St. Louis Public Schools Power Struggle Ended

Missouri Supreme Courts decided earlier this month to judicially validate the takeover of the St. Louis Public School District. The suit, brought forth by previous board members, is just another example of misdirected and self-guided efforts and the denial of the serious education crisis afflicting the district.

The court agreed that the unaccredited status, that went in to effect June 2007, was based on valid criteria and objective information, including the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's evaluation of the district's performance.

Not that the verdict is in, leaders need to unite with a focus on actually improving the schools--fighting for our children, not themselves.


Want more on the topic?

The case

New York Times: Missouri Schools Takeover Upheld

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (story & local comments): Elected city school board loses again

Missouri Lawyers Weekly: Supreme Court upholds state takeover of St. Louis Public School District

Kansas City InfoZine: Missouri Supreme Court Upholds Decision on St. Louis School District’s Loss of Accreditation

KWMU: Mo. Supreme Court upholds state-appointed school board

Parents Review St. Louis Public Schools

Though the performance statistics prove otherwise, some still try to claim that the St. Louis Public School District is doing just fine. But instead of ignoring the problem all together, let’s look at what those affected have to say.

A review submitted by Annette Peoples, a parent from the Lyon-Blow Middle School:
“No sports…No one really guiding the right why…No one take time…The children’s teachers and principal are always blaming and never trying to get to the root of the problem. Kids attacks each other...This is not right.”

Another review from Buder Elementary School by parent Sarah Kelmendi:
“The teachers tend to be very rude and sarcastic to the kids which in turn lowers the students confidence, making it difficult to learn. Some teachers are down right mean! I make it a point to be at school everyday just to make sure my kids are not being verbally abused. In my opinion teachers should be nurturing and supportive, this is not the case at Buder. Unfortunately I think all St. Louis public schools are like this, I've checked them out.”

Yet another, this one of Sigel Elementary School:
“This school has got to be one of the worst schools in the district. The teachers don't care. They don't teach. All they do is shove piles of worksheets in front of the kids' faces and expect them to know what to do. The behavior and bullying is outrageous. The principal is lacking in credibility and backbone. There is no oversight on her part at all. The test scores were at 3% in all areas, then in 2004 they raised them meeting AYP, only to have them drastically fall the next year. What are they doing? They had tutoring when they were trying to meet AYP then when they did, they cut it out. Are they really for academic success? I don't see evidence of it. Grade F.”

Unfortunately, St. Louis Public Schools are unaccredited for a reason and families are really suffering. Passionate leaders and legislators must fight for education reform to ensure a proper education for all children and stop these unfortunate horror stories.

(The reviews are from http://www.greatschools.net/)

Democrats for Education Reform Chooses Hubbard

Last week Represenitive Rodney R. Hubbard was named the first Midwest Regional Director of the Democrats for Education Reform.

Hubbard has shown a passion for proven education reforms (such as school choice, charter schools and merit pay), especially with his recent work in the House. He is well-known for working across party lines to improve public schools and provide parents with high-quality choices for the education of their children. As regional director Hubbard will be able to focus all of his time and energy on this issue.

DFER is a national political action committee that is dedicated to improving schools, by encouraging more productive dialogue within the Democratic Party on the need to fundamentally reform American public education. The group operates on all levels of government to educate elected officials and support reform-minded candidates for public office.

The courage and conviction of Hubbard and the other DFER leaders is exactly what we need to fix our failing schools.

For the full press release from the Children's Education Alliance of Missouri: Click here.

Charter School Expansion Statewide

Bills were prefiled for the next congressional session, which starts January 13. One in particular (Senate Bill 64), expands the current charter school law to any place with "school districts that are not classified as accredited" (as opposed to just the St. Louis and Kansas City areas).

This extension will add an aspect of statewide fairness and significantly improve opportunity for many children. These parents will no longer be stuck in ineffective schools because of this much-deserved school choice!

School Choice: What's Your Style?

Every school has its own personality and unique teaching policies—just like every student has their own personality and unique learning style. The better these match up the more effective the education. All the more reason why parents should be able to choose the school that fits their child best.

