(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
So you’ve probably all heard that Toyota is moving their HQ from California to Texas (their moving trucks will be driving right through **ahem** Arizona and New Mexico btw) but that is old news. Now comes word that Houston has outdone the entire state of California for new housing starts.
Leave a Comment » | 
economics | Tagged: Tejas uber alles, Texas vs. California | 
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Posted by matthewladner
4 Comments | National Standards | Tagged: common core, George Will, Greg Forster | Permalink
Posted by Greg Forster
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
So yesterday here on the Jayblog we were discussing the fact that the Indy and Louisiana voucher programs only get a third of private schools to participate, while the Florida Step Up for Students program gets 71%. If the main goal of the program is to broaden choices for parents, this is rather important. Jason Bedrick sent me an email asking what the private school participation rate is in the Arizona tax credit program. I replied that we probably could not know because there are so many STOs, but I was wrong. The Arizona Department of Revenue has an answer: 337 private schools participate.
Pop over to the Digest of Education statistics for the number of private schools in Arizona- 340.
Now the AZ tax credit program has generated more than a little criticism over the years. Keep in mind however that the three Notre Dame ACE academies on the south side of Tucson that I introduced you to last week would have closed years ago without it. Moreover, the financial transparency in the system has improved. The Arizona Department of Revenue tracks the income of recipients by individual scholarship groups. If you want to focus your tax credit donation on lower-income children, as Mrs. Ladner and I have done for the last decade, you need only select a scholarship group that fits your preferences.
In any case, approximately all Arizona private schools participate in the Arizona tax credit program, and the Arizona tax credit program does nothing to compromise the independence of private schools. I know that the program is not everyone’s cup of tea, and there are things about it that I would change if the people of Arizona were foolish enough to make me Emperor (fortunately they are not) but let’s recognize a strength when we see one: the AZ program was designed to expand parental options and it is doing just that.
1 Comment | tax-credit scholarships | Tagged: Arizona scholarship tax credits, Arizona school choice, school choice design | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Having learned that one-third of private schools in Indiana participate in the scholarship program, I decided to check the stats on the Louisiana program. Sure enough right on the front page is an announcement that less than one-third of Louisiana private schools participate.
Indiana and Louisiana share some broad similarities in program design- mandating of the state test, grading private schools A-F, etc.
By way of comparison, about 71% of Florida private schools participate in the Florida Step Up for Students program. The Step Up program has a provision for testing, but allows the private schools options in which test to take. The state sponsors rigorous evaluations of the program and does apply rigorous financial accountability standards, but is otherwise largely content to allow parents to serve as the arbiters of the fit between the school and the student.
There are no right or wrong answers here, but it may also be the case that provisions like those in Indiana and Louisiana may come with a rather large cost in terms of broadening options for parents.
1 Comment | tax-credit scholarships, vouchers | Tagged: School Vouchers, student testing in choice programs | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
(Guest post by Greg Forster)
Before things get out of hand, which they will when this hits the rounds, let me say something about this horrifying story.
The Rialto public school district asked eighth graders to write an essay about whether the Holocaust really happened. Students were pointed to several informational documents to help them, including one that argued the Holocaust was a “hoax” invented by nefarious Jewish groups to raise money. The assignment will be changed.
Interim Superintendent Mohammad Islam said he was going to talk to administrators to “assure that any references to the Holocaust ‘not occurring’ will be stricken on any current or future Argumentative Research assignments,” according to KTLA-5.
But this is not just an anti-Semitism story. Common Core has, of course, been invoked. The L.A. chapter of the ADL seems to have originated the CC connection:
ADL does not have any evidence that the assignment was given as part of a larger, insidious, agenda. Rather, the district seems to have given the assignment with an intent, although misguided, to meet Common Core standards relating to critical learning skills.
Uh-huh. However that may be, media reports are already picking up the CC connection from ADL and re-broadcasting it.
Now of course it’s nonsense to attribute this kind of thing to the Common Core as such. This is a locally generated scandal, and no doubt Mr. Islam will not rest until he gets to the bottom of it and makes sure those responsible are held to account.
At the same time, I have never had much sympathy for CC supporters who beat their breasts and wail every time a local scandal (poor exam questions, bad pedagogy, etc.) is labeled a “Common Core” scandal and laid at the feet of CC.
Folks, from the moment you set yourself up as the dictator of the system, you officially own everything that happens in the system. This is not a new phenomenon. This is simply what you get when you announce that you have set a single standard for a huge, sprawling, decentralized system with literally millions of decision-makers, very few of whom have much incentive to do what you want, but very many of whom have some pet project they’d like to push through using your name to do it.
