(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Just in the last day or two, tax credit bills have passed one chamber in Louisiana and South Carolina, and both chambers in New Hampshire. Today the expansion of the Education Savings Account bill passed the Arizona House, with the next stop being Governor Brewer’s desk.
So counting up chambers per the terms of Greg’s original bet with Jay Mathews, I count two chambers from Florida (tax credit bill), two from Louisiana (one voucher and one tax credit), four from Arizona (tax credit and ESA bills), two from New Hampshire and one from South Carolina. I count eleven, with the original Forster vs. Mathews bet having specified 10 as the over/under.
Further votes are on the way, but Greg continues to pile up style points like Tommy Frazier in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
It would help if NH residents contacted Senators Stiles and Odell to ask them to reconsider voting against “choice” in education
Matt,
The picture is telling. Two teams — Illinois and Nebraska — who had less than stellar years. Several wins, but….
At some point ,the school choice discussion needs to address when will it be important to pass really good bills?
The Louisiana legislature has watered down Bobby Jindal’s proposal so that it only effects students at really bad schools. Apparently Jindal accepts this. This reinforces the notion that choice is OK for some parents at some schools. Yet this is now hailed as (potentially) ground-breaking.
It’s one thing, I suppose, for choice advocates to note steady “progress.” Supposedly it will lead, eventually, they say, somewhere down the road, to real choice. Perhaps.
it is one thing to note changes at the margin. Such changes are not sufficient. Those who celebrate them should address whether they think more is needed and what should be done to move in that direction.
George-
This photo was from the 1996 National Championship game of Nebraska versus Florida that Nebraska won 62-24. Sadly for the Gators, that photo is about as close as they got to tackling Frazier all day long.
I agree that more is needed. The Arizona ESA bill, if signed, will provide funded choice eligiblity to students with special needs (current law), children attending D and F rated schools, military depedendents, foster care children and gifted and talented children. Currently this works out to about a third of the student population eligible, and the legislature actually expanded rather than contracted eligibility during the process.
I have not heard the latest on the Louisiana bill, but the original proposal had over half the state with funded eligibility. There is room for it to be watered down and still be a very significant piece of legislation.
Incrementalism is a reality in American politics by design of the founders, so every state is left with cobbling together broadening choice a piece at a time. Louisiana’s bill for instance also expands charter schools. They already have a special needs bill, which I hope they will spend some effort to improve next year.
Here is Arizona, the ESA bill reinforces preexisting choice programs like a liberal charter school law and a now yet again expanded set of tax credit programs.
Politics is ultimately about asking for what you want, and taking what you can get. Here in Arizona circa 1993 there was almost nothing in the way of choice- a very small private school sector, no public school choice, etc.
Today we have 500 and counting charter schools, open enrollment, a tax credit program that should soon surpass the $100 million mark and (hopefully) an expanded ESA program. I’m not satisfied with this, and from a financial perspective it is still very much at the margins of a $10 billion per year public school system.
The percentage of Arizona parents who have a shot at exercising meaningful choice is moving in the right direction despite incrementalism by design and the political power of choice opponents. We are not close to where we ought to be, and I want things to move much faster, but my grandmother used to tell me that I want horns too, but that I was going to die butt-headed.
She was quite the prophet, especially regarding her grandson.
Your point about incrementalism is valid. I wish more sponsors of incremental bills viewed them in that light.
My grandchildren live in AZ. Hope this helps them.
So, the occasional drop of rain’s been replaced by a continuous, light patter. What’s the definition of a deluge?
One of the problems I see in the school reform movement is that there’s this fear of looking at the next, logical step.
So what happens in Michigan after the charter cap comes off? What happens in Florida when the voucher restrictions are loosened? What happens in Michigan two years after the charter cap’s come off?
No one, particularly, no one with some professional or political credibility to lose, is willing to take that leap. Unburdoned by such considerations…..Geronimo!!!
My favorite whipping horse is the school district which I consider the axle about which much of what’s wrong with public education revolves. Here in Michigan, as I’m sure in the rest of the nation, there are school districts as inept at managing their finances as they are at educating kids. Consequently we’ve got several school districts that are enjoying the attention of state-appointed financial managers.
But a financial manager is there to help the district back to financial health so it can continue the business of mis-educating kids and wasting public moneys and assumes there’ll be enough kids attending the district schools to justify maintaining them. However, implicit in the removal of the charter cap, is that assumption is no longer safe. If the district can’t attract enough students it can’t be financially viable and the question arises of what to do about that novel situation. Michigan, I believe, will be facing that question in the not-too-distant future.
It would be a good thing to have answers floating around so that when elected officials are forced to the realization that there’s a problem they have to deal with an answer will have been wafting in the breeze for some time.
From a purely “Michigan” perspective, an extension of the financial manager law would allow the state to step in when a district droops to some level of parental hostility, as evidenced by the number of kids who attend the district schools, and oversee the dissolution of the district. Debts have to discharged, property sold off and obligations guaranteed.
So, there’s my tea-leaf reading for the future of public education in Michigan….
Nice post, Matt..
George, as an Illinois alum, we could only dream that we were fighting for the national championship back in the mid-90s.. (sigh)
We also have Virginia passing a tax-credit scholarship bill in both chambers.. http://billbolling.com/news/article/1803
Matt,
The Wisconsin Assembly passed a special needs voucher bill in early March. The legislative session ended before it could be considered in the Senate.