Check out a Wall Street Journal Blog about the different criteria parents look for in a school.

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AFT Endorses UNfairness

The American Teacher Federation agrees that the Obama's "have every right to make a decision that works for their family and their kids" when it comes to education BUT both AFT and the president-elect still do not support school choice for anyone else. How is this fair?! It is not.



Okay for Obamas to Send Their Kids to Private Schools, Teachers’ Union President Says

Charter School Interest Grows in Columbia, MO

Current state law only allows charter schools in St. Louis and Kansas City, which is simply not fair!

As a previous blog notes, Columbia Public schools are failing to educate all students adequately. However, most families (especially those with lower income) lack any practical alternative.

There are two people in particular that already expressed interest in providing Columbia parents greater options through charter schools. Myke Gemkow, who plans to open a private Montessori school for low-income children, would definitely look into charter school opportunities. And Joelle Quoirin would open a French immersion school.

Charter schools have proven to produce positive results. A Harvard University researcher found that students in charter schools score significantly higher on reading and math tests than peers in traditional schools. Furthermore, charter schools are among the top performing schools in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas when it comes to Missouri Assessment Program test scores.

Basically, Missouri needs expanded charter school laws for equality for parents and children!

Read the Columbia Tribune Story.

Artistic School Choice Video

Though 'voucher' has been turned into a dirty word, the underlying school choice theme behind a voucher system is a desirable and actually necessary aspect for any real education improvement.

The video uses simple and artistic means to convey the benefits of competition and accountability. Because parents want only high-performing schools for their children, only those schools that achieve at the top level (and continue to maintain impressive results) will survive. And obviously, any school system that grants ALL children a proper education is the common goal driving families, educators and politicians in the area of education reform.

National School Choice Campaign

School choice deserves support!

Many groups and individuals are passionately crusading for improvements in education through school choice. The Alliance for School Choice launched a new Let Parents Choose campaign last week with a goal of enlisting 10,000 school choice activists.
Registering at www.letparentschoose.org will get you free school choice bumper stickers, handbooks and magazines. There is also a place for sharing your story, donating money, reading up on education research and social-networking though a facebook group.

Another aspect to the campaign is aimed at not allowing shocking and disturbing statistics of failing public schools go unnoticed. For example, Approximately 4 million children are attending underperforming schools in America, despite the best efforts of many educators. What's more, a child drops out of school every 26 seconds!! That adds up to more then 1 million drop-outs every year!

School Choice for the Obama Family

As the Obama’s move into the white house they will face the same decision of millions of families across the county will encounter—what school can offer the best education for their children?

Public schools are, of course, the first option. But if these schools are constantly failing to produce results, then this is hardly a contending alternative at all. In fact, being stuck in a public school is more like a parental nightmare!

In some lucky cities there is the publicly funded, privately run option of charter schools. (Obama has thankfully supported this form of parental choice). However, admission is by random by lottery and slots fill up extremely fast.

The other alternative is private schools. Obviously, the Obama’s can financially afford this school choice option, however many families simply can not. The predicted private school decision of the Obama’s will shed pertinent light on the lack of fairness in America’s educational system.

With the future president determining that private schools offer their children superior education, will he still maintain his stance against all private schools voucher models? How could he deny low-income families the same opportunities his children are enjoying? Do his kids deserve more and better opportunity then those with less fortunate economic family circumstance? These questions display the obvious importance of parental school choice.

Clearly it is only morally fair to offer every parent the ability to choose the best for their child. It is extremely important that every child is offered opportunity beyond their family’s income level. Therefore, school choice is the only way to instill the ethical principle of fairness into the education system, while reaping the rewards of improved schools and more educated children!


Want More?

The Chicago Tribune has a comprehensive story on the Obama family and presidential school decisions.

USA Today offers an in-depth look at the specific school options the Obama's will have.

And the Wall Street Journal has a popular blog on the issue.

