Debunking some myths about school choice
For thousands of students, news of probation for Atlanta Public Schools was yet another time that adults key to their education have let them down. And for too many parents, unable to afford other options, it was one more reminder their child’s educational future is too tightly bound by their ZIP code.
National School Choice Week begins Sunday, and the urgency of extending truly equal opportunity for all students — whether in Atlanta or elsewhere — is only growing. Arguments to the contrary rely largely on myths, such as:
1. School choice amounts to “stealing” money from public schools.
Whether you talk about publicly funded charter schools or vouchers for use at any type of school, this objection comes up. It’s wrong-headed.
State-approved charter schools get no more money per student than the local system spends. If one of XYZ School’s 100 students leaves to attend a charter, XYZ will have 99 percent as much funding as before, for 99 percent as many kids.
Yes, fixed costs will remain. But they are the part of school budgets that most need scrutiny. Georgia has even more school systems (186) than it has counties (159), and more can be done to cut administrative expenses and share services to gain efficiencies.
Vouchers are an even better deal for local systems. Georgia’s existing voucher program, for special-needs children, will pay private-school tuition for them. But it won’t cover more than what the state pays traditional public schools per pupil. And the local system retains the locally raised revenue it would have spent on those children.
2. The school-choice movement is for rich kids.
News flash: Rich kids already have school choice. Their families can afford to pay for private school, or to move to a better-performing school district even if housing there is more expensive. School choice is for those families that can’t afford other options. New charter schools tend to pop up in middle- to lower-income neighborhoods.
But, just to be sure, voucher bills introduced in Georgia have included a stipulation that the child attended public schools for the entire previous academic year. A student at, say, Westminster wouldn’t be able to enroll in North Atlanta High School for a week, then move back and collect the voucher.
3. Vouchers won’t cover the full cost of a private education, so they won’t really help poor kids.
A voucher tied to state funding for public-school students would be $5,000 to $7,000 a year. Such a voucher wouldn’t cover the full cost of attending the most-elite private schools. But the Center for an Educated Georgia reports the average yearly tuition at Georgia’s private schools is about $6,600 — well within range of a voucher.
And basic economics suggests that new schools would open if more students could afford to attend them.
4. School choice will mean an exodus of the “best” kids, leaving public schools to deal with the rest.
Students already doing well are unlikely to leave their current schools. School choice is intended for those students who aren’t doing well but can’t afford to move to a school that might be a better fit for them. Data from current programs across the nation suggest only a small percentage of those eligible for school-choice mechanisms actually use them.
5. Choice won’t come to some (read: rural) areas.
Maybe not at first, though online education is removing geographic barriers. But the difficulty in adding choice everywhere mustn’t keep us from adding it where we can, as soon as we can.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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136 comments Add your comment
The GOP is brain dead
January 23rd, 2011
1:30 pm
One of the reasons I stopped subscribing to the AJC was its use of second and third rate outside writers to save money and its kowtowing to the right to maintain subscriptions. Providing a forum for the use of ideologues such as Bob Barr and juvenile pseudo-intellectuals such as the grinning little prick is another. He does offer us an exercise, if you want to take the time, to pick apart the distortions, cherry picked facts, and suppressed evidence he uses almost as well as W’s administration did in fabricating a case for war against Iraq.
Kira Willis
January 23rd, 2011
2:00 pm
I think that we need to clarify that school choice and vouchers are two different things. School choice is opeining up all of the public school to any child who wishes to attend and allowing the money to follow the child.
Vouchers are different, where the child takes the money from the system and goes to a private school, where the family makes up the financial difference.
Can we please make the distinction between public school choice and vouchers????
Lee Howell
January 23rd, 2011
2:27 pm
@Kira Willis, for your version of choice to take place, school funding will have to change from a largely property-tax-based system to fully state-funded, which is not likely to happen in the current budget climate. Arguably, given the state Constitution it should.
For instance, if I decide that instead of attending Clayton County Schools my child would be better served in Henry County, then Henry County property owners would still be subsidizing my child’s education, even if the state portion of education funds followed her to Henry County. Even if “her” portion of Clayton County property taxes follwed her to Henry County, that might not be enough to fully make up what Henry County spends per student.
