Broken Public Ed Model Endures In Charters & Vouchers

The voucher and charter school debate have been around for many decades. One part of that debate which never seems to change is the viability of school vouchers and charter schools. The voucher bill in Georgia failed this year, but there is a rumor that it will return next year. With the state's funding mechanism alluding two previous Governors, the voucher debate will likely catch momentum once corrections can be made to Georgia's state funding formula. 

The singular problem with all of these choices is that the current choice model is built on the foundation of the current antiquated public system which does not drastically improve student achievement. The public system works for some and not for others, and that’s what is true. The public system needs a positive change that is more inclusive and allows for dynamic learning with real results. Those of us that support the public system must come to terms with the notion that the funding schemes and the way schools are evaluated are not viable anymore. One could argue this failure was completely designed. 

Results?

A recent study from the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education published that charter schools enrollment in middle school "had no significant impact" on college enrollment. The study also determined that college degree attainment or did not impact students' chances of remaining enrolled in college. Furthermore, the study revealed that such charter schools did not reveal an increase in student achievement on average. However, a limitation of the study only looked at admission to charter middle schools in school years 2005-2006 and 2007-2008. Since then, charter schools may have changed admission requirements since that timeframe. 

These findings are consistent with other studies that state that no significant finding from charter schools save students from failing public schools in reference to student outcomes. Even with President Obama's massive School Improvement Grants (SIG) to infuse $7 billion into the public charter system, no significant gains were made in student outcomes. This should not be a shock that the failure of the SIG program did not use current best practices to improve schools was not considered. What's even more detrimental, and likely the root cause of the public systems failure is an unwillingness to change the traditional model even if options are made available. 

Are vouchers a viable choice? Depends on who you ask. If you ask the collective public system, it just takes money away from the students that really need it. If you ask the parent who wants their child out of a failing school, then it was worth it.

 A report analyzed four different school vouchers studies, each with different methodologies, shows that student who received vouchers to private schools did less well on standardized tests than their peers already enrolled in private schools. However, graduation rates for students that have vouchers still remain higher than their public counterparts. There are multiple reasons for this, but one reason can be linked to parental and family support of those students or lack thereof. 

All this money, and little to no results in the overall scheme of public education. Those that know education policy and school improvement can look at the current model with one glance and determine that the foundational model in American public education has become an utter failure, and the choice models are not improving the situation. 

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the prime source for data on education, administers the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, the "gold standard" for global tests. The exam, which measures reading, math and science, samples 15-year-olds in 72 countries every three years. The last test was in 2015. The United States fell just above the OECD average in reading and science, and below average in math, where it dropped 11 points since the last exam. 

So, what is the answer?

A complete overhaul. Throw out the traditional model. Yes, throw the baby out with the bath water. Pull the band-aid off quickly. It cannot be any worse now that Common Core is in place; the damage is done. What does that look like? What that looks like is a system that provides multiple options and choices for students of all backgrounds. The public system is trying to do that with options such as Dual Enrollment, etc, but is that enough?

Parents have to step up because parental influence is more impactful on student learning than a good teacher and a good curriculum. Parents have to take an active role in policy making and classroom teachers, not administrators, have to be at the table working alongside to improve outcomes. School districts say they want parental involvement, but do they? One only has to attend several Individual Education Plan meetings with parents to find out that "free and appropriate" education is a ruse. 

The inconvenient truth was unveiled in the 1960s in a report by James S. Coleman, known as the Coleman report, was released that said differences among schools in their facilities and staffing “are so little related to achievement levels of students that, with few exceptions, their effect fails to appear even in a survey of this magnitude,” the authors concluded. Furthermore, the report stated that family background explained more about a child’s achievement than did school resources ran contrary to contemporary priorities, which were focused on improving educational inputs such as school expenditure levels, class size, and teacher quality.  

What a travesty to the traditional public model? This is counterintuitive to all the "reform" we've seen since the establishment of the U.S. Department of Education. 

What do parents want for their children’s education?

The days of dropping kids off from 8 AM to 3 PM is not doable. What most parents want is an elementary system that focuses on reading and basic math skills to where there is no question that a child knows their basic math facts or that their child can read on grade level...Is that too much to ask?

What parents of secondary students want is a curriculum that will allow a student’s talent to develop into a productive career without sacrificing the basic knowledge learned. The current test-measure-punish model of public education does not work, and it is showing in the national and international measures of our nation’s students.

The only way the public improves is through parental choice, but that comes with responsibility from the parent, not solely based on the classroom teacher. Choice does not mean dropping kids off at a charter school or a voucher program from 8 AM to 3 PM daily. Choice means taking an active role in your child’s success. Babysitting is not education and schools have to really want parental input.

 - Author: J. Mylen Spencer, Ed.S.: Sixteen-year veteran public educator