From The MacIver Institute

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New figures suggest that over 75 percent of Milwaukee’s K-12 population attend a school other than their traditional public neighborhood school, according to the MacIver Institute’s Educational Choice Census.

Thanks to the expanding presence of school options, including the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, charter schools, homeschooling, and magnet/specialty schools, over 87,000 of the city’s students are able to choose an educational option that fits them best. This number far exceeds the Wisconsin’s average, which sees approximately 25% of students taking advantage of public or private school choice programs.

Milwaukee 2009 Enrollment	Total Students	% of Total Student Population
Traditional Public Schools	27,831	24.20%
Public Charter Schools	17,612	15.31%
Public Online Charter (Virtual) Schools	977	0.85%
Open Enrollment public school transfers	4,562	3.97%
Chapter 220 public school transfers
-Interdistrict Transfers	2,720	2.36%
-Intradistrict Transfers	24,796	21.56%
Three-Choice Enrollment*	6,883	5.98%
Private Schools	28,893	25.12%
Homeschooling	748	0.65%
Students Exercising Choice	87,191	75.80%
*Estimate based on MPS reporting of students attending neighborhood schools (District Communications Plan May 2008 – Revised 11.25.09)

More than 25% of Milwaukee’s K-12 students are able to take advantage of more traditional school choice programs, including private schools and homeschooling. Many of these private school students (19,414) were aided by the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which provides vouchers to low-income families to attend private institutions.

Approximately 15.5% of the city’s students take advantage of emerging public-based choice mechanisms, which include charter schools, open enrollment, online charter (virtual) schools, and Chapter 220 inter-district transfers. These students still attend publicly run schools, but use options laid out for them to choose the state-funded institution which fits them the best – whether that school is a charter school in their district, a public school in another county, or even online classes.

Rounding out the total are a group of students who use choice to remain in publicly branded schools in Milwaukee with alternative curricula or structuring, as well as students attending city schools outside of their own geographic areas. Over 20% of the city’s student population participates in Chapter 220 intra-district transfers to shape the paths of their education. This includes magnet and specialty schools, as well as merged attendance area (school pairing) programs.

This number has expanded significantly in recent years as Chapter 220 regulations expanded transfer options in 1995. This change included students attending schools that serve an entire district, increasing the scope of choice students through the addition of more eligible institutions. As a result, many students who would not be thought of as traditional users of school choice programs are included in the census due to their use of intra-district transfer aid and the flow of funding between schools. This accounts for nearly 25,000 MPS students.

Finally, Three Choice Enrollment allows families in Milwaukee to choose the public school that they want their children to attend. Parents are given the opportunity to list their three top institutional choices, and students are placed in schools according to classroom availability. Over 99 percent of participants are selected to attend their preferred schools – which plays a major role in why only 24.2 percent of the city’s elementary students attend their local public schools.

The results showcase the overwhelming presence of options in the city that pioneered modern school choice. More than three out of every four of Milwaukee’s school children chooses every day to attend schools outside of their traditional geographically assigned public classroom. In Wisconsin, Milwaukee has shown that it is the leader in school choice and educational options, regardless of whether they are public or private.

• D.C. Voucher Students: Higher Graduation Rates and Other Positive Outcomes
• Official calls for eminent domain
• Oklahoma making strides in education reform
• Charlie Rangel is the Poster Child for Term Limits
• On Gingrich: A legacy of surrender

From Education Week

It’s time to acknowledge that parental choice of schools is the wave of the future. Its foes can continue to try to stall its growth through a series of rear guard actions, but they will not succeed in derailing the movement. It is too powerful. The only question, therefore, is the form that parental choice will ultimately take. There is an urgency to the issue, however, that is not fully appreciated.

I say that because the education of children is time-sensitive. Education Department data show that children from disadvantaged backgrounds enter kindergarten already three months behind the national average in reading and math skills, and never catch up. But children from other families are no less entitled to a quality education in their days at school. In other words, there is a narrow window of opportunity to educate the young, regardless of the backgrounds of those involved.

In a perfect world, all neighborhood public schools would provide the kind of education that all parents believe is best for their children. But this is not reality. Of course, we should strive to make public schools better so that parents would see no reason to look elsewhere. In the meantime, however, what are involved parents to do when they are profoundly disaffected with the public schools their children are attending after they have tirelessly worked through proper channels to improve matters?

The answer is they do what they have always done by applying to private schools of various kinds. Yet we know that families with means are in the most advantageous position. That’s why prep schools have existed for generations. However, not all parents can afford the cost or have children who can meet the requirements for admission. These obstacles apply as well to more recently established private schools. Parents can also apply to charter schools or to magnet schools. But demand too often exceeds supply. Meanwhile, the clock is steadily ticking on their children’s education.