Columbia Public Schools are Failing Black Students

The Columbia Daily Tribune: News Story or Blog

The Board of Education dedicated at the meeting last night that the Columbia Public Schools were failing its black students. White students are significantly outperforming their black peers on MAP scores and other achievement statistics throughout the state. However, when comparing achievement statewide based on race, Columbia’s black students are doing well below the state average, while the Columbia’s white students are doing above (which NOT correlate with income level). This means the city suffers from an especially large racial achievement gap.

While it is good that these problems are not being ignored, it is extremely important that something is done about these unfortunate statistics. Every student deserves a proper education! In the face of several failed reforms, school choice remains a viable answer. School choice encourages parents to take an active role in their child’s education by empowering them with options. School choice would, more importantly, offer families outraged at this data the ability to make the proper changes for their children.

Charter Schools Offer Choices for KC Parents

The parental choice that charter schools offer is becoming an increasingly enticing option for Kansas City families—as 15 percent more students enrolled in charter schools this year.

Charter schools are run by independent boards. This often allows them freedom from ineffective bureaucratic administrations—leading to more efficient fund management and specialized policies. In fact, charter schools are held accountable for maintaining this effectiveness through basic market forces. Parents would not bother to enroll their children in a charter school if at any point they believed the regular public schools would better serve their child. Charter schools also force parents to become more actively involved in their child’s life—significantly improving discipline, by comparison.

Because of the many benefits of school choice--specifically through charter schools--it is extremely promising to see these statistics in Kansas City. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, around 23 percent of schoolchildren in Kansas City public schools are getting their education at one of the city’s 18 public charter schools—which totals about 7,000 students. That puts the city sixth among U.S. communities in the percentage of public school students enrolled in charter schools.

“Charter Schools on the Rise in KC”—the story from the Kansas City Star

Compition Factor of School Choice

When going down the cereal isle at any grocery store there is hundreds of different brands to choose from. Why are these companies always coming out with new flavors, improved ingredients and tempting ascetic gimmicks? The answer: COMPETITION. This same marketplace philosophy of improvement though choice MUST be applied to Missouri schools.

With parental choice options public schools will be forced to finally begin must needed system-wide revamping to maintain students. Private schools will also be motivated for high-quality achievement in order to entice local families. With a school choice model, children win. They would no longer be stuck in failing schools.

Some try to argue that school choice will hurt public schools—which is simply not true! Great schools will not be affected. (Aren’t there still Cheerios and Wheaties?). It is only the schools that are currently unacceptable that will be forced to improve.

Though the future of our children is obviously an extremely more important and sensitive subject then breakfast food, today’s economy forces even the most passionate institutions to face this market-driven society. The bottom-line is: our children deserve a first-rate education and this is possible using school choice!

School Choice: A Market Approach to Education Reform

YOUR KIDS ARE LESS LIKELY TO GRADUATE THAN YOU!

Seriously! Your kids are less likely to graduate than you were! It is startling, scary and unfortunately true reality (according to a recent governmental report). Clearly reform must happen now! Schools need to be held accountable to increase graduation rates—ultimately allowing our children opportunities that only a full education can provide. We must pursue proper reforms, therefore not allowing schools to continue down this slippery slop. The horrendous graduation problem is more then just a statistic. Behind every single dropout number, there is a child with severely inadequate education and limited opportunities, there are families stuck in unfortunate situations and there are the consequences this has one the entire community. Parents need to ensure that state and school officials face these facts and enact the necessary reforms supporting our schools. We need to see more of our students in caps and gowns. Effectively proven education reforms are the answer to the appalling dropout crisis.



