The Empire Strikes Back Florida's school-choice success terrifies the establishment.

Wall Street Journal | March 25, 2004 | staff

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Florida will be a pivotal battleground this November, but on the crucial subject of education reform the battle in that state is already joined.

In the past five years Florida has delivered real school choice to more American schoolchildren than anywhere else in the country. Which is no doubt why Jesse Jackson was down in Tallahassee earlier this month calling Governor Jeb Bush's policies "racist." He and his allies understand all too well that when poor African-American and Latino children start getting the same shot at a decent education that the children of our politicians do, the bankrupt public education empire starts looking like the Berlin Wall.

This is the backdrop to this week's wrangling in the Florida senate over a bill ostensibly aimed at bringing "accountability" to the state's vouchers programs but which is really aimed at regulating them to death. Yes, there have been embarrassments, notably a "scholarship" operator now being criminally investigated for siphoning off $268,000. As bad as this is, it is small beer compared to the glaring scandal of a public school system in which more than half the state's African-American and Latino teens will never see a high school diploma.

Ironically those fighting vouchers may have a keener appreciation of Florida's significance to the voucher wars than those defending them. With national attention having focused largely on Milwaukee, Cleveland and the District of Columbia, it's easy to forget that Florida now has three key programs. The first are called Opportunity Scholarships, which allow children to opt out of failing public schools. Second are McKay Scholarships, which provide full school choice to special-ed students. But perhaps the most innovative is a corporate tax credit that allows businesses to take a dollar-for-dollar deduction for every contribution to a designated scholarship fund. Certainly in terms of sheer numbers this is the most far-reaching, with 13,000 low-income students now benefiting and 20,000 on a waiting list. Because these corporately funded scholarships are capped at $3,500 per child in a state where the average per pupil expenditure runs around $7,500, each scholarship represents not only a lifeline for the recipient but significant savings for the taxpayer.

A just-released study from the Indianapolis-based Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation highlights Florida's achievements. When the various state programs across America were measured against Mr. Friedman's original conception for vouchers, Florida's programs took three of the top eight slots. And another study, this one by the Manhattan Institute, finds that even kids without vouchers benefit because the competition is pushing Florida public schools to improve.

In response, the teachers unions, pols and bureaucrats opposing any reform have opted for a dual strategy of sue and regulate. On the litigation front, they're banking on the 19th-century, anti-Catholic Blaine Amendment language in their state constitution, on which basis they hope the Opportunity Scholarships will be deemed unconstitutional. If successful, the McKay Scholarships would go out the same legal window--but they're not being directly challenged because the empire understands the bad public relations of targeting special-ed kids.

Meanwhile, they regulate. The accountability bill includes some reasonable provisions (especially in the financial reporting and auditing realms). But its real attraction, as this week's debate demonstrated, was as a vehicle to be loaded up with the kind of voucher-strangling amendments pushed by Democrats Ron Klein and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The good news is that despite this all-out effort to frog-march poor kids back into miserable public schools, the genie seems to be out of the bottle. Even the liberal newspapers that oppose school choice had to concede that a pro-voucher rally in Tallahassee attracted more marchers (if not more favorable media attention) than the Reverend Jackson's protest that preceded it. And that's precisely what has them so worried.

[Concentrate]

They'll have to start questioning that phony "My Kid's A STAR at _______" bumper sticker when they can't pass an exit exam. Not all will, they'll blame it on the test or the school's plumbing but a lot of them won't. Higher and higher property taxes will get their attention, if nothing else does. And as a last resort, maybe they'll look around and see they're the only ones left, and wonder why.

Hey! you left out my "T"!

I know, I hate to be a nanny-stater, but there is irony the fact that the new and upcoming federal standards are a good idea. I mean, left on their own, local governments, driven by the t's unions will let the kids grow up illiterate, if left unchecked. Sheesh!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

. I mean, left on their own, local governments, driven by the t's unions will let the kids grow up illiterate, if left unchecked. Sheesh!

Teachers' unions are never flagged by the media or their fellow democrat politicians as having a union agenda, they're held up as, "caring for the children." Unions protect their members not the childen.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Some suggest that vouchers will hurt public schools by draining them of talent and resources.

Are their teachers leaving?

Here is a real funny thing. I have seen third world schools where the kids had to scratch letters in the dirt and yet every one of those kids leaned to read, write and do basic math.

It is the teacher. And most public school teachers suffer from the "soft bigotry of low expectations" they don't expect to be able to teach the kids. So they don't.

[Qwinn]

Bookmarking. Good article.

Qwinn

[blanknoone]

Some suggest that vouchers will hurt public schools by draining them of talent and resources

I think there is something to this...although not what the originator intended. It won't be resource drain...the fact is that voucher programs take children out of public schools so that slightly fewer resources are spread over many fewer children....less resources for the district...but more per child. That is not the problem (although the teachers union certainly sees it as one)

The problem is with the talent. It will be the good and motivated students with parents who really care that are the first to escape the system. In a class with 10 bright achievers, 15 middling students and 10 trouble makers before vouchers after vouchers will likely look like 2 bright acheivers, 12 middling students and 9 troublemakers. The already bad environment in public schools will get worse...because the ones trying to make it work will be the first to flee and the problem children (often due to lack of parental involvement) the ones most likely to stay.

Just like the flawed system of communism, once its flaws are revealed...it will spiral out of control and implode quickly. THAT is why the teachers lobby is fighting so hard against even the smallest voucher programs. They know that if they face ANY competition...they are doomed.