Since voters in more than 25 states have rejected vouchers or their variants, I raise the possibility of education tax credits. They combine personal-use and donation credits. The latter are an extension of existing tax benefits for charitable giving. Critics argue that this position is anti-public education. I understand their reaction. But I remind them that I graduated from an excellent public school district (K-12) and taught in the same public high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District for my entire 28-year career. As a result, I fervently believe in public education. I want it to thrive – not disappear.

Yet I also know that many parents from different socioeconomic backgrounds are angry and frustrated. There’s little sense trying to convince them that a greater good than their own children should enter into their thinking. They have already strapped themselves financially by selling their houses or vacating their apartments to move into neighborhoods with better schools in order to give their children the education they want. On June 25, the Wall Street Journal documented the extent of this desperation across the country (”Good Schools, Bad Real Estate”). It puts a human face on the sacrifices that parents make to get their children into exceptional schools.

I’ve avoided mentioning religious schools so far as one of the choices that parents should be able to opt for because it is the third rail in the debate. (So before electrocuting myself, I hasten to point out the quid pro quo I lay out in the final two paragraphs of this post.) I believe that parents have the right to consider religious schools as one of the options. The U.S. Supreme Court agrees. In 2002, in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, it ruled that vouchers do not violate the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution when they are given to parents, rather than to schools.

Critics will maintain that this is a dubious distinction because religious schools get the money in the final analysis. But I think they confuse intent and effect. The intent of the ruling is to provide what parents believe is the best education for their children’s needs and interests. That’s why many parents choose religious schools in spite of their affiliations, rather than because of them. If parents use the vouchers in their hands at religious schools, the effect is clearly beneficial to those schools. However, which is ultimately more important: the child’s education or the school’s finances?

It’s important to remember as well that religious schools often attract students from other denominations and races. The New York Times on June 25 cited the example of the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School in Brooklyn, which has become one of the most racially mixed charter schools in New York City. According to the Times, about one third of the 150 students are black and several are Hispanic (”Success and Scrutiny at Hebrew Charter School”). Moreover, religious schools usually charge lower tuition than non-sectarian private schools.

In return for allowing parents open choice, however, public schools need to be given wider latitude to expel – not merely suspend – miscreant students. At present, their hands are tightly tied by the state education code, board of education policy, and court decisions. We cannot expect teachers and administrators to do their jobs when public schools become de facto holding pens for students who sabotage the learning of others. I’m not talking about the adoption of zero-tolerance policies, which I consider to be indefensible. But when students repeatedly demonstrate they they do not want to learn and become disruptive, they need to be promptly removed from class. The amount of time, energy and money spent on these students is an enormous drain. Public schools can’t be expected to produce outcomes that will make them attractive to parents when they must play by a different set of rules.

For the same reason, all schools must administer the same standardized tests and publish the results. Private and religious schools can’t have it both ways. They can’t participate in parental choice programs at taxpayer expense and not be subject to the same accountability that public schools must follow by law. State assessments, independent website ratings and annual magazine rankings of public schools are available for parents to consult. The same information should apply to all schools. Only then will parents be in a position to make an informed decision. I’m willing to bet that the differences between schools serving the same proportion of children from similar socioeconomic backgrounds will be virtually indistinguishable.

• D.C. Voucher Students: Higher Graduation Rates and Other Positive Outcomes
• Official calls for eminent domain
• Oklahoma making strides in education reform
• Charlie Rangel is the Poster Child for Term Limits
• On Gingrich: A legacy of surrender

From The Huffington Post

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The United States is rapidly losing ground to competitive countries in many facets of our economy, and it’s time to drill down to the defining source of the problem.

Many experts (including the most qualified: parents) agree our educational system is simply failing to deliver the quality education our children need to keep the U.S. forefront in the world today.

According to a 2009 GreatSchools and Harris Interactive poll, nearly one in four parents are rethinking the type of school their children should attend moving forward, whether currently attending a public or private school.

Choice, however, is the real issue and unfortunately is often limited by the financial capability of the family.

In order to ensure parents are able to make the educational choice they wish for their children, we must remove the financial constraints from the process.

That’s where school vouchers or a tax credit system would make a significant difference and benefit all.

Such a program would allow parents to choose the school they feel is best for their child.

In his inaugural speech, President Obama agreed money should not withhold children from the best education possible.

“We have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our students and our schools. We must make sure that people who have the grades, the desire and the will, but not the money, can still get the best education possible,” Obama said.

Providing parents the choice of education for their children does not mean the public school system or the many fine individuals involved must suffer. Public and private schools can actually prosper under a school voucher program.

According to information provided by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the average yearly cost of educating public school students, including elementary and secondary schools, is around $6,857 each, while the comparative average cost of a private school is $3,116 per year.

Providing a family a recommended $3,000 voucher or equivalent tax credit would allow the public school system to utilize the remaining $3,857 to bolster funds available for paying teachers and educating students choosing to remain in the system while creating “healthy” competition in the process.

An ideal voucher system is one which would also allow parents to “make up the difference” should they choose to send their child to a school costing more than $3,000 yearly, further empowering them to maximize the education potential for their child.