When you undertake a huge reform effort, you have only three options:
What we have with CC is case #3. And the unavoidable reality of case #3 is that everyone at every point in the system will suddenly start doing whatever they wanted to do but were previously forbidden or unable to do, and will call it Reform X. I feel embarrassed that I have to point out these obvious realities.
Common Core did not invent most of the awfulness being done in the name of Common Core, but it opened the back door for all the awfulness to slip in. Simplest solution: close the door.
HT Jim Geraghty
15 Comments | civic values, National Standards | Tagged: Greg Forster, Holocaust, Mohammad Islam, Rialto | Permalink
Posted by Greg Forster
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Make sure to read this article on Indy voucher kids running out of space. Amid the discussion of equalizing funding and facility funding lies an interesting little nugget: Indiana has 900 private schools but only 300 take scholarship kids.
So to get more spaces, perhaps someone ought to conduct a survey to learn whether any changes in the law might result in some of the 2/3 of non-participant schools deciding to join. I would never expect anything close to 100% participation (it’s a free country after all) but having that 2/3 to 1/3 split would be nice to go the other direction.
3 Comments | vouchers | Tagged: Indiana Vouchers | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
Yup. He’s wearing a Darth Vader costume and a kilt while riding a unicycle and playing the bag pipes with fire coming out of it.
But as Andrew Coulson noted: “Vader would never wear short sleeves. How inauthentic!”
A belated May the 4th to everyone.
(H/T Keep Portland Weird)
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
The Florida legislature has passed the nation’s second account based choice program- known as the Florida Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts. Florida students with disabilities, including those in public, private and home schools can apply to the program, which has multiple allowable uses including private school tuition, therapies, digital learning, curriculum and prepaid college savings. The program will be administered through the preexisting scholarship groups but will be state funded, receiving a $18.4 million appropriation.
Arizona originated scholarship tax credits and Floridians have documented evidence of the effectiveness of the concept for both participant and competitive effects. Account based choice programs also originated in Arizona, and the race is now on to see which state can best prove out the concept. Congratulations to choice advocates in the Sunshine State- and welcome to the party!
Who’s next?
4 Comments | Education Savings Accounts | Tagged: Florida ESA, Florida Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts, Florida PLSA | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
This week I had the opportunity to visit St. John the Evangelist school in Tucson. St. John is one of three Catholic schools on the south side of Tucson that entered into a partnership with the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame.
It was a deeply gratifying visit.
Greatschools rates the academic performance of nearby public schools as 2 out of 10 stars. St. John’s student body draws from an area of Tucson that is overwhelmingly Hispanic and low-income. In the capital city of Phoenix, one frequently talk about how the RAND corporation found that if you “control for demographics” that Arizona NAEP scores are middling rather than rock bottom. This of course is a coded way of at least implying that we should not expect students like those filling the halls of St. John’s to learn.
Fortunately the St. John’s children are having none of such nonsense. I walked in to a kindergarten classroom, where I was greeted by a young man with a hand-shake. He announced to me:
My name is Caesar and I am going to college in 2026! Today we are studying letters and words.
I’m sure you can guess my reaction, something along the lines of:
The staff provided some details on the progress of the school during the partnership period. Through the hard work of the students and the faculty, both scores and enrollment have strongly improved. The University has leveraged their network to create tax credit resources for the schools. It is difficult work, but they are on their way.
Christian Dallavis, the Director of Notre Dame Ace Academies, provided the following slide as a part of a presentation at the American Enterprise Institute earlier this year. The slide is a representation of the decision tree used by Ace Academy folks to discover which of the Arizona choice programs for which students may qualify.
If that looks more than a little convoluted, it is only because it is in fact convoluted. During the last session, choice advocates suffered an unfortunate setback in the Arizona House. Choice champion Debbie Lesko attempted to pass a provision to allow children living in high poverty zip codes to participate in the ESA program. Given that the entire state testing system is currently in complete chaos without anyone knowing even what test will be given to students next year, the D/F rated school provision seems more than a little unstable.
Now the alphabet soup groups are seizing upon a drafting error from last session in an effort to turn the minimum funding for general education students from $4,800 to $3,200. Mind you that the districts get around $9,000 per child. The Superintendent of Public Instruction has publicly stated that the legislative intent of the law is clear, but the alphabets blocked clarifying language from passing in the legislature and have threatened to file suit against the department if the Superintendent follows the clear intent of the law.
