Indiana: Vouchers and warnings to parents about ineffective teachers
In an update to a story that we have discussed on the blog, Indiana passed the nation’s broadest voucher bill this week. It also passed a teacher merit pay bill that seems designed to create discontent among teachers and parents.
Part of Gov. Mitch Daniels’ education reform package, the voucher bill gives tax dollars to parents who want to send their children to private schools. The bill is not limited to low-income families or those whose children attend low-performing schools.
In a media statement thanking state legislators, Gov. Daniels said, “Their political courage and their commitment to a great education for every single child deserve the thanks not just of parents but of every citizen; Indiana has a far brighter future because of them.”
Critics maintain that the changes will drain funds from already struggling public schools in Indiana, which, like most states, has been cutting funding over the last few years. (This year, Indiana restored some funding, which will be used to offer full-day kindergarten.)
Billed as a broadening of the choice menu in the Hoosier state, Daniels’ education reform package also gives a tax deduction to parents who home school or send their children to private schools and expands charter and virtual schools. The tax deduction covers education expenditures, including textbooks.
As part of the governor’s reforms, Indiana also passed a controversial merit pay plan for teachers that requires annual evaluations based in part on student performance on tests. There would be four categories of teacher ratings — highly effective, effective, improvement necessary and ineffective — with merit pay limited to the top two.
A district couldn’t place a student with teachers who were rated ineffective for more than one year. If the district had no other choice because of its school staffing conditions, it would have to notify parents that their child was going to have “an ineffective teacher” for a second year. But once told this information, parents don’t appear to have any recourse.
Here is the exact language of the bill: (I think there must be a secret class on how to write legislation so it is nearly incomprehensible.)
(b) A student may not be instructed for two (2) consecutive years by two (2) consecutive teachers, each of whom was rated as ineffective under this chapter in the school year immediately before the school year in which the student is placed in the respective teacher’s class.
(c) If a teacher did not instruct students in the school year immediately before the school year in which students are placed in the teacher’s class, the teacher’s rating under this chapter for the most recent year in which the teacher instructed students, instead of for the school year immediately before the school year in which students are placed in the teacher’s class, shall be used in determining whether subsection (b) applies to the teacher.
(d) If it is not possible for a school corporation to comply with this section, the school corporation must notify the parents of each applicable student indicating the student will be placed in a classroom of a teacher who has been rated ineffective under this chapter. The parent must be notified before the start of the second consecutive school year.
I wonder how it helps to inform parents, “Your child is going to spend the year with a teacher that the state of Indiana has deemed ineffective. We thought you’d like to know even though there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Back to vouchers. Here are the details from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:
A family of four making less than $61,000 is eligible for a grant worth 50 percent of their local districts’ per-student funding. A similar family making $41,000 or lower would be eligible for a 90 percent voucher.
About 60 percent of Hoosier school kids qualify under the income guidelines.
The amount of the grant is limited to $4,500 for grades 1 through 8, with no cap for high school.
The bill requires students to attend public school for one year before being eligible for vouchers, meaning current private school students could not receive a voucher.
Kindergarten doesn’t count as the one year in public school.
The number of vouchers available statewide would be capped at 7,500 next school year and 15,000 the following year. After that, there is no limit.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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67 comments Add your comment
Really amazed
April 29th, 2011
10:21 am
I find it funny that on a recent blog yesterday, many of you felt that you should be able to send your children to ANY public school you wanted but private school vouchers no! Talk about Hypocrites! How is this any different? @Single working mom. You are the only one that gets what is happening in private schools. You NAILED IT! Many parents here wouldn’t be able to get there child to school on time, homework done etc. For the record, this wouldn’t make private school less desirable, the better more reputable private schools would still pick students based on abilities. We aren’t affraid about diversity as you think!!!! You are all affraid that the better students would leave and make public education even worse. Maybe that is what needs to happen so public gov’t would realize that something needs to be done in the first place so parents would have more faith in sending their children to public.
Lee
April 29th, 2011
10:57 am
Those who propose vouchers as a way to get government out of education will soon find that they actually increase the influence of goverment into the private sector of education.
