Archives for category: Vouchers
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

98% of Eligible Students Say No to Vouchers

By dianeravitch
July 11, 2012 //
19

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a state offered vouchers to more than half its students?

The Louisiana Department of Education just learned the answer to that question. It made the offer to 450,000 students. Not quite 9,000 students applied to enroll in the voucher program that begins in September. That’s 2% of the eligibles.

That means that 98% of the 450,000 students who were eligible declined to apply.

Not exactly a stampede for the exits. No big rush to enroll in the little church schools that are supposedly better than the public schools that John White supervises.

The State Department of Education tried to spin it differently. At first, they said that 10,000 applied, which far exceeded their expectations. But it turned out that 1,000 of the applicants already had vouchers in New Orleans. As usual, they were playing the media for headlines.

To date, the nonpublic schools of the state have offered to enroll only 5,000 students, so some decisions will have to be made about how to handle the mismatch.

Meanwhile Commissioner White announced some loose regulations about enrollment and financial reporting that will apply to the voucher schools, but nothing about academic expectations. According to the story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the statewide voucher program is supposed to be modeled along the lines of a New Orleans pilot program that has been running since 2008, with varied results:

“As originally envisioned in legislation championed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, the statewide expansion of vouchers this year would have mirrored the pilot program that’s been up  and running in New Orleans since 2008. In the pilot, students on vouchers take the state’s LEAP exams, but, unlike charter schools, they don’t face any particular consequences for poor results. Test scores at the roughly two dozen private schools already in the program have varied widely.”

It is not clear whether the private and religious schools that accept public money will be required to meet academic standards set by the state, whether the voucher students will take the state tests, and whether there will be “any particular consequences for poor results.”

One of the prime movers of the “reform” movement in Louisiana, Leslie Jacobs, complained a year ago that the voucher schools in New Orleans were getting poor results. She called for performance standards for the voucher schools. But it doesn’t seem likely to happen on a state level. The governor and the commissioner don’t want to interfere in the private schools, other than to send money. They want to hold the public schools accountable to standards, but allow students leave for nonpublic schools with no standards or accountability.

It is also unclear whether the state will expect the voucher schools to teach modern science or will be content to see thousands of public school students taught Creationism.

Categories Accountability, Louisiana, Vouchers

Good Old Boys Prevail (for now) in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
4

Judge Tim Kelly turned down a request to block the implementation of Governor Bobby Jindal’s voucher plan.

The judge said that Commissioner John White and Commissioner of Administration both said in affidavits that an injection would blow a $3.4 billion deficit in the state budget. So the case will proceed as will the vouchers, charters, cyber charters and every other kind of raid on the minimum foundation funding for Louisiana public schools.

According to local sources, Judge Kelly just happens to be the spouse of the former Commissioner of Administration (Angele Davis) in the Jindal administration.

Lucky break for the Governor!

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Vouchers

Remember “Separation of Church and State”?

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2012 //
6

A blogger in Louisiana calls out State Rep. Valerie Hodges for expressing shock about the possibility that voucher funds might go to Islamic schools.

I have already done that in an earlier post and won’t do it again here.

I repost this commentary because it lists many of the Christian academies that will be getting vouchers from the state of Louisiana in September. It is a reminder that the state is sending children from schools with a low grade (a grade established by the state of Louisiana) to religious schools that have NO grade. Are they better schools than the schools the children are leaving? These are schools that teach a specific religious doctrine; many will not teach modern science or history.

These schools are free to teach whatever they want, but let’s be clear. The state of Louisiana is sending students to religious schools of unknown quality and taking the funding out of the minimum foundation budget for public schools. The state constitution says that public funds must be used to support public education. Education in religious schools is not public education.

Lest we forget, Governor Jindal’s regressive legislation was hailed by the conservative group called Chiefs for Change, which includes the state education commissioners of Rhode Island and Indiana.

We will learn in the months to come whether Louisiana has an independent judiciary.

Whenever vouchers have been put to a state referendum, they have lost. The American public does not want to cross the line that separates church and state. They want to protect both public schools and religious freedom.

Governor Jindal doesn’t understand that basic tenet of American education. He may end up destroying both in Louisiana.

Categories Accountability, Chiefs for Change, Education Reform, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Vouchers

How Choice May Kill Public Education

By dianeravitch
June 24, 2012 //
75

A reader posted a comment that I think is profound. The more that people begin to see education as a consumer choice, the more they will be unwilling to pay for other people’s children. And if they have no children in school, then they have no reason to underwrite other people’s private choices.

The basic compact that public education creates is this: The public is responsible for the education of the children of the state, the district, the community. We all benefit when other people’s children are educated. It is our responsibility as citizens to support a high-quality public education, even if we don’t have children in the public schools.

