The Washington Post and St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A Study in Contrasts

Posted on by Michael Q. McShane

Both the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Washington Post editorial boards published pieces this weekend concerning the findings of a new U.S. Department of Education study of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, a school voucher program operated by the federal government in our nation’s capital.

The study was noteworthy because it found negative academic results for some of the students who participated in the program, which is a departure from what careful study of the program has found in the past. There is more to the most recent study than meets the eye, and many caveats that readers should take into account, as ably explained by Jason Bedrick and Marty Lueken of EdChoice here.

But I want to highlight how differently these two outlets covered that study. The Washington Post, which serves the city where the voucher program operates, wrote an even-handed analysis titled “Voucher critics are seizing on D.C. test scores. They’re missing the point.”

The piece is worth reading in full, but the second paragraph is key:

With the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program reauthorized by Congress this week, it is important that any assessment be complete, clear-eyed and not formed through the prism of those advancing special interests or narrow political points. What should be taken into account along with test scores is the positive difference the program has made in the lives of thousands of families, and how it and the thriving community of charter schools have enriched school choice and helped improve public education in the city.

The Washington Post piece acknowledges that the study’s findings demand attention, but examines them in the real-world context of an education environment where many factors other than test scores (e.g., graduation rates and demand among parents for alternatives to public schools) deserve consideration.

By contrast, the op-ed in the Post-Dispatch describes the findings as helping to “debunk the notion that voucher-enabled students in private schools produce better outcomes than those attending public schools.” It doesn’t, but that’s beside the point.

What is more surprising to me is the Post-Dispatch’s closing admonition that we should “trust the data, not loosely grounded ideology.”

Where was this attitude when studies of private school vouchers found positive results for students? Like this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. (I could go on, but this is just a sample of studies that found positive test-score results for students who participated in voucher program or whose test-scores were driven upward as a result of voucher programs. I didn’t even touch the large empirical literature on civic effects or parental satisfaction.)

Even when all of these studies had been published, the Post-Dispatch was still publishing editorials like this one, and this one. Physician, heal thyself.

Those closest to the action in DC see much to admire in the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, and a few recent studies need to be put in the context of the multi-decade literature on school choice. Then, and only then, can we have a real discussion about school choice as part of a solution to vexing problems in education.

Correction to Saint Louis TIF essay

Posted on by Patrick Tuohey

The Show Me Institute’s recently-released paper, “Tax Increment Financing in Saint Louis,” contains an error. That error was quoted in a recent Riverfront Times article.

The statement that the developer of the Argyle Building apartments in the Central West End applied for tax increment financing (TIF) from the city in order to build a parking garage is incorrect.

The property on which the parking garage now sits was sold to the City of Saint Louis by the developer. The City then publicly funded the construction of the parking garage. The developer did not apply for the TIF for the garage.

The Show Me Institute and the authors of the paper apologize for the error. The essay has been removed from publication in order that the authors can review and address errors in the essay.

A New Convention Hotel Is Not Necessarily a Success

Posted on by Patrick Tuohey

Ronnie Burt, head of VisitKC, the convention and visitor’s bureau in Kansas City, was quoted by The Kansas City Star complaining about an effort by activists to require a vote on the proposed convention hotel. He said, “I think it’s irresponsible for a small group of people to try to derail so much success in this city.”

Success? How does Mr. Burt define success? According to his LinkedIn account, Burt was the vice president of Sales and Services at the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association from March 2005 through December 2008. During that period, Baltimore taxpayers subsidized a new Hilton Hotel to the tune of $300 million. It opened in August 2008. Attendance at conventions in Baltimore has remained flat, and according to The Baltimore Sun, the convention center lost over $5 million in 2014 and again in 2015. The President of the City Council suggested selling the hotel, saying, “The hotel has been a drain on the city since it opened. We floated $300 million in bonds for it, and since it opened, we’ve been constantly losing money.”

Would Kansas Citians consider that a success?

From January 2009 through August 2010, Burt joined the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association as the senior vice president of sales and services! Indianapolis also expanded their convention center during that time. According to the Indianapolis Business Journal, the project has failed to meet expectations.

Attendance for state and national conventions in 2009, before the construction was in full swing, was 459,944. Attendance in those two categories in 2012 was 483,164, a slight increase from three years earlier—before the expansion.

Is that success?

