U.S. Public Education System

U.S. Public Education System

Public School System • Enrolls 90% of all elementary and secondary school children in the U.S. • Justified by powerful ideologies • 150 years of success • Funded by a $300 billion annual budget • 5.6% of GDP

Background to the Problem • National Education Goals Report 2000 • Spending on elementary and high schools has quadrupled since 1960 in inflation adjusted dollars • High school graduation rate has not improved • 12th graders came 15th out of 20th in math and science compared to other industrialized nations • Overcrowded and dilapidated classrooms and schools

Background to the Problem • In most inner-city schools resemble prisons and the crime rate on school property approaches that of the neighborhood at large • Inequality in schools located in urban & rural/poor and suburban neighborhoods • Chicago: school drop-out rate is as high as 50-70% in some schools, half leave school as functional illiterates.

Background to the Problem • Many public schools in suburban areas do exceptionally well and a high percent of these students go onto college--some as high as 95% • Many suburban schools have long waiting lists allowing them to be very selective in admissions • Free educational markets have consistently done a better job of serving families than have noncompetitive public schools

Background to the Problem • Private schools spend as little as one third of the amount on each registered child • Private schools have statistically smaller class sizes, smaller schools, safer schools, and smaller teacher/student ratios • Private schools have less qualified teachers compared to their public school counterparts

Report on the Quality of School Environments

Lesson Quality

MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE PERFORMANCE: Average mathematics and science performance of 8th graders for the 38 participating countries: 1999

Class Size

Student Teacher Ratios

School Satisfaction

School-Related Violence and Safety

Overcrowding in Schools

The Plight of Inner-City Schools • Costs to maintain schools are high • Schools are failing in their mission • Choices among inner-city schools are few • Poverty and unemployment of parents • Student retention is a problem

The Plight of Inner-City Schools • School readiness • The line between family and school responsibility • The inability of schools to reconstruct themselves • Short-term v. long-term productivity • “Fix-it” v. “Getting it right” • Status quo of perpetual reform • Reforms and the reality of the classroom • Frustrated and alienated teachers • Administrative turnover

Return power to parents and local communities by giving them back tax dollars in the form of vouchers allowing them to purchase tuition at the schools of their choice, whether government run or privately supported Policy Debate Focuses on School Choice as a Solution to the Problem

Civic Values in Education • Integration • Tolerance • Public spiritedness • Democratic values • Commitment to the public good

Does government need to pay for education and administer that education? Most people believe that both funding and administering the systems is necessary to produce a successful democracy

Parents’ Ability to Choose • Public Schools • Through residential choices • Choices among public school districts • Private Schools • Ability to pay • Choice between public and private schools

Ability to Exercise Choice • Number of schools in district • Ability to pay

Inter-School District Choice • Choice of a residence • Residence patterns and labor market opportunities • House prices and property taxes • Sorting into different districts • Homogenous school districts • Differentiated school districts • Constraints • Ability of low-income families to choose districts • Greater choice means greater influence

Impact of Inter-District Competition • On educational outcomes • Per pupil spending –17% • Test scores +3% • Educational attainment +0.4 years • On school segregation • On parental satisfaction • On parental involvement • Parental visits school annually + 30%

Intra-District School Choice • Ability to Pay • number enrolled, type of institution, subsidies • Selection of students • Creaming high quality students from public schools • Decrease voter support for public schools • Increased public per capita spending in public schools • Changed pattern of residential segregation

Evidence on Impact of Competition Among Public and Private Schools Within Districts

Intra-District School Choice • On educational outcomes • Per pupil spending - no impact • Test scores +8% • Educational attainment +12% increase in probability of graduating college • On school segregation • On parental satisfaction • On parental involvement • Input Costs

The Likely Impact of School Choice • Likely to have an impact on public schools • Reaction of public schools will be based on the fiscal rewards/penalties attached to gaining/losing students from competition • Segregation effects of choice is likely to be small because there is a large amount of segregation already in school districts • Choice will result in more involved parents • Different types of schools substitute for one another, but to a limited degree

Empirical data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS)

Integration • Private schools educate a smaller percentage of minority students • But, private schools are less segregated than public schools • Minority students at private schools have better educational outcomes