I know this is a long way off and merging two different good fights...but is their any chance that homeschoolers could get voucher money? Or at least tax credit for pulling their children out of the schools?

[bimbo]

"Administrators have said to me privately that they would rather be academically failing than be a dangerous school."***

…and for their best efforts, those Administrators have gotten schools that are BOTH academically failing AND dangerous.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It is the teacher. And most public school teachers suffer from the "soft bigotry of low expectations" they don't expect to be able to teach the kids. So they don't.Very true.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Good points and questions.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.... Administrators have gotten schools that are BOTH academically failing AND dangerous.

Bump!

[Jim Noble]

Here is a real funny thing. I have seen third world schools where the kids had to scratch letters in the dirt and yet every one of those kids leaned to read, write and do basic math.

If only the children who wanted to go to school (and whose parents wanted them to go to school) were involved, you would have the same result here.

[The Raven]

>>The problem is with the talent. It will be the good and motivated students with parents who really care that are the first to escape the system.

That's one of the lib's arguments....I'm not sure it holds up in reality.

The BEST thing of vouchers is that you are not forced to get stuck in a bad school - for whatever reason. Free market choice is always a winner.

Amazingly....if your second choice is bad (the voucher school) - you can leave there as well !!!

[blanknoone]

That's one of the lib's arguments....I'm not sure it holds up in reality.

I think it does and will hold up....but I don't think it is a legitimate objection. It is wrong to say that students have to stay in bad schools because the schools will be worse if the good ones leave. It is like crabs in a bucket....the ones at the bottom won't let the ones trying to climb out succeed. Good students should not be sacrificed to make teachers jobs easier.

[nathanbedford]

"THAT is why the teachers lobby is fighting so hard against even the smallest voucher programs. They know that if they face ANY competition...they are doomed."

That and they know that this struggle is an ideological contest to control every generational wave. The voucher program not only frees students to find the best way to learn, it also frees them from being strangled by political correctness. Every single issue in the culture wars now being played out in our public schools, the latest being the flag salute case, would be cured by a voucher system. This is a war arch liberals cannot afford to lose.

[PresbyRev]

"I know this is a long way off and merging two different good fights...but is their any chance that homeschoolers could get voucher money? Or at least tax credit for pulling their children out of the schools?"

Speaking as one homeschooling father (assistant to the homeschooling mother) ---- There is no way I want one penny from either state or federal government. I am not now nor would I want to be beholden to the state for the education of my children.

[Lurker]

That's the proper attitude Reverend.

L

[blanknoone]

Given that most local property taxes are for public schools...what about a property tax credit?

I think parents should be responsible for the education of their own children...but I think it is unfair that parents who directly take this responsibility (homeschooling) have to still foot the bill for the failing public schools they fled.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[Poodlebrain]

So what is the problem? Under your scenario 12 students will be better off because they leave the public school environment for a voucher school. We should deny those 12 students the opportunity for a better education because the 23 who choose to remain in the public school won't make equal strides? I'm not aware of too many school systems with 35 students in classes anymore, but that is another issue.

The real issue is as you say money, and not the quality of education. Only a small percentage of the per student dollars make it to the classroom. Suppose the average class size in a given state is 25 students and the state spends $7,500 per student. That works out to $187,500 per classroom. How much of that $187,500 do you think goes to learning materials and supplies, building maintenance and other non-salary costs? If we assume that salaries take only 60% of the per classroom total, the public school establishment views each student "lost" as a loss in salary money of $4,500 ($7,500 x 60%). It only takes the loss of a few students before cuts in personnel become the obvious remedy, and the unions are fighting to save every member job they can. They only care about the students as each represents a source of revenue.

[blanknoone]

Poodlebrain...you missed a distinction I made, or at least was trying to make.

So what is the problem?

None. The point was that libs would argue vouchers would make public schools worse. I would agree with them...the best will leave, and the public schools will, on average, and at least initially, get worse. But neither schools nor teachers unions have rights. Students do. The point I was trying to make was that we should not disagree with the liberals on the issue that the schools will get worse...we should challenge them on that fact that that is not a reason to oppose vouchers.

[summer]

even kids without vouchers benefit because the competition is pushing Florida public schools to improve.

Thanks for the ping on this. I have to say that in the FL public school where I teach, I notice 1) there are parents who have have enrolled their children here, after removing their children from private schools; 2) teachers at my school enroll their children at our school; and 3) we do not have any teacher turn-over as I experienced in an inner city public school years ago, where teachers fled each year. And, despite the fact more of 50% of our students fall in the poverty category, and we have a mix of minorities, especially Hispanics, we do not have behavior problems and our students high FCAT scores have resulted in recent "A" ratings following several "B" years.

So, it is not impossible to deliver a quality education to all students. I just came home from school today and was reflecting on what a wonderful day I had, and reviewing all the lightbulbs I saw go off in kids' heads today.

We also have a very high rate of parental involvement in our school. And, our students wear uniforms. It is a very small school, and very much like a private school. In short, I think FL schools have in fact improved - and good quality public schools not only compete, but often prove to be more desirable to those parents actually shopping around.

BTW, I continue to be very surprised that all the recent talk about what is happening in NY, re Mayor Bloomberg's effort to end social promotion, has omitted any and all mention of FL schools, as Gov Bush already ended social promotion here, along with bringing more tutors, more summer reading camps, research and training for teachers, etc. But, no mention of any of the multiu-pronged approach Gov Bush has toward education, which also includes competition and vouchers, in all the recent news articles about NYC schools. Too bad. They could learn a lot from FL.