Although the legislature is reportedly working on a school voucher proposal, I haven't found the details of an actual bill submitted. Nevertheless opponents of vouchers are already telling us why they are bad. The JG has a column this morning by an IU professor of elementary education, Daniel Holm with a list of six objections (surprise, surprise) to vouchers.
1. Private schools are not held accountable for meeting state standards-
So make them accountable as a condition for taking public funds. I don't know of any private schools in our area that don't already give the state tests and they're pretty much a non-event. Passing rates in the parochial schools are around 90%. The tests are easy.
2. Private schools can refuse admittance-
True, but to what extent and why are they doing so? Lack of space or refusal to deal with poor students? Government schools expel students who can't adapt after they admit them. Why not give government schools a better way to handle expected problem students rather than mainstreaming them in with everyone else?
3. Negatively affect government school finances-
Parents who opt out of a government school and take the money elsewhere is another way to provide competition for government schools. Government monopolies in education are no more desirable than any other kind of monopolies. Giving vouchers to parents who are already paying out of their own pockets to send their kids to private school will increase the cost of public education. Personally I'm willing to pay more taxes to see that happen but that doesn't mean everyone else will.
4. Transportation issues-
Lower income parents may have trouble providing transportation to a school outside their neighborhood. Perhaps but FWCS is already busing kids to schools outside their neighborhoods in their school choice plan. Many other urban districts bus them to magnet schools. Schools are not obligated to bus anyone unless they have a physical disability or if their local school is in trouble long enough that parents can opt to send their kids to another school. The schools do it because they're getting the money from the state to operate expensive transportation systems. I can see some justification in rural district but few of them are clamoring for alternatives. Why should taxpayers foot the bill for any transportation in an urban district? Nobody rode a bus to SSHS when I went there.
5. Private schools can't accommodate special needs students-
Another can of worms that needs to be aired out. How many of these students are there? Are we talking about special-ed and ELL? FWCS has 20% of their students designated as special ed, an astounding number. Do they do that because it brings in more money? Why are they mainstreaming these kids if they have so much trouble learning? The ones that can keep up shouldn't be special ed. The ones that can't are frustrated and hold the rest of the class back. Why are non-English speakers put into regular schools before they can function in a classroom? Why are they tested before they're proficient in English?
6. Parochial schools will push religious agendas-
Nonsense. Plenty of parents send their kids to parochial schools as an alternative to bad government schools, if they can afford the tuition. If they are going to get public money, they will have to limit the religious instruction to those that want it and keep it away from those who don't. Eventually non-religious private schools will spring up to serve disenchanted government school parents. Like the one GiaQuinta sent his kids to.
The professor closes by saying more money needs to be given to government schools because they are already providing a "quality" education. What does that mean? How does he define "quality"? He doesn't. It's meaningless. Then he adds we should spend more for pre-school and full day kindergarten. Fine. Show us how well that works. With data. A study by IU concluded that full day kindergarten was "no worse" than half day. FWCS has had full day kindergarten in Title I schools for over a decade. Where's the data on the benefits of that expenditure? Taxpayer funded babysitting and more jobs for education school graduates?
It's going to be fun following the uproar from the government education establishment, not to mention the JG. It may well end up in court, with religion as the pretext for a suit but the real issue will be money.
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42 comments:
Your responses and reasoning are impeccable as usual !!
Open Town Hall Meeting with Speaker of the Indiana House, Brian Bosma
Time Wednesday, January 26 · 6:00 - 8:00pm , Location IPFW Walb Union 222. RSVP - on Facebook.
I'm interested in hearing House Speaker Brian Bosma's House Bill 1002, which will give charter schools an opportunity to thrive and increase student access to public school options.
I forgot to add I was disappointed with closing Elmhurst H.S. and sending the students to schools that are on academic probation. I'm a product of the Catholic school system grade 1-6 and yes we didn't have all the bells of whistles of the public schools but we did receive quality education. I thank my parents many times for sending me to a Catholic school for my educational foundation.