But once the concept of private choice becomes dominant, then the sense of communal responsibility is dissolved. Each of us is then given permission to think of what is best for me, not what is best for we.

Here is what the reader wrote:

Parents have always been free to direct their personal funds to the private schools of their choice, for what they see as the additional private benefit of their own children.
But people pay taxes to support the public school system whether they are parents or not.  If only parents are given a choice in the type of school system that tax dollars support, then only parents of school-age children should pay school taxes, and based on the number of children in school.
Private individuals are not entitled by any consideration of the common good to divert public funds for the sake of private corporate profit and personal religious preferences.
When people start seeing education as a private commodity that parents buy for their own children — just another personal choice, like whether to buy designer duds or that hot new toy — then we are going to see a taxpayer revolt like we have never seen before, and public-funded education will cease to exist.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Vouchers

Vouchers in New York State?

By dianeravitch
June 19, 2012 //
12

Legislation was introduced on June 15 proposing to repeal the Blaine Amendment in the New York State constitution.

Enacted by many states in the nineteenth century, the Blaine amendment prohibits the allocation of public money to religious schools.

The proposed legislation would clear the way for vouchers for religious schools.

This is an opportune time for the repeal effort by supporters of religious schools. The proliferation of charter schools has dimmed the bright line that separates public and private schools. Many charter schools are private schools that operate with public funds. They are not open to all. They are free to write their own rules and to kick out kids who don’t live by their rules. They operate with minimal oversight. Most have wealthy directors, usually hedge fund managers, who supply extra funds. Most have a smaller proportion of students with disabilities and English-language learners than their nearby public school. And they claim to be better because they are not regular public schools. Also, there are places like Wisconsin, Indiana, and Louisiana, as well as D.C., that already send public funds to religious schools.

Now that it is hard to know what is a public school and what is a private school, it becomes harder still to explain why it’s okay to send public funds to thousands of privately managed charters but not to religious schools, or why some states may directly fund religious schools and others don’t. And that’s why voucher legislation becomes feasible in these times.

Since the change in the state constitution in New York requires a popular vote, this is no slam-dunk. There may still be voters who remember what they were taught in school about separation of church and state.

Diane

Categories Education Reform, New York, Vouchers

Four-Step Demolition Polka in North Carolina

By dianeravitch
June 17, 2012 //
9

An article describing the situation in North Carolina defines the four steps needed to attack and dismantle public education. It is a scenario based on ALEC model legislation, which is now being faithfully implemented in many states.

Step one is to cut the budget of the public schools.

Step two is to divert public school money to privately-managed charter schools.

Step three is to divert more public school money to private and religious schools, either through vouchers or tax credits.

Step four is to declare that the public schools will get better because of competition and to declare them failures when they don’t, due to budget cuts and the exodus of motivated students to the publicly-funded alternatives in steps two and three.

And don’t forget: It’s all about the children!

Diane

Categories ALEC, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Vouchers

This Is What “Reformers” Say in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
June 16, 2012 //
13

An editorial writer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune wrote a scathing critique of Governor Bobby Jindal’s reform legislation: the haste with which it was adopted, the lack of forethought, the approval of schools to receive voucher students even though they had no facilities, the diversion of public money to private schools, the lack of accountability for private schools getting public money, and Jindal’s refusal to allow tax breaks for those who make donations to public schools (he supports tax breaks only for contributions to private schools). The editorial expressed appreciation for the fact that legislators were starting to ask tough questions, but concluded it would have been better had they asked tough questions before they voted approval for the legislation, rather than afterwards.

Not brooking any dissent, the Governor’s communication director responded with an email. His defense to every question raised: Look how terrible the academic performance of students in public schools is. Look how many received a D or an F last year (44 percent). Look how terrible the American education system is. Look how many nations got higher test scores than the U.S. in the latest international test. Companies that move to Louisiana can’t find skilled workers. Children get only one chance. We can’t wait.

Translated, his response means: We don’t know how to fix the public schools so we will hand out public money to anyone who wants it. Academic performance is so low that we will try anything, without any evidence, even if it means destroying the public school system and giving funds to tiny evangelical schools that have no resources or track record. We will give public money to anyone who wants to open a charter school, even though the charters we now have are no better than the public schools. Our public schools are so bad that we have no obligation to improve them. We will try anything even if the outcome for children is likely to be even worse than what we are doing now. Unspoken but implied: When you are the governor and you control the Legislature and the state board of education, you can do any thing you want, even something as wacky as sending children to religious schools that have no facilities and no evidence of a better academic program than the local public school.

Diane

Categories Education Reform, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Vouchers

Questions for the Candidates

By dianeravitch
June 15, 2012 //
2

As I watch President Obama and Mitt Romney compete, I am appalled by the absence of any substantive analysis of education issues.

