I’ve often founds mid-life reversals – whether personal or policy-based – rather interesting. Â So that’s why I found myself reading this piece on a lifelong standardized-testing/charter-schools advocate who has decided she was wrong:
Once outspoken about the power of standardized testing, charter schoolsand free markets to improve schools, Dr. Ravitch is now caustically critical. She underwent an intellectual crisis, she says, discovering that these strategies, which she now calls faddish trends, were undermining public education. [ . . . ]
“School reform today is like a freight train, and I’m out on the tracks saying, ‘You’re going the wrong way!’ †Dr. Ravitch said in an interview.
Maybe so, maybe not. Â I really don’t follow it enough to know. Â But there’s a throwaway in the story that really grabbed me:
In 2005, she said, a study she undertook of Pakistan’s weak and inequitable education system, dominated by private and religious institutions, convinced her that protecting the United States’ public schools was important to democracy.
Democracy is meaningless without an educated population. Â It is a basic – and essential – function of society to provide a decent public education to anyone who wants it. Â That isn’t to say that private or charter schools should be excluded – if someone wants to bear the cost of sending their child to one, they should be free to have at it. Â But not at the expense of a fundamentally sound public school system. Â And the undermining of that public school system too often seems to be the motivating force behind so many reform and charter school advocates. Â Using private and charter schools to indoctrinate, instead of educate, will only send us more quickly down the path of ruin.
Vivian J Paige
Are we already there?
Warren
Every voter should be required to pass the citizenship test every immigrant has to pass, and should be able to recite the powers given to Congress in Article I, Section 8.
As for vouchers for private school, I do not how giving a $5000 voucher can negatively impact a school system that spends $10,000 per student. If 1/3 of the students took such vouchers, the school system would have $12,500 to spend on each student. Sounds like a win-win to me — school choice AND more money for the students who stay in the public school system.
MB
I fear we’re getting closer than I ever thought possible, Vivian.
~
Warren, have you considered proposing a poll tax? People without the qualities you’re looking for would obviously be unable to pay the poll tax, so you’d get the same result.
As to not seeing the damage that a $5k voucher would do to a system spending $10k/pupil, please go take an accounting class and come back for further discussion.
tx2vadem
Have you read anything about the Texas State Board of Education?
Sam
Education is an important factor in a societies success. I think that advocates for alternatives of the current public school system are focused foremost on the quality of education that is available to all students. Our current fundamentally sound public school system consistently becomes bogged down in bureaucracy and seems increasingly unable to teach children how to learn, adapt, and function in our rapidly evolving society. My perceived aim of alternatives is not to undermine an existing system but to instead provide better opportunities for all students – not just for the one’s whose parents can afford it.
I think that what Warren was trying to point out with the comment on vouchers is that if the current system spent half as much on a voucher (5k) than it would on schooling that individual, then perhaps the child could afford a more appropriate education tailored to their needs. The school system saves 5k that it would have spent to educate that child (10k)and now has increased revenue for the remaining students to help provide a better education.
As you said, it is a basic and essential function of society to provide decent public education. I believe this is why schools receive funding from local area property taxes. If fewer students attend the public schools more capital can be spent per pupil tentatively increasing the quality of the education provided – assuming there is a parallel between cost and quality.
Education is crucial to the success of a society, particularly in subjects such as morality and civility which are often neglected as specific learned topics whether through neglect or design. Aspects of these deficiencies become increasingly evident as our societal environment continues to decline.
selila
Hi Sam,
Your comment strikes me as somewhat idealistic and yet unaware of the assumptions and consequences of your position. For example…
<<<<>>>>>
I find it very hard to believe that parents pull their children out of the public schools for charter schools because they care about the quality of education for all. If they were concerned for the education for all students, they would be working for reform in public education. Further, it strains credibility that a parent would cite your (and Warren’s) faulty spending calculus as a reason they pulled their kids out of public school. Let’s be honest here.
As for your economic argument….
<<<<>>>>>
This is a red herring of the first order (if there were such a thing.). Many, many studies have been done, and are being done, in pursuit of the holy grail of what constitutes an effective education. Not one, in the last 50 years, has found that per pupil spending alone is the most important factor in student success.
