:EVT 2002 - Perspective;

:Dec 1, 2002;

:Perspective;

:3

Public schools facing rivals improve

MATTHEW LADNER SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE -- Matthew Ladner is policy director of Children First America (www.childrenfirstamerica.org), a nonprofit foundation which raises private funds to help low-income parents choose the best school for their children.



    The school choice reform movement is on a roll. The Supreme Court ruled school voucher programs constitutional in June, and candidates supporting choice won important federal and state elections in November.

    Renewed pushes for expanded parental options are expected at the opening of legislative sessions across the nation. This is an opportune time to ask: What do we know about the impact of school choice programs on public school districts?

    Supporters of education choice claim competition will pressure schools to focus their resources on teaching, while opponents fear it will drain money and resources from struggling public schools. Both of these claims are essentially theories — but is there any evidence? Fortunately, yes; both scholarly and anecdotal evidence reveals that competition does in fact improve public schools.

    In the early 1990s, Dearborn, Mich., struggled with a variety of educational problems. By the end of the decade four charter schools operated in the district, with additional charters in the adjoining districts. In response, former Dearborn Superintendent Jeremy Hughes established a Theme School Program allowing Dearborn schools to adopt open-enrollment magnet programs.

    The idea was to give parents what they wanted for their children within the district so that they wouldn’t want to leave. Themes include everything from engineering to fine arts to character education, and people can’t get enough of them.

    "The problem is that our schools are so overcrowded and there are so few openings at specific theme schools," Hughes told the Detroit News. Hughes openly acknowledges that the district reformed in response to charter school competition: "We welcome competition. The reforms we’ve enacted would not have happened, at least not as fast, without competition," he told the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

    Florida has been a leading state in expanding school choice options by creating three statewide programs: A+ Scholarships for children in failing schools (575 students); McKay Scholarships for children with disabilities (9,000 students); and tax credit scholarships for low-income children (15,000 students). Just weeks ago, the Miami-Dade public school system announced its intention to expand public school choice and create new magnet school options in response to the competition.

    Studies from scholars at Harvard, Stanford and the University of Wisconsin have established that children using choice programs to leave public schools score higher on achievement tests, but what about the children choosing to remain in their public schools? Again, the evidence is quite positive.

    Harvard economist Caroline Minter Hoxby has conducted studies comparing the achievement scores of students in public schools facing competition from charter schools and vouchers to those in public schools in less competitive environments. Hoxby’s results show public schools facing higher levels of competition demonstrate significantly higher test scores at lower average cost.

    Hoxby’s research also demonstrates that public school teachers are paid more in competitive educational environments, a welcome and predictable consequence of greater competition for the services of talented teachers.

    Choice programs have demonstrated an ability to improve public education. State legislatures have established five school voucher programs and six school choice tax credit programs since 1990, and over 500,000 children now attend charter schools. We badly need this level of momentum and more.

    After decades of funding increases to public schools, Secretary of Education Rod Paige recently announced national test results showing that 60 percent of low-income public school fourth graders fail to read at a basic level.

    The evidence suggests that school choice delivers academic results by focusing our enormous but inefficiently used public school resources into the classroom. It is said that nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come, and school choice is an idea long overdue.