More on the graduation crisis from KSDK

Or AP Education Writer: Dropout Improvement

We can't rule out school choice

The issue of school choice was brought into the public forum by way of the courts this week. A judge dismissed a case of families seeking reimbursement for their tuition to send their children to a public school outside the unaccredited St. Louis Public School District. Though a retrospective lawsuit (that could unpredictably lead to infinitely more cases) is not the way to bring about this reform—the issue of parental choice is serious and extremely necessary! Parents deserve options in the face of failing schools—despite their financial conditions. Plans have been developed for Missouri using economically sound and empirically-proven methods. It is important for parents, the public, school officials and government politicians to come together behind school choice reforms—therefore creating the educational improvements our children deserve.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch news coverage

National Financial Crises Meets St. Louis Public School Crisis

With the economy in an obvious crisis state, education funding will take a hit. Though the impact may very start off in other areas, when states and cities start to see reductions for their projects they will feel the pressure to take from the schools. Unfortunately, government funding reduction for education is a reality that must be faced. That is why it is more important than ever to look outside simply pouring money into inefficient schools or unproven/expensive school reforms. We must make less money produce more results. On the brighter side, this can and has been done! By enacting reforms such as merit pay for teachers or schools choice options we can begin to see higher achievement without having to increase funding at all. We can not let money get in the way improving our children’s education!

School Choice for Cape Girardeau School

Parents of children attending Cape Girardeau’s Jefferson Elementary school will have the choice to either keep their child in the school, which did not meet targets set by No Child Left Behind, or transfer their child to another, better-performing school, according to the Southeast Missourian.

http://www.semissourian.com/article/20080807/NEWS01/173356109/-1/news01

“Every transfer request will be granted. Letters outlining the procedure to request a transfer are being mailed today. Parents will have to fill out a single form ranking their alternate school choices. Every transfer request will be granted. Letters outlining the procedure to request a transfer are being mailed today. Parents will have to fill out a single form ranking their alternate school choices.”

Though it is a tragedy children have been underserved by Jefferson Elementary School, at least families have been given a choice with regard to the circumstances. This was not true in the unaccredited Saint Louis Public school district, which has developed into an even greater tragedy beginning to reach epic proportions.

Although the choice Cape parents have as far as other schools is limited, it is better than no choice at all. We applaud the school districts effort in doing this, but are still concerned about the trend of failing schools in our state.

What do Education and Economic Growth Have in Common?

Studies have proven that a good quality education has a strong positive correlation with Economic Growth. A study, Education and Economic Growth, Its not Just Going to School, but Learning Something There That Matters by Eric Hanusheck, Dean Jamison, Eliot Jamison, and Ludger Woessmann, published in Education Next examines the relationship not only between attendance and actual learning, but on the strong relationship between education and economic growth. The study notes that other studies have only looked at the relationship between student attainment and economic growth and hum and human capital. The problem with only examining student attainment falls in the fact that those numbers only quantify the number of years a student was in school, not how much they learned.
While the study did find that student attainment did have a positive correlation with economic growth, more actual learning has a greater effect. As other economists in the past found, the study found that if the average number of years of schooling was higher, the economy grew at a higher rate in the following decades. Studying 50 countries, each additional average year of schooling increased the average 40 year growth rate in the GDP by .37 percentage points. When they examined cognitive skills, which were measured my the performance in math and science tests, the impact is much larger; countries with higher test scores experienced much larger growth rates.
There is obviously a strong correlation between growth and education, but then were does money spent on education come into play? Over the years, more and more money has been poured into education yet these attempts have failed to yield actual improvements. In order to help economic growth (let alone, our children) we need to focus on education reform tactics that truly work.

What's really at stake when we discuss school choice?

School choice has become a hot topic for debate here in St. Louis, as officials, teachers, politicians, and legislators spar over whether families should given the necessities to choose a school for their children. The real question is, however, should the less fortunate families in St. Louis be able to pick and choose their children’s education? For the most part, wealthier families are not in this quandary of how to find a good education for their family. They have the means—the resources and the mobility—to find those good schools in the area, something that has become increasingly difficult. Thus, when individuals are up in their offices debating whether or not to implement vouchers or tax credits for school choice programs, they need to remember these will be helping the poverty stricken in St. Louis in a way that rules and regulations and police and soup kitchens never will.
Making schools all their own, separate and private entities, would allow them to couple with families and school boards to make the best education available and affordable. First, children must have the option of getting into better schools. Once families are given the resources to place their children into these better areas, they will feel more a part of this education and will make sure and volunteer their time. Thus, efficiency in the school system would be at its peak, with children doing better in quality schools, and parents and teachers joining to make sure these children are getting something out of the education.