I later went to a public school because I enjoyed the diversity of cultures. My Father gave me a choice. I had many caring and loving teachers at Elmhurst H.S. but it was my educational foundation formed in the Catholic school system that gave me inspiration to learn and the faith I practice today.
I do not want my tax dollars going to fund vouchers. The Indiana Constitution prohibits tax dollars from being used to fund religious institutions.
On the Indiana government page, a list is provided of private schools - hundreds of them. I did not count, but in perusing the list, I would wager almost 99% are affiliated with a religious institution. This is simply another attempt by Daniels and Bennett to destroy Indiana's public school system.
Daniels has the philosophy that if it can be privatized, then privatize it - no matter the outcome. Remember the welfare fiasco?
Charlotte- our urban government schools are destryong themselves. They don't need any help from Mitch Daniels or Tony Bennett. There's too much invested in the status quo to hope for reform from within.
You don't want your money going to religious schools. I don't want mine going fo failing public districts. Too bad we can't designate where it goes.
SCOTUS upheld giving publicly funded vouchers to parents to pay their children’s tuition and fees at private, religious elementary, or secondary schools. Funding is conditional, it in that they cannot be used for religious purposes. (Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 526 U.S. 639 (2002))
@ 5 Indeed, 20% is quite the epidemic and revenue maker.
Have you ever witnessed how the educational system handles the kids they’ve labeled learning disabled or mild MR, an absolute throwback to the dunce cap days. They spend years indoctrinating and convincing these kids of their “special education” status and then deny their own responsibility by whining about the irresponsible students/ parents. Suffice it to say, it is truly amazing that a single one ever manages to graduate high school.
Stop what the educational system is doing to these kids and a significant percent of the graduation problem disappears.
Why should public tax dollars be allowed to go to a school that can disriminate? A city or state could not get away with discriminating, but a private school can...because it is private! Private schools want to separate themselves from certain elements of our society...the unreligious, the poor, the unsmart, the non English speakers...fine with me if parents pay for it. But until the Indiana constitution changes, tax money should support a system of common schools where "tuition will be without charge and equally open to all".
Siesta- Most parochial schools will admit anyone regardless of religion. They discriminate against the poor only through charging tuition, although many (even Canterbury) offer financial assistance. I haven't heard about policies excluding non-English speakers, although they might be hard put to deal with a of them.
I don't know about admitting the unsmart. That would probably apply to high schools but not to elementary schools. I would think that discriminatory admission policies would have to change if they took public money, which would make them more like public schools. We'll just have to see what's in the proposal that comes out of the legislature.
Siestagirl - All schools—public or private—that accept Department of Education funds are subject to federal statutes prohibiting discrimination – Title VI, Title IX, Section 504; special education students are covered by Title III of the ADA. Unfortunately, because there are no federal (or state) statutes prohibiting discrimination of LGBT families or students, parochial schools can discriminate on that basis.
Above SCOTUS ruling still trumps Article 8 quoted …
BTW, using urban slang—unsmart—to diminish the worth of any student is unbelievably stupid... especially when it comes from a retired FWCS educator.
Most of those who lack the ability(smarts) or ambition to do well in school will find that life/the world discriminates against them when they try to make a living. Are we doing them a favor by prosponing the day of reckoning? We have what's called a "forgiving" system that doesn't penalize kids for failure and gives them multiple chances at great expense to the taxpayer. Most industrial countries don't do that. At a certain level students are tested and channeled into different tracks according to their potential. But here that would be called discrimination
Private schools cannot discriminate (if they recieve federal funds) while students are in school but they most certainly can "discriminate", i.e. to favor for or against, in their admission policies. Sorry if you don't like my choice of words, don't know about urban, I thought I made it up...and was being mildly amusing. But although private schools admit students with learning disabilities, I doubt many have ED, MIMH or SP programs.
Nice try, but I would never diminish the worth of any student, but instead want to point out the disproportional burden of public schools.
BTW, last year FWCS had a Sp. Ed. population of 16%...wonder what the percent is for all of Allen County, public, private and home?
An a different note, Ossian Elementary gained almost 60 students from the closing Pleasant Center Elementary. All students accepted had to show a grade card. BTW...the transfers are all white.
