Sorry ACLU-Court Rejects Blaine Challenge to ESA

May 19, 2016

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

A Nevada judge dismissed one of the two lawsuits challenging NV ESA. From the ruling:

NV ruling

 

BOOOOMILICOUS victory, but the program injunction remains in place from the other case, and this all ends up in the Nevada Supreme Court.  It is always sickening to me to see anyone attempt to use provisions created by a past wave of anti-Catholic bigots, so it is always good to see such attempts fail.

From the Las Vegas Sun:

Education insiders around the country are keeping a close eye on the Nevada program, and its success or failure could determine whether similar sweeping programs are pushed in other states.

When it comes to the ACLU’s lawsuit, the judge dismissed the group’s argument that Nevada’s constitution only tasks the Legislature with ensuring a public school system.

“The framers indicated they intended to create two duties, a broad one to encourage education by ‘all suitable means,’ and a specific, but separate, one to create a uniform public school system,” judge Eric Johnson wrote in his opinion. “The Legislature can provide for a uniform system of common schools, free from religious instruction and open to general attendance by all Nevada children, and still adopt other suitable means of encouraging education.”

Johnson also dismissed the ACLU’s contention that allowing public money to be used to pay tuition at private religious schools violates the state constitution, which has been a central argument in lawsuits against ESA and voucher programs elsewhere.

Ruling can be read here.

 

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AEI on ESAs

May 13, 2016

AEI

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

We had a wonkapolooza on ESAs at the American Enterprise Institute earlier this week! What- you had a friend in from out of town and couldn’t make it? Ah well not to worry the video is here:

On the first panel, our discussant MI’s Max Eden advised tapping on the expectations brakes, noting a number of practical difficulties. The biggest of these difficulties was summarized by Adam Peshek’s slide:

ESA expenses

So, yeah, this slide basically shows 70,000 ish Florida tax credit students using approximately 1,500 vendors (private schools). Meanwhile the Gardnier Scholarships programs had south of 1,600 students, but those 1,600 students made **ahem** almost 11,500 purchases.  A new set of practices and techniques will be necessary to administer such a system.

Fortunately we have practices from other policy areas to draw upon and companies highly adept at account management and oversight from Health Savings Accounts and others. It’s going to take time. In the paper and presentation I referenced the Greek myth regarding the birth of Athena- who sprung from the skull of Zeus not only fully grown, beautiful and powerful but also clothed and even armed for battle!

Alas outside the realm of myth we have little choice but to engage teams of people to grind on problems over time, as ESAs did not emerge fully formed from the mind of some mighty being as a finished product. Evolutionary improvement and innovation may not make for as good of a story as the goddess of wisdom springing forth, but for us mere mortals it will have to do. I’m anxious to see what happens next.

Anyway- great event and thanks especially to our friends at AEI for hosting it. Also make sure to see Anna Egalite’s guest blogging on RHSU on ESAs and also Jonathan Butcher’s new report on mobile payment systems and ESAs for the Goldwater Institute. Also Heritage President Jim DeMint tells a Texas suffering from parental choice dehydration to jump on in, the school choice water is fine!

 

 

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ESA Debate with Agent (Nelson) Smith Continues on Ed Next Podcast

May 4, 2016

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

The ESA debate fun continues on Ed Next podcast…check it out here.

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Agent (Nelson) Smith brawl spills into the Deseret News, plus the Attack of the Clones!

May 1, 2016

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

My Ed Next debate with Nelson Smith over the Nevada ESA program has spilled over into the pages of the Desert News. Moreover Agent Smith has cloned himself in the form of Nevada Education Association President Reuben Murillo Jr. and the Century Foundation’s Halley Potter!

We’re going to enjoy watching you die, Mr. ESA!

Oh well the more the merrier! From the story:

Murillo’s chief concern with the ESAs is that they will undermine financial and political support for “zoom schools” and “victory schools,” two programs Nevada launched in recent years targeted at low-income or English as a second-language students. The state commitment to funding such innovations will be undermined by the revenue lost to private schools, he argued.

Ah, well, fewer than 1% of eligible students applied during the first application period, so I’m a bit perplexed why this would have any impact on zoom and/or victory schools-may as well fear the NVESA program drawing down an asteroid strike to Vegas. Next up Halley Potter:

“The biggest losers in this model will likely be the most disadvantaged children, whose families lack the information and resources to access high-quality opportunities,” echoed Halley Potter, a research fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Century Foundation.

The most disadvantaged children, whose families lack information and resources to access high-quality opportunities, have of course already lost big under the status-quo. I’m continually amused by the fantasy version of public education implicit in many critiques of choice, where Platonic Equity prances in fields of beautiful flowers on saddled unicorns. In Nevada “public education” for poor children often entails being crammed into portable buildings with long-term substitute teachers. 20 percent of Nevada FRL kids read proficiently in 4th grade- with hundreds of thousands of more students projected to be on the way.

Nevada is far from a fixed pie. As I told the Desert News:

“People who live back East have never seen the kind of crushing growth that we see here in Nevada and Arizona,” Ladner said. “The reality is that there is plenty of room for growth in public, private and charter schools at the same time.”

Information is something that can be addressed, and the ESA law stands in stark contrast to the public school system by actually gives more money to low-income kids. Wake me up when the rich Anglo kids in Incline Village are getting less than the poor Hispanic kids in Vegas under the district financing system, but this will happen the instant NVESA survives legal challenge, albeit without the unicorns and flowers.