Phoenix Rising…

Phoenix’s East Valley Tribune has an op-ed this week that makes a lot of sense. In Missouri, we should watch Arizona’s school choice case go to state supreme court. We have a stringent so-called Blaine amendment that severely hampers the state from providing any support at all to a religiously-affiliated school.

Many anti-school choice camps have argued that Blaine Amendments (a stricter interpretation of the Establishment Clause found in many state Constitutions) prohibit a state from offering any sort of voucher or tax credit as a means of school choice because public money may come in contact with a religiously affiliated school.

For a long time I’ve believed that line of thinking constitutes a restriction on a family’s freedom of religion: making a family’s wish to raise their child in a school that reflects their beliefs contingent on their ability to pay for it. Pell Grant, the G.I. Bill and student loans are also state money, and yet do not restrict religious schools from receiving those dollars. I can think of plenty of government grants that go to private and religious organizations who are serving an important public interest. We’ve been led to believe that k-12 schooling is somehow different when in fact there are plenty of similar areas where religion and the state may touch shoulders—no excessive entanglement, just cross-purposes driven by concerned citizens. Agostini v. Felton in 1997 sets an interesting precedent about private and secular schools, if like me you geek out on case law.

The op-ed makes the case that because the aid goes to the parent and not to the school, it is not in violation of the Blaine Amendment.

The court has held that in deciding Blaine issues, judges must determine who the “true beneficiary” of a state program is, and in the case of school choice, the court said, the beneficiaries are families, not private schools. The groups who sued to halt the voucher programs — the ACLU Foundation of Arizona, People for the American Way, and the Arizona Education Association — don’t want the public to know who the true beneficiaries are.
What these opponents have accomplished is to rob a small number of disabled students (117 were enrolled this year) and foster children (140 students) and their parents of their civil rights in order to make a political point, and push a false interpretation of the state’s constitution.
Nor have they been intellectually honest enough to acknowledge that the state of Arizona has for years run a school choice program for disabled children very much like the voucher program in question, under the federal Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act. The only difference is that the state assigns special-needs children to the IDEA programs that bureaucrats feel will best serve them. Under the voucher program, parents choose.
That suggests what lies at the heart of this issue: a struggle for power and control. Those who run the government school monopoly want to keep their power instead of sharing it with taxpayers and parents who might not choose their services. The idea of competition can be a scary thing, especially for groups that already enjoy captive audiences. Arizona, which operates four distinct school choice programs, has shown choice really works — and that’s why these groups are targeting it.

The decision is headed to the Arizona Supreme Court on appeal. Since the lower court contradicted itself regarding the state constitution’s Blaine Amendments — saying the programs “aid” religious schools but do not “support” them — it’s reasonable to expect the high court to abide by its own precedents and recognize this case for what it is: a grab for additional power by a fat and callous educational establishment.

Accountability + Options = Charter Schools

A crucial element to restoring the quality of education in St. Louis is charter schools. Many of the problems—specifically in the St. Louis Public School district—stem from administrative malfunctions. Because these teachers unions and self-interested bureaucrats struggle to maintain unjustified control, proper changes have not been made even in the face of continually failing schools. Charter schools provide the administrative flexibility to provide proper management on fundamental issues such as funding allocation and standards setting.

Accountability is a key concept of charter schools. Failure to meet academic performance standards or any unacceptable fiscal management will lead to charter termination by the state. The state department is required to study and report a charter school’s performance every two years. Furthermore, theses schools undergo annual audits and submit report cards reviewing the year.

The school choice aspect of charter schools will not only hold the charter schools accountable (why would a parent choose to attend a poor school?), it will also provide the motivation for public schools to final begin to implement positive changes. Charter schools provide parents with options concerning the important and emotional issue of their child’s education and future. Parents now have a choice outside failing public schools and expensive—possibly religious—private schools. The concepts of schools choice and accountability will work together to improve the education of our children—therefore making charter schools an essential method.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/CC2A93EF3538C8678625744400822710?OpenDocument

http://stlcin.missouri.org/education/K12.cfm

What Do Americans Really Know About Education Spending?