Racial Tolerance • Overwhelming evidence for a higher degree of racial tolerance in private schools

Civic Mindedness and Volunteering • Holding socio-economic status constant, private schools are characterized by strong public spiritedness • Students in private schools are: • More likely to volunteer • More likely to volunteer often • More likely to believe that volunteering is important

Democratic Values • Private schools are more likely to promote citizenship directly • Private schools are more likely to promote awareness of contemporary social issues • Private schools are more likely to teach morals and values in school

Suggested Policy Solutions For-Profit Schools Charter Schools School Vouchers

For-profit Schools • For-profit Schools: e.g., • Beacon Education 1992 • Edison Schools 1992 • Advantage Schools 1996 • Teach +/- 100,000 in 200 schools out of 53 million U.S. students in K-12th grade • Profit motive: Quality education

For-profit Schools • Many do not have the services offered by public school: • lunch programs • programs for special education (disabled or emotionally troubled) • bus transportation • extra curricular activities, etc

Charter Schools • Charter application by teachers/parents • Receive tax dollars • Operate independently of rules that govern public schools • Minnesota: first charter school in 1990 • Concept now spread to 36 states • In 1994 approximately 100 schools, 3,000 by 2002 (projected) • Serve over 100,000 students

The Concept of Vouchers Provide any student who leaves the public school system a voucher equal in value to the average amount spent per student by the local school district.

Rational for Vouchers The government’s monopoly on schooling could be challenged by the establishment of a private industry that is large enough to have an impact on the public school system. To generate funding for the creation of an alternative market (might include for-profit schools as well as religious or secular schools operated by nonprofit organizations)

ACCESS Admission standards Tuition Accountability Authorization Performance contracts Nonreligiosity Charter Voucher • ACCESS • Admission standards • Tuition • Accountability • Authorization • Performance contracts • Nonreligiosity

Access to Schools With Vouchers Admissions Tuition Nonselective Selective Doesn’t exceed open to all comers affordable to all who meet Voucher $ admission standards Exceeds voucher $ open to all who can excludes those failing admission afford tuition excess standards & who can not afford tuition excess

Schools Students Type of school Number Percent Number Percent =================================================== Religious schools 20,531 78.7 4.2 mill 84.5 Catholic schools 8,351 32.0 2.5 mill 50.6 Other religions 12,180 46.7 1.7 mill 33.9 Nonreligious schools 5,563 21.3 0.76 mill 15.5 =================================================== All Private Schools 26,094 100% 4.97 mill 100% ===================================================

School Vouchers • Florida: • “Bush-Brogan A+Plan for Education” • Cleveland: • “Scholarship and Tutoring Program” • Milwaukee: • “Parental Choice Program” • Vermont/Maine: • Voucher Programs

Legislative/Legal History • Florida became the first state in the nation to offer vouchers statewide for students in “failing” schools--only 2 in 1999--opponents are suing to stop it. • December 1999: Federal judge ruled that voucher program in Cleveland--started in 1995, first to allow vouchers for parochial schools, serving 4,000 students--violated the Constitution’s separation of church and state

Milwaukee: More than 8,000 children attend private schools with taxpayer funds. The state supreme court found the program constitutional in 1998 • Maine: Federal appeals court upholds decision excluding religious schools from a long-standing tuition program in Maine aimed at rural students. • Vermont: Supreme court also rules that state’s tuition program may not be expanded to include parochial schools

Research Results: General • Typically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups are well represented in voucher schools • But, vouchers tend to go to more advantaged students whose parents have more education, higher income, and greater expectations for their children • Parental involvement is higher in voucher schools and emphasized in those schools more.

Research Results: Academic • Inconsistency in results • No conclusive results showing any significant benefits of vouchers on student achievement • Milwaukee: only true gains occur through smaller class sizes • Cleveland: no significant differences in academic progress between voucher recipients and their public school counterparts

Research Results: Academic • Milwaukee randomized trials: No differences in reading, social studies and science scores • Some evidence of advantages in math and achievement scores after controlling for students characteristics, school characteristics, and academic climate (did not control for family and socio-economic factors). • Some evidence that racial differences in performance become smaller

U.S. Public Education System