Category Archives: Private Schools

How often do you see a local school board proactively promoting school choice — including choices inside and outside the district, for the sake of satisfying the local education customers? Let’s be honest: It’s pretty rare. So maybe it’s time to introduce you to the Board of Education for the Douglas County School District, the third largest in Colorado. Last Thursday the DCSD board sent out a memo that included this interesting passage: We also want to address the perception that the Board of Education prefers one type of school over another. Nothing could be further from the truth. Simply put, your Board supports choice. We believe that informed parents, not Board members, are best suited to determine which schools will best serve the needs of their individual students. Under our Superintendent’s leadership, schools are making efforts to define themselves clearly. We strongly support these efforts so that parents have the best information to choose which school will meet the unique learning needs and goals of their children. This work will also provide choices for teachers to match their professional styles with the school’s learning environment. Our role will be properly limited to ensuring that all schools operate on a […]

An article in yesterday’s Denver Post brought attention to a new report by our friends at Colorado Succeeds that urges Colorado to follow Florida’s lead on education reforms. Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah… Jeb Bush’s Stellar Education Reform Record Worthy of Colorado Emulation (July 2008) Bolstering the Case for Jeb Bush’s Education Reform Success (October 2009) Florida Keeps Star Role Among States in Improving Student Test Scores (March 2010) CSAP Scores Get Little Attention, But Call for Expanding School Reform Approach (August 2010) If Colorado policy makers read the report and follow the Florida formula, frankly I don’t care who gets the credit. The Denver Post story focuses heavily on two planks of the Colorado Succeeds report’s five-plank recommendation: 1) End promotion from 3rd grade to 4th grade until students prove basic literacy skills; and 2) Improve the Colorado Growth Model with clearer, easier-to-understand letter grades and other consequential refinements.

I’ve had a great time lately with the cool (and here in Colorado, I mean “cool”) fireworks shows and water fights. Still, it’s good to be back sharing some more good news about school choice. Yes, I’m behind the curve in letting you know about what Louisiana has done, but better late than never — besides, it’s summertime: Washington, D.C. (June 25, 2010) – Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal this week signed into law the nation’s 20th private school choice program, which will allow children with special needs to use state-funded scholarships to attend the private schools of their parents’ choice.

A little earlier this week the U.S. Department of Education released the research results from the final evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). What did it say? Basically, an admission that the very small program hasn’t had any tremendous impacts — oh yeah, except for this one: The Program significantly improved students’ chances of graduating from high school, according to parent reports. Overall, 82 percent of students offered scholarships received a high school diploma, compared to 70 percent of those who applied but were not offered scholarships. This graduation rate improvement also held for the subgroup of OSP students who came from “schools in need of improvement.” Writing on Jay Greene’s blog, Greg Forster deconstructs the control group (since the graduation rate for D.C. Public Schools is actually 49 percent), and concludes the grad-rate benefit from the voucher program is “somewhere between 12 percentage points and 33 percentage points.”

This week was a good one for school choice. Let’s start with Florida (two days in a row!), a national leader and superstar in education reform. This week 5,500 Floridians came to Tallahassee to rally for a proposal that will increase private school choice opportunities for economically challenged families. Watch this excellent 2-minute video news report of what may be the largest school choice rally in American history (H/T Jay Greene):

Education employees have their powerful lobbying interests representing them — to a lesser extent school board officials do, as well. So isn’t it about time we kids pay our dues and band together for a good education? That’s why I’m so excited about the brand new organization called the American Federation for Children. Okay, well, it’s not exactly like that. It’s not like some union that I can join or that will automatically take hundreds of dollars in dues money each year. In fact, it’s not really a membership organization at all. From yesterday’s press release announcing the new group:

I guess some things in education you’re just not supposed to talk about. Hats off to the Fordham Institute for breaking one of the taboos and reporting on “private” public schools. What, you say? That doesn’t make sense? It does make sense when you understand what authors Michael Petrilli and Janie Scull are getting at: the fact that 2,800 public schools serving 1.7 million students in the United States have very, very low percentages of poor students in them. As they show, schools funded and run outside the government system aren’t the only ones that can be exclusive. The list of Denver-area “private” public schools is posted here (PDF). Those who are paying attention closely will note that 5 of the 55 on the list are public charter schools. That’s about in proportion to Colorado’s general school population, which reinforces our understanding that charters in our state cater to no more or fewer middle-class students than their neighborhood school counterparts do. I’m not saying we need to put an end to all of these exclusive schools — whether they be private or public, traditional or charter. The point is let’s stop bashing proposals to give publicly-funded scholarships (through vouchers or […]

Maybe you have heard of Coverdell Education Savings Accounts. Maybe you even have one for your kids. They were created by Congress in 2001 as a way to save $2,000 per year per child for qualified education expenses tax-free. It’s a good way for parents to save money to cover some K-12 private school tuition expenses, or school supplies, or even to provide some savings for a college education. But it appears, according to the Heritage Foundation’s Patrick Tyrrell, that Congress — by doing nothing — soon may limit what you can use your Coverdell ESA money for:

It’s a busy day in Eddie’s world, so I don’t have a lot of time to write. But I would feel badly if I didn’t point you to some good news about the success of the Milwaukee Voucher Program. Research by the University of Minnesota’s John Robert Warren (PDF) confirms that voucher students have significantly more success in terms of graduating form high school than their public school counterparts. Hip, hip, hooray for school choice!

A new USA Today article by education reporter Greg Toppo is featured under the banner of “Recession fuels shift from private to public schools” — more middle-class parents with less money to spend on tuition are making the switch: Private-school parents typically find that the structure of public schools takes some getting used to. In most states, funding for public schools is calculated on a per-student basis, based on average student counts during the first few weeks of the school year. If a student drops out after 40 days, the funding that student generated stays with the school — even if he or she does not return to that campus. Private schools, on the other hand, risk losing tuition payments once a student leaves. “Private schools tend to treat you more like a customer than the public schools,” [parent Angela] Allyn says. Public schools are “going to get their tax dollars whether or not you as a parent are upset. If you’re in a private school and you yank your kid out, that’s a lot of money walking out the (private school’s) door.” Many of those parents who were accustomed to selecting private education options through their own financial means […]