Government spending on education has, without a doubt, increased over the past several decades. Unfortunately, the student achievement levels and graduation rates are not following the same upward slope. I have often wondered the reasoning behind the constant financial increases when there is yet to be evidence of the benefits. Education Next published an article, Is the Price Right? Probing American's knowledge of school spending

By William G. Howell and Martin R. West

This study examines the way people view America’s public education spending. The results are astonishing. 59 percent of those surveyed truly believe more spending on public schools in their districts will increase student achievement. However, while they may feel more spending is needed, most people highly under-estimate how much is already spent. The study asked the respondents to estimate per-pupil expenditures in their districts as well as teacher salaries in their states. The study used actual spending and salaries which were matched geographically to each district and state to compare their estimates with actual spending. The results showed that Americans vastly underestimate the amount spent in their district and on teacher salaries.

The average estimate on per-pupil spending was $4,231 when given no prompt and $5,262 when given the prompt (the prompt “Individual student costs go toward teacher and administrator salaries, building construction and maintenance, extracurricular activities, transportation, etc). The average actual spending through the country is around $10,400. The average guess for teacher salary was $33,054 while the actual national average is $47,424.

While the study did show differences in opinions based on gender, whether they had school age children, and those who own homes and pay property taxes; the number were still well below the real numbers. There are also differences with political party affiliation.

This leads me to believe not only are people convinced we need to spend more to see more because they have not looked into the research on the lack of correlation, but also because they are basing their opinions on inaccurate information. The study noted that those who support increases in spending on public education in their district were guessing per-pupil spending $6,000 less than it is. The same holds true for teacher salary. However, while those who were in favor of decreasing spending were still guessing below the real spending level, they were estimating closer to the actual numbers.

So, now we see Americans underestimate actual spending levels, but does this necessarily prove why many people agree with more spending?

The authors ask one important question: “does the public's understanding of school finance shape their policy preferences, or do the public’s policy preferences shape their understanding of school finance?” This is something that needs answers to get to a solution.

Video: Today and Tomorrow Foundation scholarships offered in St. Louis

Education's Failings a National Catastrophe

There is really no surprise when people talk about the schools failing the children. There is however the problem of who will solve it and how it will be solved. All around the world wide web of blogging, people seem to know all the answers to everything. Sometimes, there are great ideas and sometimes there are not. It kills me to read blogs that only want to stick to the status quo...essentially keeping things the way they are. Obviously, the children will not benefit from this.

Education is a highly debated issue among parents, taxpayers, and politicians. I came across this article in the Wall Street Journal I really think people should read. It only reinforces my negative attitude about teachers unions:

OPINION

Main Street

McCain's School Choice Opportunity

By WILLIAM MCGURN

April 29, 2008;

If only Jeremiah Wright had got the right conspiracy.

When Barack Obama's pastor was caught on tape accusing the government of inventing HIV for "genocide against people of color," it was dismissed as another crazy conspiracy theory - which of course it was. But what if the Rev. Wright had used his pulpit to direct a little fire-and-brimstone against a very real outrage: a public-school system that's depriving millions of children of the education they need to compete in the 21st century economy?

Scarcely half of American children in our 50 largest cities will leave their public schools with a high-school diploma in hand, according to a study released by America's Promise Alliance. These children are disproportionately African-American. Their homes are disproportionately located in our largest public school districts. And the failure is a scar on this great land of opportunity.

Alma and Colin Powell, leaders in the alliance that produced this report, spoke about the human blight that can follow the lack of a basic education in an op-ed in the Washington Times. "Students who drop out," they wrote, "are more likely to be incarcerated, to rely on public programs and social services and to go without health insurance than their fellow students who graduate."

That isn't the intent of those who administer this system. But that is the result. And only a latter-day Bull Connor could be happy with the way our inner-city public schools are consigning millions of African Americans to the margins of American opportunity and prosperity.