I know some of these opponents well enough to say with some certainty that they could not possibly see what I had seen, look students like Caesar in the eye, and tell him “Sorry Caesar the dysfunctional system down the street needs you as a funding unit. I hope that whole 2026 thing works out for you somehow but the needs of the system come first.” The basic humanity of choice opponents would prevent them from doing such a thing, but the actions of their organizations seek just such an outcome.
Caesar deserves a decent shot to succeed in life. Arizona policymakers should do everything they can to give it to him. Moreover, we should give thanks that institutions like St. John’s are willing to work so hard to help him achieve his potential.
UPDATE Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal released a statement today saying that after careful study of the statute and consultation with legal counsel that he has instructed Arizona Department of Education staff to fund the ESA accounts in accordance with the legislative intent of the 2013 statute. Legal action designed to strip additional funding from students like those described above will commence in 5, 4, 3, 2…
8 Comments | Education Savings Accounts, tax-credit scholarships | Tagged: Alliance for Catholic Education, Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, Arizona ESA, Rep. Debbie Lesko, St. John the Evangelist Catholic School, Tucson education, University of Notre Dame | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
(Guest Post by Patrick J. Wolf)
In the 23 years since the first charter school law was passed in Minnesota, charter schooling has gained substantial public legitimacy and support. Public charter schools enrolled more than 2 million school children in over 6,000 schools in 41 states plus the District of Columbia in the 2012‒13 school year. The three most recent U.S. presidents and their respective Secretaries of Education all have been vocal supporters of charter schooling. When the popular new mayor of New York City, Bill De Blasio, recently threatened to exclude public charter schools from space they shared with traditional public schools in the city, his popularity plummeted, leading him to beat a hasty retreat from the proposal.
Since public charter schools are becoming increasingly popular politically and therefore common in the U.S., we might expect that they would be funded at levels comparable to traditional public schools. We would be mistaken. An expert research team that I organized and Larry Maloney led systematically collected and reviewed audited financial statements from the 2010‒11 school year for the 30 states and the District of Columbia with substantial charter school populations. We carefully tracked all the revenues committed to public charter and traditional public schools from every source, public and private.
We identified a funding gap of 28.3 percent, meaning that the average public charter school student in the U.S. is receiving $3,800 less in funding than the average traditional public school student. Since the average charter school enrolls 400 students, the average public charter school in the U.S. received $1,520,000 less in per-pupil funding in 2010‒11 than it would have received if it had been a traditional public school. The gap is even higher in major cities where charter schools are more commonly found. Kudos to the Volunteer State of Tennessee, however, as it is the only state that provides equity in charter school funding.
The fact that some students attending public schools receive less funding than others, merely because the word “charter” is in the school’s name, may seem shocking. Isn’t all public school funding within a state or locality based on a common student formula? Actually, no. As detailed in our study, both public charter schools and traditional public schools receive much of their revenue from sources outside of per-pupil state allocations. These include federal categorical aid programs that can include both public charter schools and traditional public schools or just one and not the other, plus local funding raised through property taxes, as well as private sources such as philanthropies and bank interest.
Of the four major sources of revenue for public schools, local funding, or rather the lack of it, is the largest factor in the charter school funding gap. Public charter schools receive only an average of $1,819 per pupil from local government sources while traditional public schools receive a whopping $5,222. On average, charters get somewhat more state money than traditional public schools, while receiving somewhat less federal money. Although there is a perception that public charter schools are handsomely funded by private sources, our research shows that traditional public schools received slightly more private funds per-pupil in 2010‒11 than public charter schools.
The first systematic study of charter school funding equity, Charter School Funding: Inequity’s Next Frontier, conducted by the Fordham Institute in 2005, revealed that per-pupil funding was 21.7 percent lower in public charter schools relative to traditional public schools. A follow-up study, Charter School Funding: Inequity Persists, by Ball State University in 2010, found a funding gap of 19.2 percent remained. Many of the same researchers who conducted those pioneering studies were re-assembled for this latest project and discovered to great surprise that the inequity in public charter school funding has actually grown of late.
This is a careful study of the documented sources and amounts of revenue received by public charter and traditional public schools nationally, within individual states, and in major cities within states. It is a descriptive report of the financial realities in the two public school sectors. Although the report tells us conclusively that public charter schools tend to receive less money, and local government funds are most clearly responsible for the inequity, it cannot tell us in all cases exactly why local governments provide students in public charter schools with so much less money for their education than they provide students in traditional public schools. Still, policy makers need to confront the reality that public school students are getting short-changed, financially, if they happen to attend public charter schools. Charter students are superstars just like district students. Show them the money!
6 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene
Jay P. Greene's Blog 