A few facts about Special Education and Race:
1. There will be special schools that will love to take the MIMH and ED population; take a look at White's Residential. White's will look at this to make more money.
2. The top schools for learning disabled students are Canterbury and Concordia.
3. Public schools already discrminate against students of different populations; EACS has told gay students to attend schools in other NE Indiana cities.
Did anyone attend the Open House with Speaker Brian Bosma? I did. Interesting according to him, charter schools will be accountable to the same standards public schools are held to. Public School districts can also establish charter schools. There was a lady whose son went to Harding H.S. and she was working with EACS to establish a charter school. The public funds will follow the students to the schools. The parents choose the school for their child. It was not a friendly crowd for Speaker Bosma.
I was speaking to a very nice lady and told her I was disappointed with the closing of Elmhurst H.S. and sending those students to schools that were on probation. It would have been nice if those parents could have had options. It turned out she was Speaker Bosma's assistant and she asked me to share that with him. I did. I hope they call some of those parents to get their perspective.
Magda- I couldn't go to IPFW last night but I figured the teachers' union would pack the hall. They did and to top it off, Mark (I sent my kids to Canterbury) GiaQuinta gave him the BS about the "amazing" things going on in FWCS. "Apalling" would be more accurate at my former high school, FWSS, which is within walking distance of GiaGuinta's house. What a hypocrite! How anyone could sit through board meetings and listen to that guy beyond me. No wonder FWEA didn't endorse anybody in the las election.
I sent Bosma an e-mail supporting his position. He's probably shrewd enough to know who he's talking to.
HI Evert. Just for the record Susyn and I sent our kids to both public and private schools, 44 years worth of public education to be exact. My daughter Leah is a proud graduate of SSHS. We got pretty fed up with the state of the schools at one point. This where you and I took different paths. I decided to try to help find the solution. You encased yourself in a bitterness that seems to affect all you say and do - how sad. Anyway,that is why I ran for school board. I wanted to help transform the schools back to where they were when we chose public over private. Thanks to the hard work of our teachers and students, and the arrival of a new Superintendant who had a vision for improving our schools, we have arrived at that point.
Happy New Year to you and Susan and thanks for taking your most recent election loss without any personal rancor - it speaks well of you.
Oops, (and with apology to Weisser Park) forgot public school Kindergarten. Make that 49 years of FWCS education for the GiaQuinta family.
Mark-
No bitterness (or snow or ice) here, in sunny South Carolina. And if it makes you feel any better, I would also have sent my kids to Canterbury instead of SSHS. But if I had, I just wouldn't be sitting on the board telling everybody what a wonderful district we have. I sent you a letter after you got elected the first time telling you what was going on in the classrooms. Maybe now that the legislature is finally going to force change, you realize just how serious the situation is.
Too bad Wendy, Corona, (you?) and company couldn't see the light eight or nine years ago. Too bad I did such a rotten job trying to convince them. Too bad the IDE is going to take it out of their hands. But it can't go on like this.
Thanks Evert and I truly hope you and Susan are enjoying your vacation. We both married above ourselves!
If you think the progress we have made started with a plan that was put in place over the past few months or even the past 2 years rather than over the past four years, it is because you stopped watching board meetings about then.
Dr. Robinson (she earned the designation much as it kills you to use it)has the respect of the IDOE. One of the senior members of the Dept referred to her as a "superstar" just last week. She is held in similar regard by the Wallace Foundation, the Broad Foundation and the US DOE. The IDOE is impressed with the progress of FWCS. Today Dr. Bennett raved more than I have about our strategy in a meeting at the Fort Wayne Chamber. The US DOE is also watching Fort Wayne and has extended compliments from Secretary Duncan's team.
I think the time has come for you to acknowledge that your perspective was shaped 8 or 9 years ago and you just cannot let it go. Interesting to me that the one school you help out in gets kudos from you. How about doing the same at Study, Abbot or Adams? You would see the same commitment and enthusiasm. The IDOE noted the changes at SSHS and NSHS just this week. They described those two schools as having separated themselves from the 20 other schools they had reviewed. That is another difference between us - I am in those schools and you are not. Too bad as you are missing out on something really exciting.