And it gets worse. One of the few hopeful alternatives in these cities are the Catholic schools, which take the very same students and show that they can learn if given the chance. One University of Chicago researcher found that minority students at Catholic schools are 42% likelier to complete high school than their public school counterparts - and 2 1/2 times more likely to earn a college degree. In difficult circumstances, and for an increasingly non-Catholic student body, these schools are doing heroic work.

Unfortunately, another study released this month, by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, reports that Catholic schools are closing at an alarming rate:

More than 1,300 since 1990. Most are located in our cities.

These numbers were behind the special White House summit on Inner-City Schoolchildren and Faith-Based Schools convened last Thursday. The emphasis on faith-based schools is a reflection of practicality, because turning around a failing public school or starting up a new one is difficult, costly and takes time that these children can't afford.

"Many of the parents I know in D.C. are looking for a safe place for their children," says Virginia Walden-Ford, a summit participant and leader with the Black Alliance for Educational Options. "Their children can't afford to wait - they need a place now."

That's the education problem. The political problem has three parts.

First, though polls show that African Americans generally favor school choice, they tend not to vote for pro-school-choice candidates who are mainly Republican. Second, suburban voters of both parties are not enthusiastic about school choice. Many of these voters see increasing options for inner city kids as enabling blacks and Latinos to find their way into their children's schools. And of course, the teachers unions devote their considerable resources to fighting any measure that increases accountability or gives parents more options.

So when politicians have to choose between a teachers union and some African-American mom who would like to take her son out of a failing public school, guess who usually wins?

This system has had remarkable staying power; but the cracks are appearing.

In cities like Washington, D.C., and Newark, N.J., African-American mayors like Anthony Williams and Cory Booker - Democrats both - have taken courageous stands to offer children more and better school options. And these brave souls are being joined by a growing number of parents, pastors and advocates who recognize that the status quo is cheating their children out of a chance at the American Dream.

There's a good opening here for John McCain. As a senator, he has been a forceful voice for giving lower-income moms and dads the same options for their children that wealthier parents already enjoy. What if he took this campaign into the heart of our cities - and gave a little straight talk about the scandal that their public-school systems represent in this great land of opportunity?

Hillary Clinton can't do it for the same reason that Barack Obama can't:

They cannot offend the teachers unions that are arguably the most powerful constituents in their party. John McCain can.

Will he?

Dance of the Lemons

An article in Reason Magazine chronicles the difficulty New York State (and other states, I’d imagine)is having firing teachers who haven’t performed well—it’s hard to believe the extent of red tape:

Joel Klein led the Justice Department's attack on Microsoft for its alleged efforts to monopolize the software market. But Microsoft is a hotbed of competition compared to the organization Klein runs now. Klein is chancellor of New York City's public school system, a monopoly so heavily regulated that sometimes it's unable to fire even dangerous teachers.

The series of steps a principal must take to dismiss an instructor is Byzantine. "It's almost impossible," Klein complains.

The rules were well-intended. The union was worried that principals would play favorites, hiring friends and family members while firing good teachers. If public education were subject to the competition of the free market, those bureaucratic rules would be unnecessary, because parents would hold a bad principal accountable by sending their kids to a different school the next year. But government schools never go out of business, and parents' ability to change schools is sharply curtailed. So the education monopoly adopts paralyzing rules instead.

The regulations are so onerous that principals rarely even try to fire a teacher. Most just put the bad ones in pretend-work jobs, or sucker another school into taking them. (They call that the "dance of the lemons.") The city payrolls include hundreds of teachers who have been deemed incompetent, violent, or guilty of sexual misconduct. Since the schools are afraid to let them teach, they put them in so-called "rubber rooms" instead. There they read magazines, play cards, and chat, at a cost to New York taxpayers of $20 million a year.

Once, Klein reports, the school system discovered that a teacher was sending sexual e-mails to a 16-year-old student. "This was the most unbelievable case to me," he says, "because the e-mail was there, he admitted to it. It was so thoroughly offensive." Even with the teacher's confession, it took six years of expensive litigation before the school could fire him. He didn't teach during those six years, but he still got paid—more than $350,000 total.