I’ll bet those school buses won’t run from Clayton County to Henry County, will they?
d
January 23rd, 2011
2:52 pm
Why are people so afraid of letting educators do the job that we have been trained to do? Why must we have realtors, veterinarians, MDs, architects, grumpy old men, etc. tell us how to do our jobs? That is the biggest problem right now with public education. These people don’t have a clue and they force answers down our throat and then blame us when the answers they provide don’t work. I’d love to see the AMA or ABA put up with that same intrusion into their respective professions as we educators have to deal with.
MrLiberty
January 23rd, 2011
2:56 pm
Kira Willis – Much like the term “reform” as it is applied to changes in government policy, the word “choice” appears to be similarly used. Until the political machine gets through with any policy change there is no way to actually know what anyone is talking about. Generally speaking, neither party wishes to alter the status quo. They both like to throw around the currently fashionable buzz word to make the electorate think that something better is going to result from the policy changes they support. In the end, government power always increases or at the very least remains the same, taxpayers shell out more money, the quality goes down, and everyone is generally dissatisfied with the results. That is why non-political solutions (the free market) are always superior.
MrLiberty
January 23rd, 2011
3:00 pm
d – that is why the political process, which empowers everyone BUT the parents, the teachers, and the students, must come to an end. Politicians don’t tell private schools how to run their business, and to the extent that they do they make things worse. So long as the system is going to take money from everyone you are going to have everyone putting their two cents into the mix, and frankly they have that right. Stop taking from everyone and get the government out of the equation and the educators and the parents can work things out themselves. Tell me again how that is worse than what we have today??
Kira Willis
January 23rd, 2011
3:10 pm
@ Lee Howell,
So let’s start with inter county school choice and go from there. But we must refrain from lumping vouchers and school choice together; they are two different things.
Kira Willis
January 23rd, 2011
3:18 pm
@ Lee,
That’s the other thing: if parents want for their children to attend a school of choice, then the parents need to provide their own transportation. They should be doing so anyway. They should also be providing their own lunch, but I don’t want to rock the boat too much.
@@
January 23rd, 2011
3:47 pm
So let’s start with inter county school choice and go from there.
Doesn’t leave much hope for Clayton County students.
Michael H. Smith
January 23rd, 2011
3:50 pm
School choice means what it says: Choose any school public or private that meets state and county requirements, which will accept the potential student for enrollment.
Michael H. Smith
January 23rd, 2011
3:58 pm
At $5,000 to $7,000 a year per student it wouldn’t be too long before some innovative educator with a knack for making a dollar the old fashion way – meaning actually earning it by competing openly in the marketplace – to open-up a charter or private school for would-be Clayton County students.
Finn McCool (Yes, Reps won, they now control a whopping 1/2 of 1/3 of the legislative body.) (Golf Clap.)
January 23rd, 2011
4:06 pm
Why are people so afraid of letting educators do the job that we have been trained to do?
If we were ranked in the top 1/2 of states for education, I might be more willing to just let you wield your magic.
Michael H. Smith
January 23rd, 2011
4:10 pm
John Stossel’s ~
‘Stupid in America’
How Lack of Choice Cheats Our Kids Out of a Good Education
Ben Chavis is a former public school principal who now runs an alternative charter school in Oakland, Calif., that spends thousands of dollars less per student than the surrounding public schools. He laughs at the public schools’ complaints about money.
“That is the biggest lie in America. They waste money,” he said.
To save money, Chavis asks the students to do things like keep the grounds picked up and set up for their own lunch. For gym class, his students often just run laps around the block. All of this means there’s more money left over for teaching.
Even though he spends less money per student than the public schools do, Chavis pays his teachers more than what public school teachers earn. His school also thrives because the principal gets involved. Chavis shows up at every classroom and uses gimmicks like small cash payments for perfect attendance.
Since he took over four years ago, his school has gone from being among the worst in Oakland to being the best. His middle school has the highest test scores in the city.
“It’s not about the money,” he said.
He’s confident that even kids who come from broken families and poor families will do well in his school. “Give me the poor kids, and I will outperform the wealthy kids who live in the hills. And we do it,” he said.
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338
Michael H. Smith
January 23rd, 2011
4:19 pm
January 10, 2011 12:56 PM UTC by John Stossel
http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2011/01/10/school-choice/
School Choice
More good and bad news on school choice was announced today:
A group called School Choice Wisconsin reports on a study of Milwaukee high school graduation rates. First the good news: a small “parental choice” program has allowed some students to do better.
Graduation rates in Milwaukee have risen steadily since 2003, with students in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) more likely to receive diplomas than students in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). … Had MPS achieved the same graduation rate as students in the MPCP, an additional 3,939 Milwaukee students would have graduated from 2003 to 2009.
But then the bad news:
The number of 9th graders entering the MPCP decreased in 2010-2011. Per-pupil funding cuts and increased regulation have threatened the sustainability of private high schools in the MPCP. The result has been a decrease in the number of freshman seats offered through the program, at a time when demand significantly exceeds the supply.
Even as private schools struggle for funds, they provide better education for less money.
Per-pupil taxpayer support for the MPCP is $6,442, less than half of the $15,034 spent per-pupil in MPS.
Whatever a state decides to spend per pupil, parents should be allowed to take that money to any school—public or private.
Equal funding allowing the money to follow the student – Absolutely!
yomama
January 23rd, 2011
4:30 pm
I’m surprised all the gawd fearing, government loathing christian conservatives’ don’t home school their children. Science is bogus. Only the good book, the bible, can explain the mysteries of life. As your fearless, GW, leader so eloquently stated, “Is your children learning?”.
Halftrack
January 23rd, 2011
4:55 pm
Let us look at two extremes. The one room school house turned out better student than is being turned out today at a very low cost. The cost per student today is very high. Look at your school taxes. The drop out rate for high school is still the same as it was 50 years ago in Georgia. Money is not the answer. Accountability for schools and the product that they graduate is. Discipline in school is a big factor. Parents should be made liable for the conduct of their children in school. There are no easy answers, however, the attitude of self reliance must return to the citizens and it their responsibility. Teachers and students must see that this is a co-operative adventure in the maturing of an individual and future citizen.
Top School
January 23rd, 2011
5:16 pm
http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com
Not all PUBLIC schools in APS are PUBLIC.
Some are owned and operated like a PRIVATE school.
Top School
January 23rd, 2011
5:18 pm
WARREN T. JACKSON ELEMENTARY- Concealing Segregation/APS
http://www.youtube.com/user/TopSchoolAtlanta#p/u/6/urvDMBN6y4k
This subject is a total embarrassment to all tax paying citizens in the city of Atlanta—APS—Under an umbrella of leadership directed by Superintendent, Beverly Hall- Atlanta Public Schools has more to hide than just cheating on standardized tests. Everything and everyone needs to be scrutinized carefully to make sure these unprofessional leaders are held responsible for their actions. They do not need to leave their posts with dignity. It is impossible to justify any support for their psychopathic, self-righteous administrative attitudes. How many additional corrupt administrators will be left in the upper ranks in decision making positions to “carry on” with business as usual in APS. Beverly Hall’s resignation will not cleanse this den of inequity.
Michael H. Smith
January 23rd, 2011
5:56 pm
Nothing like competition to produce accountability.
catlady
January 23rd, 2011
6:20 pm
Kyle, several of your “points” are ill-informed, at best. Or maybe you just WANT to confuse the matter.
1) The public schools are being starved already. They cannot afford to subsidize any private school. You have enough to feed your family for 4 days. Then someone takes one day’s worth in exchange for taking your child. to give to some “deserving” person. How will you feed the rest of the family?
2)The school voucher movement is for rich kids. You say no. But it is rich kids who will benefit, as the cost of their private education will be borne by taxpayers (including, of course, those with no children). Because it is the rich kids who will be able to be transported, bring their own lunch, etc. It isn’t just the cost of tuition, Kyle. Private schools have a lot of costs that are IN ADDITION TO tuition. Middle class kids would be helped, too, of course, but not a darned thing for poor kids who might want the choice of a private school.
3) See number 2.
4) If your child is doing well while fraternizing with the “commoners” but you can move them to a private school with “those like you”, don’t you think you’d change schools faster than spit can fly? Yes, you would. And you would find some way to justify it.
5) Rural areas already have many challenges to keeping their schools going (transportation being one–an area the state continues to cut back on). In my rural mountain county, we have less than 50 slots in the 2 private schools–the other 4,200, 70% free lunch, kids would not be welcome in these schools, at least not for long.
I am in support of private schools for those who wish. But NOT subsidized by the taxpayers. The public schools’ success is vital to any property owner or renter (anyone who does not live in a cardboard box under the bridge or in a cemetary). If you wish to choose something different or “better”, the cost is on you.
It is a travesty that the legislature has been giving a 1:1 pass on income tax to those who wish to donate to private schools. I would like to see that “special pork” exemption done away with, but I sure won’t hold my breath.
Lee Howell
January 23rd, 2011
7:02 pm
Next question, suppose we implement choice and the money follows the student. 4000 students wish to attend Glorious Elite High School, but the school only has space for 3000 students.
How do we decide which students get to attend and bring their money? Where do the others have to go, and why?
d
January 23rd, 2011
7:26 pm
@Halftrack – it’s nice to know that you consider our young people “products.” If that is going to be the case, we need to implement the GIGO philosophy. These young people are human beings and despite the claim that “all men are created equal,’ not all students are going to perform to certain levels for whatever reason. I’m not saying don’t try. I’m not saying give up. I’m not saying don’t hold me accountable for what I do. What I am saying is we need to look at these young people for what they are – individuals and treat them as such.
Michael H. Smith
January 23rd, 2011
8:56 pm
1) The public schools are being starved already. They cannot afford to subsidize any private school.
Whoa!
Let’s talk about who is ill informed shall we? Public schools are taxpayer subsidized, they do not have any money to fund themselves. SO… this education money comes from the people, the taxpayers, not the school system or government.
Now, since this education money, in point of very fact as it turns out belongs to the we the taxpayers and we should decide how and to whom this money is to be distributed.
I vote for letting the money follow the student to whatever school they choose that best suits their educational needs, provided the school of their choice meets the requirements. Government and government schools ARE NOT ENTITLED TO MY MONEY.
Read the Declaration of Independence please. We are governed by OUR CONSENT, government is not entitled to anything unless we grant or give it to our government.
And I’m for taking back the consent to government monopolizing education is this state and country.
We’ve got the liberals scared out of their BIG GUB’MENT education monopoly socialist wits Kyle. They know as public education now stands it cannot compete within a Capitalist marketplace and survive. Ah c’mon socialist liberal Darwinist where is your ardent belief in evolution? Anything that cannot adapt to its environment successfully is suppose to face extinction, remember? Time to make the big push for statewide school vouchers that lets the money follow the student to the school of his or her choice.
d
January 23rd, 2011
9:39 pm
Actually, Michael H. Smith, we live in a country where majority rules and since the majority believe in public education – to the point where the majority of Georgia Voters enshrined it in our state Constitution and therefore our PUBLIC schools are entitled to your money.
Michael H. Smith
January 23rd, 2011
9:49 pm
d, a little education for you on the settled law my friend: It only remains the settled law until the legislature or the court changes it. Not to mention Georgia Voters do from time to time amend our enshrined constitution.
And, no the PUBLIC SCHOOLS and GUB’MENT are still not entitled to my money, they only get it by consent. Now I and a growing number of many others want to revoke that consent to a government education monopoly.
d
January 23rd, 2011
9:51 pm
Michael – I suggest, in this case, that you contact your state representatives and encourage them to repeal Article VIII of our state constitution. Let’s see how far that gets. Let’s also try not paying the legally collected taxes to support the public schools and see how you like being supported by the state of Georgia in our correctional system.
Michael H. Smith
January 23rd, 2011
9:59 pm
Oh and one other point I shouldn’t have let go by the boards.
We most certainly do not live in a country where “majority rules”. We do in fact, live in a country where the “law rules” and that my friend is what makes the United States of America a Republic and not a democracy.
As smart people know all to well, a democracy is seven wolves and a lamb discussing what to have for dinner. The majority rule voted for mutton.
Michael H. Smith
January 23rd, 2011
10:02 pm
d, you are backing up on your suggestion. I done that better than a year ago and we have only begun. Howbeit, we have already scored one victory and we still have our eye on the prize.
Michael H. Smith
January 23rd, 2011
10:28 pm
Let’s try proven success as opposed to settling for the doom and gloom of far fetched political rhetoric.
January 10, 2011 12:56 PM UTC by John Stossel
http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2011/01/10/school-choice/
School Choice
More good and bad news on school choice was announced today:
A group called School Choice Wisconsin reports on a study of Milwaukee high school graduation rates. First the good news: a small “parental choice” program has allowed some students to do better.
Graduation rates in Milwaukee have risen steadily since 2003, with students in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) more likely to receive diplomas than students in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). … Had MPS achieved the same graduation rate as students in the MPCP, an additional 3,939 Milwaukee students would have graduated from 2003 to 2009.
But then the bad news:
The number of 9th graders entering the MPCP decreased in 2010-2011. Per-pupil funding cuts and increased regulation have threatened the sustainability of private high schools in the MPCP. The result has been a decrease in the number of freshman seats offered through the program, at a time when demand significantly exceeds the supply.
Even as private schools struggle for funds, they provide better education for less money.
Per-pupil taxpayer support for the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program MPCP is $6,442, less than half of the $15,034 spent per-pupil in Milwaukee Public Schools MPS.
Whatever a state decides to spend per pupil, parents should be allowed to take that money to any school—public or private.
Equal funding allowing the money to follow the student – Absolutely!
Lee Howell
January 24th, 2011
6:12 am
Michael H. Smith, I can sum up your long article in one sentence:
Students with involved and concerned parents do better in school and are more likely to graduate.
Larry Major
January 24th, 2011
6:45 am
State funding for public schools is based on enrollment. When families move between school systems, the state funding does follow the student to the school they attend, just as a Startup Charter school receives the state funding for their students, not the school system where these students live.
Those of you who keep claiming “funding should follow the child” are talking about local tax revenue – which is under the exclusive control of the local citizens that provide this revenue.
Local voters elect their BOE members, and when a board makes enough unpopular decisions, voters will replace them. A SPLOST cannot exist without the approval of local voters. If local voters choose to tax themselves at over the 20 mill “maximum” they can do this. If a BOE insists they need a tax rate in this range, they are powerless to change it without the approval of local voters.
I think some of you haven’t thought through your position, because you are suggesting local voters’ control over their own taxes that fund their own schools be eliminated and placed in the hands of some other entity.
A Hearty Cheese Sauce
January 24th, 2011
7:41 am
School choice will not solve anything. The APS, the parent and students involved with APS created this simmering cauldron of feces so lets allow them to dine on the meal they have prepared.
independent thinker
January 24th, 2011
8:42 am
Why not abolishmandatory public education altogether in Georgia? Let the legislature spend the money on worthy projects like horse barns, parks and development next to land owned by the governor, religious education. shooting practice, etc
nfgraham
January 24th, 2011
8:44 am
Parents should be taxed according to the number of children enrolled in Public Schools. No children,no taxes. No children in Public School,no taxes.
Heather
January 24th, 2011
9:45 am
As the article said, special education students already have the benefit of vouchers. The Georgia Special Education Scholarship Fund allows parents of special needs children to send their child to any school (public or private) as long as that school accepts the voucher. My child is has special needs, but it would be nice if other children had the same advantage. If schools knew that the funds wereattached to the child, they would have to up their game and be more competitive. Let’s face it, education is one of the biggest monopolies. Most children will go to the public school in their particular district and the school will get that money regardless of what type of education they offer. Let the money follow the child, and then the school knows that they have to compete with other schools because that child can always leave and the money goes with little Sparky.
Michael H. Smith
January 24th, 2011
6:40 pm
Actually, Lee Howell, you didn’t do a very good job in summing up John Stossel’s short article.
Everybody gets involved, which includes taxpayer funding – Thank You!
The Georgia Special Education Scholarship Fund allows parents of special needs children to send their child to any school (public or private) as long as that school accepts the voucher.
And that Heather, is the victory I spoke of earlier. Hopefully, the same can become a reality for every student in Georgia. What so many who bemoan the rich kids don’t realize is that the evil rich parents have the money to go anywhere they want to buy an education for their kids. But for a poor kid or a middle class kid stuck in a dead-end school trapped by both geography and economics school vouchers may be their only way for them to get a better education than they could otherwise ever hope to obtain. Yeah vouchers are just a reward for the rich – Nonsense!
You socialist liberals don’t have the courage to admit your real problem with school vouchers, so stop using poor kids and the kids of the working poor to dishonestly defend your pathetic socialist BIG GUB’MENT education monopoly agenda.