Evert, you deserve credit for your personal work with students but your tearing down of the district is not helping the schools and it is really not helping the community. Your personal attacks are simply sophomoric and beneath someone of your intelligence. In short, you're better than that.
Out for now, but will check in from time to time. Busy trying to help improve public education.
Mark- Well, we're not going to settle the argument here. My sophomoric comments can't do the district any damage beyond that which is self inflicted. I'll just go by the numbers because those reflect what I saw in the classrooms at Elmhurst up until the time you closed it. If Wendy gets the third grade test scores close to those of the suburban districts and stops blanket social promotion through the middle schools, all will eventually be well in the high schools. As of now those ECA scores are right on the money.
Oh, and everyone who knows my wife concurs that I married above myself.
Mark,
If you and the other members of the school board had any community feelings you would once again allow citizens to make comments on television following the conclusion of board business. What does the 'C' stand for in FWCS?
At least I now know you realize that not everyone agrees with you and Wendy's approach to education. Why don't you address the concerns over social promotion? Social promotion makes FWCS look more like a failed welfare program than a school district. Today FWCS students know they are going to be passed along and thus too many of our student don't make an honest effort to grasp the materials or concepts being taught to them? Mark, too many parents are deciding to leave Fort Wayne because of the school system. Facts are facts. FWCS ISTEP and ECA scores do not compare to other school districts in the Fort Wayne area. Again, end social promotion and teach students that they have to take school serious or they will be held back. Without ending social promotion the schools will continue to fall behind and the state will never leave FWCS alone. Is this what you want Mark?
To Anonymous on vouchers. Yes, I know SCOTUS upheld vouchers in 2002. Tell me, though, how do you keep religion out of a religious school?
The very nature of the religiously-affiliated schools is to indoctrinate with specific ideas and beliefs.
In 2009, Arizona declared such a program unconstitutional:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/03/26/20090326vouchers0326.html
Florida also struck down vouchers in 2006:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/national/06florida.html
Both decisions occurred after the SCOTUS decision.
The SCOTUS decision disregarded the fact that 82% of Ohio's private schools are religious. It also used slight-of-hand when it stated:
"The incidental advancement of a religious mission, or the perceived endorsement of a religious message, is reasonably attributable to the individual aid recipients not the government, whose role ends with the disbursement of benefits."
When 82% of the schools from which a family is allowed a choice are religious in nature, it is absurd to say the government's role ends with the distribution of benefits. Not much of a choice, and, in fact, almost assures placement of children in religious institutions.
Charotte - According to the Indiana Department of Education website, there are 2,182 public schools in Indiana and 436 non public schools. Of the 436 private schools, not all are religious schools. Your statement that “82% of the schools from which a family is allowed a choice are religious in nature” is misleading; unless, you meant to assume that zero families, given a choice, would not elect to send their students to a public school.
This is fun.
1. Part of the reason Dr. Robinson is a superstar is because of the Code Blue effort in defeating the building initiative that redirected district focus to academics. But now, to the present.
2. I agree that public comments at school board meetings should be televised.
3. There is a lot of research, and anecdotal evidence, that social promotion can do harm just as easily as it can help. Teachers and interventionists are working hard to get every student reading at grade level.
4. I believe FWCS is making significant changes in its struggling schools that will positively affect students. I recently visited Abbett, a neighborhood urban school where 97% of parents attended parent-teacher conferences. I was impressed!
5. Test scores do not tell the entire story about a school (or a student). As long as schools have significant numbers of ELL and Sp. Ed. students, their overall scores will not compare favorably to schools that do not.
Siesta-
We are socially promoting so many kids at this time that it can't be stopped entirely. But what aggravates me and all the high school teachers I've talked to is that it's a blanket policy. Schools should be able to recommend holding a student back and get parental concurrence before letting them go to the next grade, especially from 8th to 9th. That kind of policy would go a long way to pacifying high school teachers and show me that Wendy and the board is really serious about student accountability.