When Romney released his education agenda, it was reported with impartiality, as it should have been. But no one asked questions about his claims.

I reviewed his proposals in the New York Review of Books, but I have seen no other effort to analyze his plan and check his assertions. Maybe that happens later. I hope so.

Take the issue of vouchers. Kudos to Trip Gabriel of the New York Times for noticing that Romney avoids using the V word even as he advocates loudly for vouchers. Clearly, his pollsters must have told him that the American public has questions about the wisdom of sending their  tax dollars to support religious schools.

The general public is uninformed about the ongoing debacle of vouchers in Louisiana or about the weak evidence for privately managed charters or about the high cost of returning control of federal student loans to commercial banks, which Romney wants to do.

Here is an example of a fact that might easily have been checked but so far has not been. When Romney first addressed education issues, he claimed  that the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (aka, the federally-funded voucher program) should be considered a national model. He made the ludicrous claim that students in the program gained “19 months” in reading after only three months in the program. That was untrue, but no journalist pointed that out. As I said in my article on the blog of the New York Review of Books, the federal evaluation found no gain in achievement for students in the voucher program. Romney also exaggerated the graduation rate for students in the voucher program, but no journalist noted that either. Will any of Romney’s advisers tell him the truth about D.C.? Will any journalist check the facts on the D.C. voucher program?

President Obama should also be subject to similar journalistic scrutiny. The claims he makes for his Race to the Top program have no evidentiary basis. The main thing that his : Race seems to have accomplished is to have demoralized vast numbers of teachers, which was documented by the Metlife Survey earlier this year. Race to the Top has also generated an army of consultants and edu-entrepreneurs to soak up federal dollars with dubious claims of their ability to turn schools around. And we have yet to hear the debunking of Obama’s demand that states evaluate teachers by the test scores of their students. It’s happening in state after state, but the evidence about its positive effects does not exist, while the evidence of collateral damage accumulates. More teaching to the test, more cheating, more narrowing the curriculum, more experienced teachers leaving the profession, more attacks on the profession, more attacks on teachers’ unions, more profits for the vendors as school budgets shrink.

A few months ago, I published an article in NiemanWatch at Harvard, for journalists. These are questions that journalists and the public should be asking candidates this year. We need a national debate about what the federal government is doing to our public schools. It is not likely to happen between the candidates. It will happen only to the extent that the media is a watchdog.

Diane

Categories Education Reform, Obama, Romney, Mitt, Vouchers

The Textbooks in Voucher Academies

By dianeravitch
June 11, 2012 //
7

There are now three states in which vouchers enable students to bring public funding to religious schools: Indiana, Wisconsin, and Louisiana. Some of these schools will be evangelical schools that use Christian textbooks written specifically for this market, as well as for home-schoolers. The list of schools approved to receive voucher students in Louisiana includes many Bible-based Christian academies.

The Christian textbooks take a decidedly different view of the world than mainstream textbooks. The science textbooks teach creationism, not evolution. The history textbooks look on liberalism as a force for moral decadence. Even the math textbooks are different from those used in public schools.

In 2003, I wrote a book about textbooks, which showed how they are shaped by political forces and how their publishers skirt controversial issues in an effort to placate partisan demands. There is something even less desirable than blandness, however, and that is teaching impressionable minds only one perspective or denying them a full understanding of crucial ideas in history, science, and other fields of study.

In this land of liberty, private schools are free to teach what they want. But when they start taking public money, what they teach–whether it is scientifically and historically accurate– becomes a matter of public concern.  That is why many religious schools have been reluctant to become entangled with public funding.

Diane

Categories Education Reform, Louisiana, Vouchers

Voucher Follies in Louisiana (continued)

By dianeravitch
June 9, 2012 //
2

When Louisiana’s voucher plan begins in September, the Upperroom Bible Church Academy in New Orleans plans to enroll an additional 214 voucher students. The addition of these students will add $1.8 million in taxpayer dollars to the school’s coffers.

Upperroom Bible Church Academy is already a voucher-receiving school. New Orleans has had a small voucher program since Hurricane Katrina (about 1800 students). Because the school is already getting public funding, its students take the state tests (called LEAP). Last year, only  21% of its students in grade 3, 4 and 5 scored above basic on state tests of reading and math. Some parents left comments about the school on this site (and be aware that this site is unmonitored and thus the comments are not necessarily accurate).

Among the state’s voucher and charter schools, it was third to last on the state LEAP rankings. This raises the possibility that children may be “escaping” from a low-performing public school to an even lower-performing voucher school.

That link demonstrates that most charter and voucher schools perform well below the state average in a low-performing state. If you are looking for a miracle, you won’t find it here. Nor will you find evidence that the Jindal administration is raising standards or expanding opportunities for students in Louisiana to get a better education.

Diane

Categories Charter Schools, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Vouchers
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »