I’m Thinking of a State (Part 2)

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

The Springfield News-Leader jumps on the bandwagon and publishes a fanciful vision of a future Missouri:

I recently asked a group of fourth grade students what they would vote for if children could vote. Their answers were so simple and yet so profound. They said they want to be the smartest they can be when they leave school. They want time to play, time to read and food and medicine for those who are hungry or sick. Children want things to be fair. They want to be safe. They want everyone to get what they need. And they want us to protect the Earth.

The op-ed talks about the "common good" and argues for more spending on public schools and government programs. But it inadvertently points out the problem with this approach:

Would we underfund education if we knew it was our child who would not receive the educational intervention she needed?

Would we fail to fund health care for children if we knew it was our child who could not see a doctor if he were sick?

The answer, of course, is "no." And that’s why it’s important to put parents in charge of their children’s education and health care. When parents get to make choices for their children, they have their best interests at heart.

A For-Profit School in the Post-Dispatch

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

An interesting article in the Post-Dispatch illustrates some of the differences between private and public schools:

One day, Henderson saw "one of those stupid pop-ups" appear on her computer screen from the University of Phoenix. She filled out a form on a whim and was soon contacted by a school representative, Dawn Owens, who is now the school’s St. Louis director.

Owens pursued Henderson for five months, but Henderson said she was too "petrified."

She finally relented and enrolled in 2003.

The article describes how Annazetta Henderson, who is in her 40s, dropped out of a public high school and struggled with many personal challenges before earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Phoenix. The school then allowed her to select someone else to receive a scholarship, and she chose her sister.

The University of Phoenix has a very different view of students than Henderson’s public school did. Can you imagine a public school pursuing a drop-out for months and encouraging her to continue her education? And contrary to the perception that for-profit schools are interested in earning money instead of caring for students, the University of Phoenix actually involves former students in the process of awarding scholarships.

The One (Hundred) Million Dollar Man.

Posted on by Maurice Harris

Over the weekend, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch printed an article about Paul McKee Jr., who is known for developing the Winghaven subdivision in St. Charles. Yet this article focused on the $100 million tax credit he lobbied for, through Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, and was put into the economic development bill in the last house session, which would give out a tax credit for people who redeveloped blighted urban areas in Missouri. McKee bought up hundreds of parcels of vacant properties in north St. Louis before this bill was created. To sum up, he would be the only person eligible for this tax credit at the moment:

In Jefferson City, criticism has focused on whether the tax credit bill
was designed solely for McKee. Some legislators were upset that the
far-reaching measure was tucked into the governor’s economic
development bill.

Also, at this moment, McKee seems to be a bad landlord for the more than 400 properties he owns, according to April Ford-Griffith, the alderman for the area that McKee has bought the most property in:

The alderman said that properties linked to McKee are left unkempt,
with uncut grass and open entrances that invite crime. She has heard
many complaints about the properties, though she said she does not know
what McKee plans.

Economic development in this sense is a bad thing. It’s not the power of the market leading development here, but a bloated tax credit that, in itself, is a bad idea — and it’s developed for one person rather than for a whole group. Redevelopment should involved investors putting in their own money, not taking taxpayers’ dollars to pay for what they want.

Merit Pay in the New York Times

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Here’s an article in the New York Times about the growing popularity of merit pay:

Scores of similar but mostly smaller teacher-pay experiments are under way nationwide, and union locals are cooperating with some of them, said Allan Odden, a professor at the University of Wisconsin who studies teacher compensation. A consensus is building across the political spectrum that rewarding teachers with bonuses or raises for improving student achievement, working in lower income schools or teaching subjects that are hard to staff can energize veteran teachers and attract bright rookies to the profession.

This is why the Missouri State Teachers Association has been thinking about merit pay. It doesn’t make sense to give spectacular teachers the same pay as uninspiring ones. Not surprisingly, though, the concept hasn’t caught on with the NEA:

The National Education Association[…] has adopted a resolution that labels merit pay, or any other pay system based on an evaluation of teachers’ performance, as “inappropriate.”

The NEA complains that teachers’ wages lag behind those in other professions. When you consider the benefits and vacation time teachers receive, that gap narrows or disappears. But in a way, the NEA is right. The most talented teachers earn far less than they would if they applied their skills to other jobs. Merit pay would reward expectional teachers so that they won’t be pushed out of teaching.

Internship Application Deadline

Posted on by Eric D. Dixon

If you, or someone you know, would be interested in an internship at the Show-Me Institute this fall, today is the application deadline. But, if you get your application to us by Monday, we’ll still consider you.

You can find the details and application form in this PDF file on our website. At this stage, it would be a good idea to e-mail the relevant application information and essay questions to me rather than send it by snail mail.

Tim Lee wrote about our internship program in April:

In a lot of organizations, the interns are treated like slave labor. They’re chained to a photocopier, and they get little or no contact with the real decision-makers in the organization. The Show-Me Institute is different. Our interns spend the vast majority of their time doing research and writing. Our current intern, Steve Bernstetter, had no less than three op-eds in the Saint Louis Business Journal this semester, as well as the opportunity to do an in-depth research project. Because there are fewer than a dozen people in the office, our interns get the opportunity to work closely with almost everyone on staff. That means you get an in-depth understanding of how a think tank works, including editing and publishing, event planning, and travel around the state.

No Teachers Yet for the Virtual School

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Missouri’s virtual school tries to get its act together (thanks, Combest!):

The new program, which will take children out of the traditional classroom and send them online to learn, starts in August.

Yet no teachers have been hired for the program.

“I have to admit I wish we were further ahead, but with a new program we have a crunch time,” Curt Fuchs, virtual school director, said.

I see from this article that something in my previous writing about the Virtual Instruction Program was inaccurate. I did not know that Missouri has partnered with two private virtual schools, Kaplan Virtual Education and Connections Academy, to provide course content. However, I stand by my argument that MIssouri should allow virtual schools to compete for students.

Furthermore, requiring teachers to have Missouri certification is a bad idea. The whole point of virtual education is that the teacher doesn’t have to be right there with you. What if we could hire teachers who already teach in Florida’s successful virtual education program, for instance? If Missouri gave the program more flexibility, it would probably get off to a smoother start.

Virtual Schools are the Wave of the Future!

Posted on by Maurice Harris

On KSDK’s website, an article discusses North Carolina’s dive into online education for students. So far, students and teachers are responding positively:

Students will be able to take everything from advanced placement
history to second language classes online. So far, nearly 6,000 middle
and high school students are enrolled for summer or fall courses…800 teachers across North Carolina have signed up to teach courses.

The need for online education is explained by one student:

It’s where everything is going to be (online) at pretty soon, so why not have a school online for students.

Sarah Brodsky wrote a great article on Missouri’s new Virtual Instruction Program. The benefits of online education are great. It gives students who need to make up courses due to extended absences a chance to do so. Also it gives students who do not have advanced courses at their schools to enroll into an online school that does offer courses like Advance Placement courses. States like Washington have proven that this is an application that works well and gives all students access to great education. Missouri’s Virtual Instruction Program does not offer much at this point, but the state should move to heavily invest in it in the future since the benefits heavily outweigh the costs. Giving parents, students, and teachers options in education improves the system greatly and gives students who may not do so well in a typical education setting another chance to learn.

A New Start for SLPS

Posted on by Maurice Harris

Control of the St. Louis Public School District is now in the hands of the three-member transitional school board today, after
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan ruled against giving the St. Louis school board a temporary restraining order against the transitional school board. Now the CEO of the transitional school board, Rick Sullivan, is looking toward the future and plans on involving the whole community in the board’s decision making:

Sullivan, who said he will not accept the salary he is entitled to under
the statute that permits the city schools to operate as a transitional
school district, promised that he and the board will not act
impulsively.

He pledged that the community will play a major role in helping to find
solutions for what he characterized as a crisis of regional proportion.

"There is no quick fix, there’s no silver bullet. It is going to take
the full engagement of the community and it is going to require the
community to understand that this is going to take time, a lot of
time," he said.

Time will tell if he lives up to his word, but his words shows the mature leadership that is needed to turn around the sorry state that the St. Louis Public school board is in. Compared to some actions of individual board members, this is a great first step.

I’ll Wave My Magic Wand

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Here’s a letter about vouchers and public schools in the Post-Dispatch:

Public schools are vital if we are to remain a democratic society. Vouchers will lead to stratification and segregation based on wealth, religion, culture, race or ability.

Which private schools will accept and keep underachieving, disadvantaged poor children who exhibit significant behavioral problems? Where will these children go to school? They will be "educated" in an under-supported public system drained of its resources by vouchers.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Private schools like Loyola Academy are doing a great job right now with disadvantaged kids that the public schools weren’t helping. And the current system, which assigns kids to schools by neighborhood, does much more to segregate kids than a voucher system would.

Graduates of public schools have benefited from getting to know and working with students of varied backgrounds, resources, abilities and cultures. They are more likely to support and be accountable to the public good.

Vouchers will leave many kids behind, lead to stratification of the haves and have-nots, lead to a system that educates some students for success and leaves others with low-level options and lead to schools that reflect only one belief system without the benefit of multiple voices or perspectives.

Since when do graduates need to be accountable to the public good? Also, that description of a voucher system sounds a lot like our current public school system to me. Students in Ladue are "educated for success" while students in the city are shortchanged. And the public schools rarely allow multiple voices. For example, you can read a heated debate about how to teach sex ed in the public schools (link found via John Combest). Presumably sex ed is not the most important part of the school day, but it still generates this high-profile debate because public schools impose one perspective on everyone. With vouchers, parents can choose schools that will present the information they want their kids to hear. My personal experience is that private schools are much better at allowing diverse viewpoints than public schools are. So the sex ed I was taught in a religious private school talked about both abstinence and protection, even though 99.9 percent of the kids there were going to be practicing abstinence anyway. None of the parents wrote angry letters to the Post-Dispatch about it.

The remedy to poor quality schools is not vouchers. The remedy is equitable education for all. It takes people of moral character to stand up and say that more resources need to go to disadvantaged students.

Will even more resources lead to "equitable education"? Maybe if we people of moral character stand up, click our ruby slippers together, and say, "There’s no place like the public schools."

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