Some of you have questioned whether private schools who accept vouchers would be required to undergo the same testing regime that public schools now do. That will only be the tip of the iceberg as the government bureaucrats try to accumulate more power over the private sector by enacting an ever increasing amount of rules and regulations.
No, vouchers will result in a three tier school system:
1. Private elites who do not accept vouchers and remain independent.
2. Semi-private schools who accept vouchers and the accompanying bureaucratic red tape.
3. Public schools – which will turn into the dumping ground for the dullards and discipline problems. God help the “normal” child who happens to get stuck in one of those hellholes.
A simple private school tax credit for parents who enroll their child in an accredited private school would give parents “choice” without the intrusive government red tape.
Larry Major
April 29th, 2011
11:04 am
The Christian Brothers Institute, based in New Rochelle, N.Y. just filed for Chapter 11 because of the 50 or so pending abuse claims currently filed against them. The other Catholic school order that declared bankruptcy in 2009 had around 200 pending claims.
Since a lot, maybe most, of the taxpayer’s money Indiana is handing out will go to Catholic schools, who will be responsible for the next round of lawsuits?
Really amazed
April 29th, 2011
11:06 am
@Lee, see your point!!!!! Even though it would be nice to have my tax dollars go for a voucher. The system that is in place now does keep the gov’t red tape out!!! You can differ part of tax dollars.
oldschooldoc
April 29th, 2011
11:27 am
Judging teacher “performance” based on test scores is akin to judging me on my patient panel rates of obesity. I can teach, encourage, beg all I want, but there are so many factors that impact a persons health that I have NO CONTROL over. I advocate in so many ways in order to reduce the rates of obesity, and still my kindergartener’s class takes a school field trip to the World of CocaCola! ( kept my baby home lest she be indoctrinated, too)
I think a better solution for the public school system would be to allow public schools to have the same rights of refusal as charter and private schools. Ask parents/guardians to.
1. volunteer a certain number of hours
2. ensure their child is properly behaved at school
3. attend at least one parent-teacher conference.
If they can’t do these simple basic items to ensure their kids success ( and to not block the success of others) then send them to alternative school. That alternative school would need to be chock full of all kinds of social workers, psychologists, special teachers in order to really make a difference.
Otherwise, the public school system will , and is, becoming de facto alternative school. The local schools have to take everyone whether they want to be there or not. Bright kids, from motivated families in poorer schools will be lost in the process–either they goto private school, get transfers to
other schools– all of which weakens your local school even more.
I live in a largely minority, mixed SES district. After elementary school, many parents with great students leave the local school because they do not want their children in class with kids who have no interest in education and no home training ( the middle school draws kids form all types of backgrounds and the discipline is rather loose ). This is such a sad trend as my property value hinges on the success of the local schools
Batgirl
April 29th, 2011
11:37 am
@Single Tax Payer, I am also a single tax payer and will happily join you in your lawsuit should the need arise.
GeeMac
April 29th, 2011
11:50 am
Hunter, while more money doesn’t necessarily improve outcomes, starving public schools of financial resources and expecting them to improve is simply untenable. Depleting the pool of able and motivated students is not a solution either. The current challenges present in public schools today are a reflection of the much deeper and pervasisve problems associated with generational poverty.
GeeMac
April 29th, 2011
11:52 am
Well said, oldschooldoc!
HS Public Teacher
April 29th, 2011
2:09 pm
@oldschooldoc -
Please run for Governor or at least Superintendent of Schools of GA!!!
Henry County Teacher
April 29th, 2011
8:17 pm
What about ineffective and incompetent admins? How do the teachers get rid of them
Elizabeth
April 30th, 2011
6:55 am
I is okay ( apparently) to be an incompetent, ineffective administrator and still have a job and een receive a promotion.
As for people who don’t think they have to pay taxes for schools for all the various reasons stated:
Here are the things I don’t want MY taxes to pay for:
abortions, wars in the Middle East driven by oil dependency, education/ other public services for illegal aliens, 60 per cent of money for schools going to special education while the rest have to do with the remaining 40 per cent, help to impoverished nations when we have hungry children in our own country who can get no help, free medical services donated for overseas hardship cases when my niece’s family has exhausted all resources and benefits for my niece, aged 25, who needs around the clock care because of a debilitating congenital disease, and the list goes on. Do I get to vote not to pay for these things?
