Florida a half century ago, as well as new arrivals from Mexico and Central America; and high-performing “bilingual” students as well as more costly to educate English Language Learners.

Before trusting the use of racial categories as a proxy for economic status, We should remember that Hispanics in Florida earn a median income which is $1,200 per person more than their counterparts in Oklahoma. The poverty rate for Oklahoma Hispanics who are17 years and younger is about 20 percent higher than Florida’s. Oklahoma Hispanic families are more likely to lack health insurance, with the big difference being that the majority of foreign-born Oklahoma Hispanics lack coverage.

http://www.pewhispanic.org/states/state/fl/

http://www.pewhispanic.org/states/state/ok/

Similarly, the percentage of black Oklahoma children who live in poor households is about 17 percent higher than black children in Florida. Oklahoma youth also are first in the nation in surviving four Adverse Childhood Experiences, and they are growing up in a state that is near the bottom of most child welfare metrics. In other words, the use of race as a substitute for economic advantage and disadvantage is one example why the Reason methodology gives a misleading picture of what it would cost to educate all children.

I must emphasize – contrary to the Reason ideology – that the additional costs to achieve equity are worth it. Education is so important that advocates, conservative, moderate or liberal, should also invest in research that meets high scholarly standards.

New Oklahoma decision-makers should expect plenty of cheap and easy, evidence-free proposals by noneducators. For instance, the legislative interim session was briefed by the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce’s Oklahoma Achieves. It said that high-challenge schools should learn from systems that have lower per student spending but higher student outcomes. So, the inner city OKCPS schools merely need to emulate the best practices of Deer Creek, Oakdale, and other small, rich, exurban systems!?!?

https://public.tableau.com/profile/okachieves#!/vizhome/OklahomaSchoolDistrictSpendingComparedtoStudentOutcomes/SDSpendingComparedtoStudentOutcomes
I would also urge our new legislators and governor to look deeply into the Rutgers Education Law Center’s estimates of what it would take to bring our students to the national average in student performance. Like Florida almost does, Oklahoma spends enough to bring our most affluent quintile of students to the national average, but we would need to invest an additional $6,600 per student to provide equity for our poorest kids. (Florida would only need an additional $4,489 to do so.)

https://public.tableau.com/views/NCMWebsite/NECM?:embed=y&:display_count=yes&publish=yes&:showVizHome=no

https://public.tableau.com/views/NCMWebsite/NECM?:embed=y&:display_count=yes&publish=yes&:showVizHome=no

I also hope they will read Bruce Baker’s new book, Educational Inequity and School Finance: Why Money Matters for America’s Students. The renowned scholar, Helen Ladd, writes that Baker “draws on his many years of research to destroy the myth that money in education doesn’t matter, and convincingly argues that equitable and adequate funding are prerequisites for an effective education system.”

http://hepg.org/hep-home/books/educational-inequality-and-school-finance

The new legislators and governor will face a steep learning curve, and the effort necessary to craft policies based on real science will be intimidating. But as new educators used to be taught, for every complex problem, there is a solution that is quick, simple, and wrong.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Florida, Funding, Oklahoma
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