I should add to #1
Dr. Robinson is also considered a superstar because in the face of a crisis, she acted boldly. You can argue whether it was acting or reacting, but that really is beside the point - corrective action was taken at 11 LEAD schools, which will be spread throughout the other schools.
So, share with the public the results of the Cambridge group, an internationally recognized group, the evaluation/assessment of the "LEAD" reoganization process?
Charlotte- Your comments are interesting since one of your degrees was earned at a university operating under a religious charter. You must have missed too many chapel services!
So, share with the public the assessment/evaluation results of the "LEAD" process which was done by the Cambridge group, an internaltionally recognized group? 0 - 28, take a siesta and cut the propaganda. Now all FWCS high schools are on probation with the Indiana DOE.
What's the source for your statement that all FWCS high schools are on probation?
The initial news regarding the DOE visits show promise:
Published: January 29, 2011 3:00 a.m.
Education team sees growth at 2 schools
Visited South Side, North Side this week
Devon Haynie | The Journal Gazette
A state team sent to evaluate North Side and South Side high schools walked away from its visit this week with largely positive reviews.
After visiting South Side on Monday and North Side on Tuesday, Lee Ann Kwiatkowski, Indiana Department of Education turnaround director, said she was impressed with the steps Fort Wayne Community Schools had taken to improve student achievement in the struggling schools.
“Our impression is that Fort Wayne Community Schools have really taken reform seriously,” Kwiatkowski said.
“Sometimes we see schools that are still trying to play around the edges and that’s not how I would describe (FWCS). They are very serious about transforming their lowest achieving schools.”
Check Indiana DOE website for schools informaation and "probationary" status of high schools.
You're right. Snider and Northrop joined the list last year.
Sies
Sorry, but I disagree on you assessment of the Superstar and on the impact of CBS. I don't believe losing the bond issue had any impact on Wendy to change course. If the Legislature had not given us referendums, we would have been doing annual remonstrances. I do believe GiaQuinta took it seriously by putting the balanced scorecard in place. But it had no teeth and without a gun to the head of Wendy and the FWEA, it wouldn't have made any difference.
But the IDE and Republicans in control in Indianapolis have teeth and they're the only reason anything will change. I've been pissed off since the first day I went to SSHS and tried to teach algebra but I've been around long enough to know that power is the only thing Wendy respects. What really gets me even more than the sorry state of my former school district is the spin and lying by omission. To me that's no different than outright lying. I hate being lied to and that's the only reason I've continued this blog.
“I decided to try to help find the solution. You encased yourself in a bitterness that seems
to affect all you say and do - how sad.”
What Mark GiaQuinta sees as Evert’s sad bitterness is something that helped save the taxpayers from wasting half a billion dollars on a project that would have done little to advance the education of students. So please, Evert, keep on being sad and bitter.
Mark GiaQuinta should be thankful to Evert for many things, most especially for his constrained expression of bitterness!
Anon,
Here is the site with the information you requested, reports from the Cambridge group visits of North Side and South Side.
http://www.doe.in.gov/news/2010/04-April/Quality.html
Siesta - Thank you very much!
Anon - I spent a year tutoring freshman algebra at SSHS, my former school. The Cambridge report is remarkably representative of what I saw, especially with regards to Thomas Smith, who went to Wayne and is now leaving the system. But even if Mr. Smith had been the Superman we've been waiting for, he could not have overcome what he was getting from the middle schools.
CBS and siesta, Thank you for the information on the evaluations of individual schools such as South Side, I have seen these. I was referring to a report/evaluation which was also done last summer concerning the entire system "LEAD" reorganization process. This may be difficult to find as information.
Anon,
I am not sure if such a report exists. It is my understanding the last summer IDE offered FWCS a "Memorandum of Understanding" agreement outlining changes for NS and SS. FWCS refused the agreement and instead created their own LEAD process for the 11 schools, including NS and SS. So those 2 schools will not be evaluated on the basis of any agreement, but on their progress from the previous year's Cambridge visit and, of course, ECA scores from this May.
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