Old school doc is right on target. Too bad no one will listen. It’s easier to blame the teachers.
Chris
April 30th, 2011
8:44 am
This program will save the state a ton of money. If they are issuing vouchers for 50% of the per student annual cost at public schools, then are they are pocketing the other 50%. I am not sure how those tax dollars are collected in Indiana, but in some states they are specifically levied for the funding of schools. Where does the other money go then? Is it still spent in public schools?
Also, how does it help a family of 4 making $61,000/year to get $4500/year vouchers to send their kids to private school when the tuition for the private school may by $30,000/yr for the two children? This doesn’t help the poor or middle class because private schooling is still a financial impossibility, even with the voucher. This helps subsidize the educations of the children of the upper class.
Single Tax Payer
April 30th, 2011
12:20 pm
@Chris – You are exactly right. That is why this is a re-distribution of money to the most wealthy. And, SHAME on Georgia for propsing it!
d
April 30th, 2011
8:49 pm
@Chris, just to further your point, when the state goes about subsidizing the private education of the elite, where does the money come from? Even if, hypothetically, a student does benefit from a voucher, the public schools still have overhead costs that those dollars meant for the education of the children still in the school must now cover. The bills for utilities, upkeep,
d
April 30th, 2011
8:49 pm
ooops….. Bills don’t go away when the children do.
Ole Guy
May 1st, 2011
11:55 am
HS Teach, many of these comments point to one common thread of fact…public education has been in the tank for a long long time; YOU, the teacher corps, knows, better than anyone else, this situation; YOU, the teacher corps, have been positioned, better than anyone else, to tackle the myriad issues which have led to the sinking ship run aground which is the state of public ed.
It is not until recent years, with concerns of lost jobs within your profession, that anything resembling action (anonymous at best) has risen out of the ranks of your bretheran. Your concerns, it would seem, have been tamped, tempered, and subdued by “pocketbook satiation”…as long as YOU had a job; as long as none of the boogy men at the top were hammering the teacher corps, all was ok. I was there, back in the mid-90s…I could see the “political poo” running down the walls, but all the good teachers I spoke with, while expressing full and complete awareness of the situations, seemed to appear content in the knowledge that any “rocking of the boat” would be counterproductive. C/D/F students were sitting on the AP roles, AT THE INSISTANCE OF MEDLING PARENTS who saw no problems in “end run tactics”; going directly through principals and having the very same principals dictate, under political expediency, teacher actions.
YOU, the teacher corps, have been positioned, for many many years, to assume command of your profession…to restore public ed to it’s true and intended value. While educational “fixes”, such as vouchers, are merely a smoke screen, the real fix lies in YOUR camp. YOU people would be wise to “rock the boat”, form a collective voice which has meaning (not these tea cup organizations on which you have been wasting both your money and your professional aspirations), and start sending kids into the world who can pass a simple Military entrance exam without having to take all sort of prep courses…who can pass college courses without having to take the remedials which would not even be available if YOU had been able to teach them in the first place…
Unfortunately, there are many commenters who seem unable to express meaningful dialogue without pissing others off. My comments, while intended to be neither flattering nor excessively irritating, all point to one common thread…YOU…not me (the non-educational public), and certainly not the myriad governmental organizations which are SUPPOSED to do their jobs…must do the right things. NO one else is going to descend upon the mess, which is YOUR profession, and sprinkle foo foo dust. DO YOU READ ME, TEACH?
Dewaine
May 1st, 2011
3:20 pm
The voucher idea is a bad move. We should learn from other states about how it did not work. That law in 1964 is why the US is losing in every way to the rest of the civilized nations. The Civil Rights Act caused the US to lose its edge. Our work standards have went to pot(people no longer get fired from sleeping on the job).
Our education was changed since the blacks complained about not getting the same education as whites. If you truthfully look at it, the blacks were probably better off in education prior to 1964 than today. We have wasted our resources too much. Looks like the only winners were the Public schools should do better but are too lazy to do better.