You admit as much when you say…
<<<<<<>>>>>
Here is where we agree. Reform is needed (in the public school system, I would say) and an elimination of bureaucratic barriers to innovation in instruction that might bring us closer to being able to equip students with the skills and abilities to adapt to our ever changing society.
Charter schools do not have a mandate to bring about such innovation. Thinking they are somehow going to take up this noble cause is naive.
The only way to guarantee an excellent education for all children is in public school reform.
Sadly, part of the problem, magnified by charter schools and the voucher system is this..
<<<<>>>
As I mention above, there is no proven link between quality of education and per pupil spending. Taking that out of the equation, you make what I see as a false link between the way we fund public education and a societal commitment to “decent” public education.
If this assumption were true, every prop override for school funding in this country would pass. As it is, consistently, overrides in jurisdictions with large numbers of senior citizens are defeated, because seniors see no need to pay more into the school system when they don’t have children in it, directly benefiting from it.
There is a fundamental problem in the way we fund public education and, until we, as a society, commit ourselves to the goal of a well educated population, we will suffer the inequities of the present system. Seniors, single people, couples without children, and parents who would turn their back on the system for the perceived improvement of charter schools…if we believe in a decent education for all, we have to look into real, painful school reform. public school reform.
I don’t mean to sound overly simplistic. The kind of reform we need is drastic, although perhaps it can begin with small changes, local control, strong principals, professional development, community development for neighborhood schools, better funding schemes…
<<<<>>>>
…better measures of assessment and evaluation. Because right now, neither morality nor civility are covered in the standardized tests that determine whether or not a school is “effective”.
I will hush now. I tend to get a little wordy when talking about these issues.
selila
MB,
I’m sorry for the format mess.
Math is hard.
/sh
Sam
Hi Selila,
I appreciate your comments and apologize for any gaps in my logic as I am a product of the public school system. Embarrassingly I’m still lost on the math being faulty too. As long as MB won’t kick us off for excessive typing I would like to engage in further discussion as I value your passion and insight.
I think that parents look for alternatives to the current public school system to find the best education for their children. Ideally the public school system would be the best option. There is a tremendous amount of ongoing effort to reform the public system as there seem to be no arguments that it is lacking. The problem that parents face is that the drastic reforms needed in such a cumbersome system take time. Time is the reason that parents seek alternatives. Even if the public schools could become the best educational institutions ever in a span of say 5 years (which would be a near impossibility) that is nearly half of their child’s time not receiving adequate primary education.
Reform in public education has been ongoing for quite some time with minimal results. This is not encouraging to parents. Parents obviously cannot control the quality of education provided for all children, many have tried. People dedicate their lifetimes specifically to the cause. What parents do have control over is the education that can be provided to their child now. Perhaps if enough people remove their children from the system more pressure would be exerted to expedite the reforms for all children that are so badly needed.
I’m aware that higher per pupil spending is essentially irrelevant to better education. The problem is that throwing money at a problem is the typical government response to try to fix things. Quality of education seems to dramatically increase when it is specifically geared to individual students. There are many varieties of learning methods that work better for different people. Until the public system can easily assess each student and tailor their education accordingly it will always be lacking.
Schools outside of the public education system have many of the same dysfunctional issues. The difference is that with increased parent control (funding) and smaller size things are more readily changed and modified when it becomes apparent that there are problems or better ways of teaching the students.
I am confused about what you were referring to about the fundamental problem in the way that we fund public education. According to your earlier red herring the money isn’t the problem. The problem with the small changes is that students don’t have the luxury of time for things to change. Standardized tests are not needed to know if a school is effective. The resulting adults produced by the current system are testament enough to its effectiveness.
I look forward to your further comments and honestly am confused about the math.
Sam
Warren
Let me see if I can clarify the math for those who are not so inclined. Let us imagine a school system of 30,000 students. The school system spends $10,000 per student, for a total of $3,000,000.
Now, 1/3 of those students (10,000) take $5000 each in vouchers. That’s $500,000, leaving $2,500,000 for the 20,000 remaining students. That comes to $12,500 per student.
How does that NOT benefit the students who remain in the public school system?