The latest education research confirms what common sense has always told us: Kids learn better when their parents have more choices. The Show-Me Institute studies how to empower parents by expanding educational options and providing them with better information, so that every child can attend a school that best meets his or her unique needs.
Tuition tax credits are the most effective policy solution for parents with autistic children. Insurance mandates wouldn’t provide sufficient coverage for specialized education, and most public schools aren’t set up to treat autism. Tax credits would help all autistic kids without placing excessive burdens on individual school districts.
On Wednesday, Feb. 13, Show-Me Institute policy analyst Dave Roland testified before the Missouri House Special Committee on Student Achievement and Senate Pensions, Veterans’ Affairs & General Laws. Roland considered common objections to tuition tax credit programs that are raised on constitutional grounds, but argued that tax credits do not constitute a grant of public funds, and therefore would not run afoul of religion-related constutitional restrictions.
Today, the Show-Me Institute released a policy study about the fiscal effects of tuition tax credits in Missouri. Tax credit programs have helped to reduce inequality of educational access in states where they have been adopted. In many cases, they have also helped save taxpayer dollars by lowering the per-student district costs of educating public school students.
Tax credit programs have helped to reduce inequality of educational access in states where they have been adopted. In many cases, they have also helped save taxpayer dollars by lowering the per-student district costs of educating public school students. After the recent loss of accreditation of the Saint Louis Public School District, and several other metro-area districts, tuition tax credit programs offer a timely and effective way to help students and parents stuck in districts that are failing, or in receivership. This study looks at recent legislative efforts to reform Missouri's public schools, and surveys the results in other states that have adopted some form of tuition tax credit. The core of the study is its economic model, which calculates the effects that various implementations of a tuition tax credit might bring. If such a program were structured carefully, it could actually save the state money — in addition to providing greater access to improved educational opportunities for low-income families.
Despite a resounding defeat in circuit court, many Missouri school districts are appealing the “adequacy” school funding lawsuit that uses taxpayer dollars to sue taxpayers for $1 billion. But such a drastic increase in public school funding would come at the expense of the rest of the state budget.
Several commentators have claimed that a recent report by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute casts doubt on the effectiveness of Milwaukee’s school choice program. They apparently didn’t really read the report, which was written with a fundamentally flawed methodology — using national demographic data to make tenuous claims about Milwaukee parents.
Utah voters recently rejected a universal school choice plan because they believed the widely advertised contention that it would harm public schools. Other states’ experience with school choice demonstrates that those fears are utterly unfounded. Missourians dealing with failing public schools should find hope in the success of the nation’s enduring school choice programs.
A recent court decision denied school districts throughout Missouri from receiving $1.3 billion in additional public funding. The data shows no correlation between increased public school spending levels and increased student performance, so taxpayers should hope the decision is not appealed. Instead, Missouri needs to encourage a new educational approach — the power of choice.
Statistics demonstrate that increased educational spending in public schools does not correlate with enhanced student performance. Parents surveyed throughout Missouri, in every demographic, support some form of school choice. But it’s not only parents — teachers and their immediate family members say they support school choice, too.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that race-based school assignments are unconstitutional has some worried that we could be in store for de facto public school segregation. Those who want to maintain and increase diversity in public schools should take a serious look at school choice, through which parents and students from all backgrounds can benefit from the best schools.
The increasing trend of adequacy lawsuits in Missouri school districts focuses on the wrong solution for improving public schools. An infusion of money into schools with poor performance records reinforces programs and policies that don’t work. Instead, a climate that encourages school choice and parental involvement will lead to performance-enhancing educational competition.
After years of infighting, antagonism, and micromanagement, the Saint Louis School Board has been superseded by a state-appointed transitional board. Although many area residents view the newcomers with suspicion, the new board has a chance to make long-needed changes to the face of public education in the Saint Louis area if they keep a few things in mind.
Missouri suffers from a teacher shortage in many subjects, such as math and science. Missouri’s teacher certification requirements, which keep professionals from other fields out of teaching, contribute to the shortage. A more flexible alternative certification process modeled after Florida’s would help school districts find qualified teachers.
Although students who take courses online have diverse needs, Missouri’s new Virtual Instruction Program gives students few options. Missouri students would benefit if they could choose between competing virtual schools.