Mind you NVESA is not a magic cure-all for every problem in the Nevada school system, but neither is anything else. NVESA deserves to be judged against the actual context is which it will operate and as a part of an overall reform strategy. If judged fairly and in context, fewer people would volunteer to serve as agents of the system.

 

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Ladner vs. Smith on NVESA in Education Next

April 26, 2016

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Nelson Smith and I square off in Education Next on the Nevada ESA program. Podcast debate coming later in the week.

I’ll have more to say later, but for now let me ask, is it just me or is there something odd about Nelson’s fire analogy? I read through it and thought “so everyone pays the taxes to support fire service, but if you pay too many taxes then the fire truck should bypass your house when it is burning.”

Mind you only 42% of Nevada children whose incomes are too high to qualify for a free and reduced lunch (middle and high income students) scored Proficient or Better on the 2015 NAEP 4th grade reading test. It therefore seems like a mistake to me to assume that all is well in the leafy suburbs.

Anyway give it a read and decide for yourself.

 

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In addition to academic success, Max Ashton Throws a Wicked Breaking Ball

April 11, 2016

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Watch the break that Max Ashton, one of the first generation of ESA students, Brophy Prep graduate and now Loyola Marymount student gets on this first pitch at the Diamondbacks game! This video has gone viral over the last week.

For a video showing Max in action in the ESA program, our friends at Heritage have you covered:

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Might Greg Rope-a-Dope His Way to Another Win over Jay Mathews?

March 29, 2016

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

So I have not been keeping track this year, and election years are not usually the best for big reforms. The over under is 7 new or expanded programs. It wasn’t looking good in the early rounds, but slowly but surely Greg just might float like a butterfly and sting like a bee his way to (yet another) win.

Florida expanded their ESA, Mississippi seems poised to do the same. South Dakota’s governor signed a small tax credit program, and today comes word of a small voucher program that may pass in Maryland as the result of a budget deal. Am I missing anything so far?

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Please Check the Scoreboard

March 16, 2016

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

The Arizona Republic ran the following LTE from your favorite bearded wonk today. Okay, okay…fourth or fifth favorite…geez…

Linda Valdez (“How school choice sabotages Latino kids“) asserted that Arizona’s school choice options have been undermining the education of Hispanic students attending district schools.

This assertion cannot, however, withstand scrutiny. The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that Arizona Hispanic students have made large academic gains.

Since all states began participating in NAEP in 2003, Arizona Hispanic students tied for first for the highest Hispanic on eighth-grade math, third among states in eighth-grade reading gains. Arizona Hispanic students tied for 6th in fourth-grade math and reading gains.

Arizona charter schools have more than done their part with a majority-minority student population and gains above and beyond the statewide average. Arizona Hispanic students attending charter schools, for instance, tied the statewide average for Delaware on eighth-grade math in 2015 on NAEP.

We have ample reason to desire a faster rate of progress, and I agree with Valdez that Arizona’s future rests heavily upon the success of Hispanic students. District schools, however, remain the most generously funded of Arizona’s school options by a wide margin and outcomes for Hispanic students have been trending in a positive direction.

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John McCain on the Choice Card vs. Bureaucratic Blob

March 14, 2016

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Senator John McCain took to the pages of the Arizona Republic today to describe how a giant, corrupt and bureaucratic organization has attempted to actively thwart a reform known as the Choice Card. The Choice Card allows beneficiaries the option of seeking services from outside of the indifferent/corrupt/self-serving system.

McCain is describing the Veteran’s Administration, but the song has a familiar tune. Very familiar in fact.

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Virginia Legislature Passes Education Savings Accounts Bill

March 7, 2016

(Guest Post by Jason Bedrick)

Great news in Virginia via Virginia Delegate Dave LaRock’s office:

Parental Choice Education Savings Accounts HB389 has passed the Senate with a 20-19 vote, and is heading to the Governor!

Richmond, VA – Today, the Senate voted 20-19 to pass​ House Bill 389,​ which​ will​ establish Parental Choice Education Savings Accounts​ for children with special needs. After hearing impassioned debate​,​ ​legislators ​asking for​ help​ for​ children with special needs, who are sometimes ill-served in a public school setting​, won the day. The Governor will now decide if this will become law in Virginia.

Dave LaRock, the patron of House Bill 389 commented, “Education Savings Accounts offer educational opportunity to children with special needs, regardless of their circumstances in life. These unique children often face challenges which most will never fully appreciate. We owe it to them to provide access to academic resources best suited for their particular needs. We are working to lower the barriers so these kids can reach their full potential.”

LaRock added, “Parental Choice Education Savings Accounts are a proven example of problem solving through smart innovation, not endless appropriations. American voters overwhelmingly support school choice programs for good reason. It’s time to give the people of Virginia what they are asking for, more education freedom through Education Savings Accounts.” He added, “Most important of all, through these accounts, countless parents and children with disabilities in Virginia will be given the help they desperately need.”

Education Savings Accounts are supported by former Virginia Secretary of Education, Gerard Robinson; former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education, Dr. Barry Stern; former Virginia State Board of Education Vice President and former Virginia Delegate, Winsome Sears; current and former School Board members from around the Commonwealth; as well as several candidates for statewide office in Virginia.

While the victories in both chambers of the legislature are deserving of Matt Ladner’s patented BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMs, the bill still faces one very large obstacle: Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Will he do what’s right for Virginia students with special needs? We shall soon find out…

 

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Posted by Jason Bedrick

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