The worrisome news from Trump Tower continues. Trump’s education-secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos, is a strong supporter of charter schools and school vouchers.
No surprise, I guess. Trump himself has talked about using $20 billion in existing federal education funds for vouchers. His pick for vice president, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, greatly expanded that state’s publicly funded voucher program. And since Republicans have praised vouchers and charter schools for years, Congress isn’t likely to oppose a Trump move.
New York controls the number of charter schools in the state, so Trump won’t be ordering an expansion, but charter schools are already having an impact here.
Twelve charter schools are currently operating in Rochester, and two more are in Greece but serve city students. This year, those schools have enrolled 5277 students who might otherwise go to a district school. That’s nearly 20 percent of the approximately 27,000 kindergarten through 12th grade students remaining in district schools. Another charter school is scheduled to open next fall, and a proposal for one more is under review.
On average, enrollment in the Rochester charters has gone up by 20 percent a year for the past several years, School Board President Van White says. Last year that increase was 25 percent.
Vouchers could add to the competition, although how serious that threat is may depend on how much vouchers are worth. An analysis by Vox predicted that vouchers financed by diverting current federal grants would give each impoverished student $580. That won’t go far here.
The tuition at Harley, for example, ranges from $12,300 to $25,400, according to the school’s information on Private School Review. Tuition at local schools with religious affiliation tends to be less – $5500 and up in the lower grades, more for senior high. For many families, of course, that’s still substantial. And while those schools do offer needs-based financial aid, they can’t fully cover all children who want to enter.
Whether vouchers would make private schools affordable for the poorest families is questionable, but they would undoubtedly help middle-income families. And every child who leaves a Rochester school for one of the district’s competitors is a financial problem. The district loses state aid for that child. While that loss means the district has fewer students to educate, the district can’t cut its costs proportionately. If three students from a single class leave and go to a charter school, for instance, the district can’t lay off a teacher to offset the loss; there’ll still be 20 or so other students in that class.
In addition, the Rochester district has to pay for charter students’ transportation, school lunches, textbooks, and some special services (individual aides for students with disabilities, for instance). The state reimburses the district for some of that expense, but not all of it.
Also serious, White notes, is the loss of students and families who are often among the most engaged with education. These are families who are concerned enough about their children’s schooling that they seek options.
And vouchers may pose an additional threat – one that would be particularly serious for urban districts. According to several media reports, much of the $20 billion Trump wants for vouchers would probably come from Title I funds – money targeted to schools with large numbers of poor children. If vouchers become federal policy, that critical help could disappear.
Interest in competition for public schools has been growing, and that’s likely to intensify now. There’s still no proof that charter schools on the whole do better than public schools. Some do, some don’t. One thing is clear, though: as the competition continues, traditional public schools will be left with the very poorest children, and with the children with the greatest educational challenges: more children with serious disabilities, more who don’t speak English, more from families who are less engaged in their children’s education and are least able to help them.
That’s a terrible thing to do to those children. And it sure won’t make America greater.
This article appears in Dec 7-13, 2016.
It seems like the competition of charter and private schools will attract those families that value education and leave public schools to deal with students and parents who do not value education. (paraphrasing Van White)
Well, the good part of drawing numbers of students away from public schools will be that the public classroom sizes will become more manageable, so that teachers will be able to teach with less chaos. Consider that classroom management is one of the key elements in pedagogy and for delivering lessons.
As far as less money from the government for poorer students or for those with special needs, there is no proof that more money spent on these students will provide them with a better education.
NYS already spends the highest amount per student than other states, yet shows the least amount of positive results, in terms of graduation rates and other measures; so it may be time for public schools to do the best they can with what they get.
In the end, when this all shakes down, this might be a positive thing happening in education but that remains to be seen.
Do you know that the PISA (Programme for International Assessment) test scores have just been released? As usual, the US did not score well.
One reason for this, might be that US students are too competitive and not very collaborative. They push for grades, but not for helping one another. If, instead, they focused on teaching one another, they would learn more, for the sake of learning, not for the grades.
So, why not try to encourage students to teach other students, to motivate learning in more depth?
http://www.SavingSchools.org
In general, the RCSD has been failing for many years to provide its students with a decent education. And the recommendation of Towler and White is that parents looking for a better alternative should be prevented from doing so? Why does this seem so very cynical if we want to improve education?
The PISA scores, as Pearle mentions, were recently issued. Interestingly, the countries near the top of the rankings include several Asian one’s. I think Pearle would find that they are competitive, not collaborative in culture.
Towler repeatedly mentions that charter schools may or may not provide better results than public ones. Why does she not provide readers with the mean test scores of both in Rochester? It might either support or refute her claims.
Oh, cry me a river! Perhaps, competition from charter schools will improve Rochester’s public schools. Competition always improves products.
Charter schools provide competition for education money and nothing else.
Tom, it is hard to believe that you would make such a ridiculous statement. Charter schools are springing up in areas around the country where the public school product has been failing the students, not in well to do suburba where parents are satisfied with the public schools. Why don’t we see them in Pittsford and Brighton; they also have public monies available.
Remember, Towler provided no evidence for her claim that charter schools may not get better results than public ones. I assume data for Rochester is available. All she has to do is obtain the data and analyze it to generate the median test scores for each. Real touchy.
I’m a teacher and I can no longer make excuses for our failing district. It is a failure. They have/are leading our kids to failure and the only solution is to continue to do the same. No accountability, just buzzwords, ineptness from the top down. The straw on the camel’s back is this restorative practice nonsense. No. Just no. Get rid of all of it. We can no longer justify failure. Bring on the vouchers. If a charter school can produce results let’s have it. Dismantle the useless teachers union while we’re at it. The bloat is abysmal. A whole lot of nothing claiming they’re something. Massive amounts of mismanagement and folks still are appeased with embarrassing results. We are failing our kids,our kids kids. Generations of people who are entitled to FAPE( FAIR AND APPROPRIATE EDUCATION) didn’t get it and future generations won’t get it, and all we do is recycle the same regime and scratch our heads and wonder why.