With the obvious distress in the Saint Louis public schools, it is time to rethink some aspects of public education. Those students wealthy enough to afford it already have access to school choice. Saint Louis can improve its public schools by expanding these choices to all students.
The Show-Me Institute commissioned a telephone poll of Missouri residents. Respondents reported a high level of dissatisfaction with public schooling in Missouri and little faith in the power of parents to change public schools for the better. When asked how well Missouri’s K-12 public schools are doing, just 12 percent of respondents believed the schools are “doing very well,” while 63 percent reported that public schools in Missouri are either “in a crisis” or have “serious problems.” Respondents were strongly supportive of proposals to provide tuition tax credits to families with children in private schools. Particularly significant is that while Missourians had only modestly positive views of the politicized term “school vouchers,” two-thirds of respondents embraced the notion that all families should be able to use public funds to send their children to a public or private school of their choice.
Public education, particularly in Saint Louis, is in a state of distress. Ineffectual leadership, failed reform initiatives, and declining student performance are just some of the symptoms of a much larger disease that could seriously cripple the future of this country. Recent attempts at reform can be divided into two categories: reshuffling the administrative deck and throwing more money at the problem. Clearly, neither of these solutions has succeeded. It is time for a more fundamental change.
The state school board in Jefferson City was a scene of pandemonium on Thursday, as angry Saint Louis residents protested a vote that would lead to a state takeover of the troubled city school district. Both sides in the debate make good points. On the one hand, state education officials are concerned about a dysfunctional school district that has been failing to provide kids with an adequate education. On the other hand, some Saint Louis residents are understandably worried that without local representation, the district will not be responsive to the concerns of the district’s students and their parents.
There is anecdotal evidence that mayoral control can be more effective, with Boston, Chicago, and New York frequently touted as success stories. But Washington D.C. is an important reminder that all proposals for ‘mayoral control’ are not created equal. The record suggests that mayoral control can work, but only if it is sensibly designed and a strong mayor is actively engaged in improving the schools. If mayoral control is to be effective, the mayor must be willing to expend political capital and enlist the support of business and civic leaders on behalf of his reform agenda. Business and civic leaders, in turn, must be willing to hold the mayor’s feet to the fire, insisting that he set high standards for the district. Finally, mayoral control does not necessarily do anything to address the crippling legacy of rigidity and uniformity that infuses urban school management, staffing, compensation, and operations. It is only if the mayor is going to tackle these challenges that mayoral control may be worth the fight.
The Saint Louis school board has descended into chaos. The previous superintendent, Creg Williams, was ousted in July after just 15 months on the job. Board president Veronica O’Brien championed the selection of Diana Bourisaw as Williams’s replacement. But just three months later, the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the two women were no longer on speaking terms. Shifting political alliances and personality conflicts have produced six superintendents in the last five years. This has made it difficult for superintendents to set long-term goals, and made it impossible for the fractious school board to hold anyone accountable for their results. It is simply naïve to imagine Saint Louis schools will improve amidst this kind of discord and leadership turnover. What the district needs is decisive, consistent leadership.
Missouri’s urban public schools don’t do a good job of preparing minority students for life and work. And unfortunately, many minority families in St. Louis and Kansas City can’t afford homes in suburban school districts, nor can they afford to send their kids to private prep schools or tutoring as many wealthier families do. Minority teens who aren’t doing well in the public schools may feel that the only alternative is to drop out. But some Kansas City schools are beating the odds.
Missouri schools suffer from a shortage of math and science teachers. Rigid salary requirements prevent school districts from attracting new teachers in these shortage areas. Missouri should allow districts to use hiring incentives to address the math and science teacher shortage.
Governor Blunt is to be commended for his focus on accountability and student instruction. But dictating how schools spend their money is the wrong approach. Instead of focusing on accountability to the state, he should be supporting school choice, which makes schools accountable to their customers: parents.
Here we go again. In a bitter 6-4 vote, before a standing-room-only crowd, the Kansas Board of Education adopted new curriculum standards last week that cast doubt on the theory of evolution. Whatever one thinks of the theory of evolution, there's a larger issue at stake. The dispute in Kansas isn't ultimately about the merits of the theory of evolution, or whether all the alternatives are, as opponents argue, based on religious faith. The bigger fight is about who gets to impose their beliefs on whom. It's just the latest symptom of a deeper illness that necessarily afflicts a school system where all the educational decisions are made by government bureaucrats.