If I were a teacher, I’d be bent out of shape that teachers either with serious infractions or ineffective plans could continue getting paid for not doing the job they were hired to. And while teaching and how to measure one’s efficacy and efficiency is terrifically hard and controversial, with situations where a teacher has violated trust or been negligent of responsibilities we should not want that kind of person to spend another second around children.

It’s hard to believe that taxpayers will sit idly by as criminals or opportunists suck at the marrow of education funds, but it’s hard when your vote doesn’t reach the people who make these policies, and it’s even harder when your leverage is a tax that you are required to pay. Giving more power to parents, and allowing them to choose how their education dollars are spent and what practices they want to support in their child’s school will make sure that whatever protection is in place for teachers does not infringe on a child’s right to be educated in a safe environment.

The more money we come across the more problems we see

The Commonwealth Foundation has this article about the savings inherent in school choice programs:

Friday, March 28, 2008

School Choice Tax Credit Saves Money in IL

An analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute of the Illinois Education Expense Tax Credit finds that an increase on the cap for that credit to $4,000 per child would save taxpayers $3.5 billion over 10 years. The savings would occur when families choose lower cost schools of choice rather than public schools (per pupil expense in IL is over $11,000, similar to here in Pennsylvania).

The Illinois tax credit differs from Pennsylvania's EITC, in that it allows parents to take a tax credit for educational expenditures (tuition, books, et. al) for children in grades K-12. (For more details on this program, and others across the country, see The ABCs of School Choice, produced by the Friedman Foundation.

An individual tax credit would be one avenue to reduce property taxes in Pennsylvania, a variation on our model Property Tax Relief Scholarship Act. For how school choice saves PA taxpayers, read The Dollars and Sense of School Choice.

Instead of continuing to spend more and more on public schools where drastic flaws are leaving children far behind, let’s get creative! Three and half billion in savings is what I call getting more bang for your buck. Every year is seems there is a push to get more and more revenue from the same sources, and shuffling the burden around through different types of taxes—but is it perhaps possible to start spending less money to get a quality education rather than continuing to spend more with no change in quality? Competition drives down cost while stimulating achievement, while monopolies drive cost up—which system would you rather see your tax dollars going into?

Speaking of school finance, The John Cook School of Business @ SLU is hosting the Show-Me Institute’s Speaker Series. Thursday, April 17^th is James Guthrie, Ph.D. speaking on “How much money will it take to give America good schools?” A good question indeed. Guthrie is a smart fellow, so it should be an intriguing discussion. It’s 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Cook Hall.

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Bombardiers or Babies?

Hope the title was catchy enough! When I think of Bombardiers I think of black and white war stills, and, of course, Yossarian in Catch-22.

Our diligent Senators are “working pretty much around the clock,” to create a package to bring the Montreal-based Bombardier Aerospace to Kansas City. With a hurting economy, no one can deny the value of an economic tax credit to create jobs and bring new industry to Missouri. But the entire situation strikes me as odd. They are working around the clock to make Kansas City look sexier than Bombardier’s first choice—a city outside of Montreal—possibly to meet a deal-breaking deadline. While we’ve been told that this tax credit will create lots of secure jobs, there are some small voices cautioning that it may cost the state more than it benefits. Senators have pushed the bill through quickly and left little time for scrutiny.

This push has left Missouri’s scholarship tax credit in its wake, and that has made me wonder about the priorities of our Senators. Tax credit to tax credit, economic development and education are both important—vital—to Missouri. We’re offering more choice for a sector of our economy that is struggling, so I’m wondering what is different about offering more choice for a sector of our education where some children and families are struggling. Why aren’t Senators working around the clock to open up education opportunities for special needs children? Why isn’t there a bipartisan rallying cry for an education tax credit like there is for the Bombardier facility?

Personally, I’d like to make sure the next generation has the chance to develop their skills and work at one of these 2100 new jobs that will be created.