New Columbia Education Blog!

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

I always love to announce new education blogs focusing on Missouri issues, but this time the pleasure’s bittersweet because it means the closing of Class Notes. Jonathon Braden will write the Columbia Daily Tribune’s new education blog, to be called Homeroom. Janese Heavin begins blogging at Capitol Notes, and, from a glance at the first page of Homeroom, it looks like she’s continuing to discuss education there as well — but now in the comments section, like the rest of us.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Homeroom.

MoDOT Needs Mo’ Money

Posted on by David Stokes

I promise you that is the last time I am going to use a version of that line. Before I go any further, I want to give a nod to Jonathan in Jeff City, who loves the blog and reads it every day. I won’t get him in trouble by printing his full name or position, but he’ll know who I mean when he reads this. (Not that it would really get him into any trouble, but it’s fun to pretend it would.)

Combest had a nice link yesterday to a Missourinet story about MoDOT Director Pete Rahn’s talk with legislators. The great part about the presentation is its inclusion of notions that would have been almost unthinkable for Missouri just 10 years ago. Many people would probably recoil at the fee for vehicle miles traveled, but I don’t mind it so much — provided it replaces existing taxes (as opposed to just raising new ones), and provided it’s done as part of an annual inspection, and does not involve GPS tracking of your car and where it goes. The idea is worth considering, as are toll roads and public-private partnerships in transportation. It is great for our state that Director Rahn has been such a promoter of new thinking for Missouri.

How They Do Things in Kansas City

Posted on by David Stokes

The Star has the goods on the latest disputes in the KC mayor’s office. I’ll let the story speak for itself, because commenting on political squabbles isn’t really our role. But this can serve as a jumping-off point for a brief discussion of the government structure in KC.

The mayoral positions for Kansas City and Saint Louis are two of the weakest, structurally, of any large city in the country. (I want to emphasize that I mean the structure of the positions, not the people holding those offices, now or in the past.) Kansas City is one of the largest cities in the country with a full-out city manager system, which is more common in mid-size cities and suburbs. The mayor is really just first among equals on the City Council, and the right to determine who sits on and chairs which committees is probably the strongest lever that the position holds. That’s why you see articles and disputes like the one in the Star today.

Saint Louis has no city manager, but the mayor’s power is dramatically checked by a powerful City Council and 10 other citywide elected officials. The mayor of Saint Louis is really first among equals on the city’s Board of Estimate & Apportionment, the committee of three that approves major issues on top of council approval. In many ways, the city functions like a bicameral legislature, and the Board of Estimate & Apportionment serves as a Senate to the council’s House.

In both cities, the bully pulpit of the mayoral position is as valuable as any structural power they hold. When people want answers, they go to the mayor rather than to a council member or other city official. Leveraging that bully pulpit into political power is the trick for occupants of both offices.

Contract Schools

Posted on by Dave Roland

Years ago, the General Assembly approved a law that would allow public school districts to make deals with nearby private schools in order to see that certain students had the best educational environments for their particular needs. This program is a great idea, but as of right now it is only used in very, very limited circumstances.

In my latest op-ed, which ran yesterday in the Columbia Daily Tribune, I point out that the state could help schools and cut costs simply by expanding on this basic idea and allowing school districts to contract for some of their students to be educated at cheaper schools in the area. Check it out, and take advantage of the comments section below to let me know what you think.

Why the SCHIP Might Go Down

Posted on by Ryan Davisson

Last Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill (289-139) to expand funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The bill is predicted to increase funding to SCHIP by $32 billion over a period of five years.

SCHIP, created in 1997, is the biggest public health insurance program since the creation of Medicaid and is targeted to insure children that come from households that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to afford private health insurance.

A 61-cent tax increase on cigarettes, cigars, rolling papers, chewing tobacco and related products is supposed to fund the expansion of the program. This may not be a reliable funding source, however. Since 1964, the number of adult smokers in the United States has decreased by approximately 50 percent. A Kansas City Community Health Assessment released in 2006 reported that overall tobacco use in Missouri, for all ages, is expected to continue this decline. The same report noted, “Studies have shown that a 10% increase in the price of cigarettes reduces smoking by 7% for youth and consumption by 4% in adults.” This impact could be magnified after the passage of a tax increase as large as the current bill proposes.

It is possible that legislators have overlooked the number of smokers who may quit or find other ways of avoiding the tax — by purchasing cigarettes online, for example. An even greater cause for concern is the fact that in some cases (such as in Kansas), Medicaid covers the cost of tobacco counseling for quitters. Congress may be counting on revenues that have the possibility of turning into additional expenses. In addition, a Heartland Institute letter to Congress voices concern about the increased financial pressure that such a tax increase would bring for small businesses, “which often lean on tobacco sales to stay in business.”

Steve Voeller of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club joins other economic groups in his concern that an expansionary program is being funded by a declining source of tax revenue. Regardless of one’s level of support for increased government funding of health care coverage for uninsured children, long-term sustainability of the program should come into consideration.

Incentives in School

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

It’s happened at last: some high school courses now factor students’ performance on state exams into their final grades.

Districts have been understandably frustrated when students shrug off state assessments. To a district, low MAP scores can mean anything from a bad reputation to lost accreditation; to students, they meant nothing — until now.

There are potential drawbacks to a system in which students from many different schools take the same final. On the other hand, seniors taking the same Advanced Placement course are evaluated by the same test. And AP courses are usually considered the most rigorous high school courses, so I don’t follow this logic:

“There is that pitfall of ‘I’m only going to teach to this level of the test’ rather than ‘let’s make this a rigorous course,'” said Sara Torres, a supervisory director with the Science Teachers of Missouri.

