LESSONS
Posted on 06/20/2002 7:47:40 AM PDT by summer
The New Math of the NYT education columnist Richard Rothstein: 2 + 1+ = 2 (and not "3")
By summer -- a former Dem, now an independent and a FL certified teacher
"Florida has two school voucher programs" declares Richard Rothstein in the opening sentence of his June 19, 2002 NYT column on education, below.
"Two" voucher programs? Wrong, Richard. Florida has THREE voucher programs.
Maybe you never had a teacher who taught you simple addition, prior to becoming a regular columnist at the NYT. I will try to help you see why: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3. And: 2 + 1 = 3
Of course, first you have to be able to count all the way up to 3 to understand this. Let's count together, Richard. And, together we'll find out just how many voucher programs FL actually has, since the premise of your entire column depends on the correct sum here:
First, the voucher program included in FL's "A+ Plan" for education. That would be ONE voucher program. (1)
Second, the voucher program you mentioned in your column, for disabled students in special education. That would make TWO voucher programs. (1) above in A +. And (1) here for disabled students. How many voucher progams so far? Two. Because 1 + 1 = 2
Let's keep that sum (2) in mind as we continue.
Now it gets much harder, as I am going to disclose to you, Richard, the third voucher program FL has, which you pretended throughout your column does not exist. Here it is:
Third, FL has a voucher program paid for by a corporate tax credit, and these vouchers are only available to LOW INCOME students.
Yes, Richard: LOW INCOME students. Consequently, that means:
2 voucher programs you named + 1 voucher program you omitted = 3 TOTAL voucher programs
In short: 2+ 1= 3. "3" is the correct total sum. Not "2" as you erroneously told the world, Richard.
But, I understand why you made this "mistake" in your article: Had you included FL's 3rd voucher program, your entire premise would be shot down, because your big premise is this:
FL's voucher programs exist only to finacially subsidize the "relatively affluent," "better off" and "well-to-do" students in FL.
However, it's pretty tough to sell that idea to readers if you bother to include the fact FL's 3rd voucher program is only for LOW INCOME students.
When the FL GOP gov creates one voucher program solely for LOW INCOMEstudents, isn't that news "fit to print" about Florida -- and how the state seeks to help its most vulnerable citizens? And, if that's not news "fit to print," why not???
The rest of your column sounds just as bogus as your first incorrect sentence.
To support your false claim FL's voucher program exists only for the "wealthy" you make mention of merely one private school, located in West Palm Beach, which has raised its tuition -- requiring some voucher students to look elsewhere. Richard, I know this will be a shock to you, but according to the Orlando Sentinel, eleven new private schools recently opened to accommodate all the LOW INCOME students in the 3rd voucher program - the one you assert, by your silence, does not exist.
Also, you fail to mention Gov. Bush's voucher programs always provide school choice - the parent can choose a private school OR a different PUBLIC school.
Why do you pretend in your column that FL is steering every student into the 'private' school system when better public schools are also an option for any parent utilizing FL's 3 voucher programs? A parent of a disabled student, for instance, can get a voucher for a student to attend a special education program in a better public school. Why is that choice of better public schools a fact nowhere to be found in your column?
Finally, your column continuously and falsely implies: THE SECRET PLAN OF FL'S GOP GOVERNOR IS TO ELIMINATE ALL EDUCATION EXCEPT FOR THE WEALTHY IN PRIVATE SCHOOLS.
Frankly. I don't know where you went to school, Richard, but here in FL -- in both public and private schools: 2 + 1 = 3. No matter what new math you invent and publish in the NYT.
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LESSONS
June 19, 2002
Voucher Program Flunks Special Ed
By RICHARD ROTHSTEIN
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Florida has two school voucher programs. One, small but widely publicized, pays private tuition for students who abandon public schools that have low test scores. Students from 10 Florida schools, all in low-income areas, can get vouchers next year; experience suggests that few will use them.
Less well known is a bigger program open to all special-education students. Any child whom a public school has identified as learning or physically disabled or otherwise in need of special help can get a voucher for private tuition.
Across the nation, voucher advocates say private choices should be extended to disadvantaged children, like the poor or those with disabilities, whom public schools have failed. But critics suspect that vouchers are really intended as a step toward privatizing education for the benefit of the well-to-do.Florida's special-education program gives plenty of ammunition to those critics.
Special education certainly needs reform. Some children get special education when what they really need is extra help in regular classes. Even when students do have special needs, the school often does a poor job of setting goals for them, and does even worse at checking to see that those goals are met.
When Florida's program began in 1999, it seemed like a smart response to special education's failures. A child with disabilities who was not meeting a public school's goals could get a voucher whose value was equal to state aid that would otherwise go for that child (about $4,500 a year for a student with mild learning difficulty). Children could go to any private school that took them, and the school had to take vouchers as full payment.
But one aspect of the plan raised eyebrows. Although students were eligible if they did not meet their public school's special-education goals, private schools accepting those students were not required to monitor their progress ever again. Indeed, private schools with voucher students did not have to offer any special-education services at all.
Then, last year, Florida made changes that further compromised the program's integrity. First, it said a voucher could go to any parent who believed a special-needs child would benefit. Evidence of unmet goals was no longer needed.
Second, private schools were allowed to charge tuition on top of the voucher. Many religious schools that offered no special services continued to take vouchers as full payment. But schools with good special-education programs could not provide them for the amount of the voucher, so they added fees. Now, while any child with a disability can get a voucher, only better-off families can afford schools offering special education. Consider what happened in West Palm Beach.
To enter the voucher market, one company, Educational Services of America Inc., bought a private school, the Progressive School, and shifted its focus to special education.
Its fifth-grade class, for example, had only eight students this year, making it small enough to accommodate the children's needs. The teacher, Jennifer Fall, repeatedly praised a socially isolated child until others found prestige in befriending him. When a child with mild Tourette's syndrome shouted out, he was not penalized, as others would have been. Ms. Fall gave an A to a student with attention deficit disorder as a reward for staying on task, although similar work by another would have earned a lower grade.
Attending the district's regular schools in prior years, these children did not get the individual attention they required. Ms. Fall herself taught classes of 40 at a public school last year. "I almost swore off teaching," she said.
The Progressive School took vouchers as full payment this year. But it can no longer afford to do so, and will add fees in September. Although its costs are low - its top teacher salary is $38,000, compared with $56,000 in nearby public schools - special needs cannot be met with a $4,500 voucher. Next year, parents of children with mild disabilities will pay an extra $2,500, parents of those with greater disabilities more.
One child who will not stay is Logan Marsh. His mother, Ramona, earns $14 an hour as a fire dispatcher. Ms. Marsh says that Logan gained intellectual confidence this year but that she cannot afford the new tuition. She will use his voucher at a church-run school whose large classes make no special accommodation for his learning disabilities.
Under other circumstances, the Florida voucher program might have put to the test the notion that private schools can improve special education. But the state never made even a pretense of comparing students' progress in private and public schools. It has permitted vouchers to become only a subsidy for the relatively affluent.
And by highlighting the impossibility of providing special services for what public schools spend, the program also advertises how drastically Florida starves public special-education programs of adequate financing.
Summer ... summer ... summer. I love you, darling; you know that, but the idea the NY Times would stoop to getting its facts straight ... PLEASE!
Why should they start now?
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