From August 2010 through June 2014, Burt was vice president of sales and services for Destination DC, the “the official destination marketing organization for the nation’s capital.” DC was also in the process of building a hotel: the 1,200 room Marriott Marquis adjacent to the Washington Convention Center. It opened in April, 2014 and convention-related hotel room nights in 2014, 2015 and 2016 are all lower than the peak of 512,000 in 2011—before the hotel opened.

More success?

People who crisscross the country spending taxpayer dollars may think that every new construction is a success. But that is not the case for the taxpayers and city councils left holding the bill for underperforming hotels and convention centers. Kansas City’s own past is littered with unfulfilled convention promises, yet each one was supposedly a success. Taxpayers have every right to wonder how much more of this kind of success they can afford.

Michael McShane on Course Access

Posted on by Michael Q. McShane

Show-Me Institute Director of Education Policy Michael McShane is co-author (with Max Eden) of an article on course access that appeared today on the RealClear Education website. The piece explains some of the advantages of course access, a widely popular measure that would make advanced-level coursework available in rural school districts that cannot afford to offer such courses on their own. Click on the link to read the entire article.

House Vote The First of Many Important Health Care Milestones

Posted on by Patrick Ishmael

Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amended draft of the American Health Care Act, described by Congressional leaders as the first phase of a replacement package for Obamacare. Its passage was not without drama, obviously, as the vote had to be put on hold earlier this year when consensus language couldn’t be reached in the lower chamber. The conflict was driven both by substantive policy differences and by concerns that if the entire Obamacare law wasn’t repealed in the AHCA, that it would never be repealed. I share concerns in both categories; I am disappointed that the reform continues to track with insurance as a primary vehicle for health care, and I am hesitant to believe politicians when they say they’ll finish the job of unwinding Obamacare.

But as has been said, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The House’s action today is an important step of a longer journey, not only at the federal level but among the states as well. From licensure reciprocity to direct primary care promotion to Medicaid reform, the list of projects to be undertaken by free marketeers at the state level is a lengthy one that would never be accomplished in a single law, federal or otherwise. Indeed, ours is a policy journey that will span years and even decades to reach anything resembling completion.

That said and with the initial passage of the AHCA, I am hopeful that the federal government is commited to taking that long and important policy trip with us.

Why Subsidize It Once When You Can Subsidize It Twice?

Posted on by Graham Renz

There is so much demand for hockey in the Saint Louis region that officials and special interests want to subsidize not just one, but two new ice facilities. That’s right; even though the Hardee’s Iceplex in Chesterfield is going out of business, officials want taxpayers to help pay for two new facilities in its place.

One facility, planned for construction in the Chesterfield valley, would include $7 million in taxpayer handouts from a special sales tax district known as a transportation development district (TDD). If the TDD is approved (by the less than 1% of households in Chesterfield who get to vote), anyone who shops in the valley retail area will pay extra sales taxes to help subsidize the private venture. The other facility, which would double as a new practice facility for the Saint Louis Blues, would entail $6 million in taxpayer help from the City of Maryland Heights and 40 acres of free land in Creve Coeur Lake Park from Saint Louis County.

At least two aspects of these proposals warrant further discussion.

  1. Proponents of both projects claim there is high demand for hockey and ice time in the Saint Louis region. This may or may not be true (though a recent market analysis concluded it is not). One would think the closure of the current ice complex in Chesterfield is telling of the market for hockey and ice time. But, suppose it isn’t, and that subsidy proponents’ claims are true; let’s say there is genuine demand for ice time in the region. If so, why does the public need to subsidize private ice facilities? If Saint Louis (or Chesterfield, or Maryland Heights) is a “hockey town,” and if these facilities will be such powerful economic engines, why are project boosters panhandling? If a project is meeting a real demand, it shouldn’t need taxpayer help.
  2. One facility is leaving the market, and two are trying to take its place. This would be fine—if no public money were involved. Subsidizing a private business (especially in a depressed market) is questionable policy, but it is even harder to justify asking taxpayers to subsidize competing businesses. Suppose one facility puts the other out of business. What then? Are taxpayers left holding the bag as their “investment” in one facility goes down the drain? It should go without saying that it isn’t the taxpayers’ responsibility to subsidize one facility to siphon business away from another taxpayer-subsidized facility.

The region dodged a bullet when cash-hungry millionaires were denied $60 million in public funds for a professional soccer stadium in downtown Saint Louis. But some local officials, along with those on the receiving end of subsidies, still appear to have taxpayer dollars in their sights. Policymakers who want to know where demand exists for ice time (or anything else) would do well to listen to the market instead of special interests.

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