If the state exam assumes a low level of knowledge, that shouldn’t prevent teachers from going beyond that level and adding detail when they teach.

Still, this move is not necessarily reason to celebrate, because it could take away from schools’ initiative in developing their own assessment methods.

The Peaceful Transfer of Power

Posted on by Clovis Ouangraoua

It’s official: Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States of America. The first African-American president in the history of this great country was sworn in, in a lavish ceremony in front of nearly 2 million people. In his speech, he laid out his goals for the country’s next four years — but the great winner yesterday was democracy.

As one commentator mentioned while I watched the live coverage, “By the end of the day, former President Bush will become George Bush, citizen, and Barack Obama, citizen, President Obama — and all in the name of the Constitution. …” Obama himself said, three days ago, that “the transition of power is a symbol of democracy’s strength.”

It’s remarkable to me how most Americans go about their business, and take for granted what is still viewed in certain parts of the world as quite a challenge. In fact, in many third-world countries like mine, conceding power to a new, upcoming chain of command is sometimes seen as an agenda impossible to fulfill, a pure and simple utopia. It’s very common for such countries to have some political form of “dictatorship,” in which constitutions are amended, reviewed, and forged with the explicit goal of helping the current power sustain and maintain itself “for life.” Often, the only way out involves the death of the leader, or — in much more sinister cases — a coup d’etat that sometimes sheds the blood of innocent victims, as well as that of the “greedy” actors and players of the political arena.

A recent example of this type of situation can be seen in the case of Guinea last month. If the United States were like Guinea, Bush would have simply refused to step down from power on the morning of January 20, using the army to back him up, and subjecting the country and its institutions to an uncertain destiny and a level of chaos that the people here probably can’t imagine actually facing. But, luckily, American democracy is mature enough to teach their “know-how” to the rest of the world.

Hoorah for the smooth transition … regardless of your political views, that is America’s legacy to the world.

How to Improve Education While Spending Less Money

Posted on by Dave Roland

 

A new legislative session is under way in Jefferson City, and everyone is concerned about the budget. Legislators are searching for ways to provide services to Missouri’s citizens while still reducing the overall amount of government spending. Another major issue worrying Missourians is education — particularly given the fact that many school districts across the state are having trouble making ends meet, and the two largest school districts in the state, Saint Louis and Kansas City, have lost their accreditation.

The school districts’ financial challenges are growing, because of the economic crisis. Many families that had previously sent their children to private schools can no longer afford to do so, meaning that a number of these students will now depend on the resources of their local public schools. While the state’s educational funding formula should guarantee that local districts will receive additional resources from the state for each of the new students they serve, there will be no similar increase in the amount of local funding available. As public school enrollment rises, districts relying heavily on local tax revenues will now have to divide those limited funds among a larger number of students, driving down the total amount they can spend per pupil.

Fortunately, there is a way for Missouri to address this challenge, potentially saving taxpayers millions of dollars in the process.

According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, state and local taxpayers pay a statewide average of $9,338 for each student attending Missouri’s public schools. In 2008, taxpayers spent an average of $15,549 for each child attending Saint Louis public schools, and $15,142 for each child attending Kansas City public schools. Taking Saint Louis as an example, consider that all but the most expensive private schools in the city charge tuition that ranges between $5,000 and $14,000. Thus, private schools tend to be able to provide educational services for significantly less than it costs Saint Louis public schools to offer their services. The same could be said for private schools in communities all over the state.

The General Assembly could help school districts and students across the state by adopting a three-year pilot program that would permit local districts to contract with private schools or other nearby public school districts to educate some of their students.

The program could specify that the cost of tuition at a contract school could not exceed, say, 80 percent of the district’s per-pupil funding. Half of any leftover funding would remain for the district’s use, and the other half would become pure savings for the government. Districts taking advantage of the program would thus be able to keep and use at least 10 percent of each student’s funding, even though the public schools would no longer expend resources to educate that student.

Here’s an example of how the pilot program could work: If the Saint Louis Public Schools chose to participate, the district could contract with several private schools in the area to educate 200 students at an average tuition of $8,000 per student, per year. The district would normally spend more than $3.1 million educating these students, but under the pilot program the district would only spend $1.6 million for that purpose. Of the remaining amount, $750,000 would be available to help educate the students remaining in the public schools — and the state and local taxpayers would still be saving another $750,000!

While this idea may sound unusual, the General Assembly long ago authorized Missouri school districts to contract with “other political subdivisions, public agencies, not-for-profit organizations, or private agencies” in order to send certain students to schools for which they were better suited. My proposal would simply take that concept a step further. Not only would it help parents find schools that might better fit their children, it should increase the per-pupil funding for participating school districts while also saving state and local taxpayers thousands of dollars per child.

Importantly, 10 states and the District of Columbia have already proven the value of this concept by adopting similar programs. During 2007, the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation published a study showing that, since 1990, these 11 jurisdictions had saved at least $444 million by creating programs that help students transfer from traditional public schools to less-expensive alternatives. With the economy flagging, and so many school districts struggling to make ends meet, Missouri would be wise to consider following in their footsteps.

Dave Roland is an expert on school choice programs and a policy analyst with the Show-Me Institute.

 

One Reason We Don’t Want Too Many People in Jail

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Legislators might get crazy ideas about how to rehabilitate them.

State Rep. T.D. El-Amin wants to recruit nonviolent offenders for the Missouri National Guard, as an alternative to spending time in prison. And who wouldn’t jump at the chance to be a guard instead of a prisoner?

This proposal may be penny wise, but it’s pound foolish. You’d save a little bit in expenditures on prisons; the downside is that the National Guard would be composed of people in various stages of rehabilitation. If nonviolent offenders want to serve, they should go through the regular application process like everyone else — after they’ve completed their sentences in prison.

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