While there are many effective schools and teachers in the public school system, there are still many schools performing poorly and too often students are trapped within a failing system.

Statistics from a 2009 study conducted by the NCES involving 11 participating school districts reported since 2007, only 4 of the 11 districts showed significant improvement in reading scores at grade 4 level and only 2 of 11 showed significant improvement at grade 8.

No industry would accept such substandard performance.

Our future depends on providing the best possible education for our children.

The time has come to allow the competitive marketplace a chance to improve the public school system.

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From The Post and Courier

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In the 14 years since South Carolina’s charter school law was passed, the number of charter schools stands at 37. It would have been more had state law and local school districts been more accommodating to their creation.

It is time for the Legislature to make adjustments to the law that ensure financial support for charter schools and relieve them of some burdensome rules. Rep. Phil Owens, R-Easley, has filed a bill, which passed out of committee and is before the full House. It provides a good start.

Most of the bill’s provisions shouldn’t be controversial. For example, it would allow for single-gender charter schools that are now prohibited. It would allow school districts to deduct money from charter schools’ allotments to cover modest supervisory costs. And it would change the election schedule for charter school boards to provide sime continuity.

The sticking points are likely to be those involving money — something no schools have enough of these days. Charter schools need help. Those in the State Public Charter School District, in particular, receive about half the per-pupil allowance that other schools receive, and that is hardly fair.

What seems unnecessarily controversial is a proposal to allow public schools that convert to charter schools to give priority admission to students within their attendance zones.

It recognizes that neighborhood schools require less transportation and foster a sense of community.

Indeed, Charleston County School Superintendent Nancy McGinley has recently won conceptual support from the board for a choice plan to reconfigure the school district so that students in each quadrant of the county would have several schools from which to choose — all of them nearby.

Another provision would be complicated but worth pursuing — allowing charter school students to participate in extracurricular activities, including sports, at their neighborhood schools (if the charter doesn’t offer them).

Charter schools are public schools, and it’s clearly in the best interest of students to foster their artistic, leadership or athletic talents.

The charter school journey has not been smooth. But the efforts of charter advocates have paid off in the form of student successes and in demonstrating that school choice is a worthy aim.

Governing legislation should help maintain momentum for a significant educational trend.

From The Providence Journal

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The Rhode Island Board of Regents recently approved its 2010-11 budget, which includes an additional $7.3 million in aid for public charter schools.

That action, along with numerous stories in the print and broadcast media detailing the education opportunities offered at any one of Rhode Island’s 13 public charter schools, have once again resurrected myths about public charter schools — how they are financed and who they serve. Public charter schools are an integral and important part of the public-education system in Rhode Island, providing necessary public-school choice options for students and their families.

Public charter schools show much promise for the future of education — they are here to stay! It is important for all Rhode Island’s students, educators, policy makers and families that we move beyond myth to fact.

Here are the facts:

Fact: Public charter schools do not “drain” money from the district public schools. First and foremost, public charter schools are public schools, open to the public, funded by the public and accountable to the public. The total amount of money spent on public education in communities with public charter schools or with students attending public charter schools in another district does not change.

In Rhode Island, while local and state aid for public charter school students does go to the public charter school, the state aid part also goes to the traditional school district where the student resides, resulting in a “double” payment of the state share! While the public charter school educates the student, the sending district still gets the state aid part of the per-student allotment! Our charter funding formula is “flawed” in favor of traditional school districts. A true, “money follows the student” education-aid formula would end that double payment.

Fact: Public charter schools do not “cream” the best students. Public charter schools are open to any student who resides in the city or town identified in the school’s target population. Public charter schools have “open admissions” and to apply, families need only to fill out a short application requesting basic information. Public charter schools are open to every student regardless of race, religion, disability or academic ability. They are open to all students on a space-available basis and cannot select students on the basis of skills, ability or past performance.

By statute, if the total number of students who apply to a public charter school is greater than the number of openings available, the public charter school must conduct a blind lottery to determine which students are admitted. The lottery and overall charter-admission process are conducted under the authority of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Fact: Public charter schools are held accountable for performance. While public charter schools do operate independently of the local school system, they are held to even higher standards by the Board of Regents and state Department of Education. The state’s rigorous charter-application process results in only strong, viable applications being approved. Public charter schools must follow all state educational standards, participate in all mandated assessments, and comply with federal No Child Left Behind requirements. Public charter schools must demonstrate fiscal responsibility by providing and participating in all financial reporting requirements, which include all revenue/expenditure reports as well as providing quarterly budget reports to the auditor general and the Department of Administration’s Office of Municipal Affairs. Rhode Island public charter schools provide an annual report to the Board of Regents and are comprehensively reviewed and renewed after an initial five-year period and in successive five-year periods thereafter.

If the charter public school fails to meet objectives outlined in its charter, the charter can be revoked and the school closed.

Fact: Every one of Rhode Island’s children deserves a good educational experience. Public charter schools are an important part of building and sustaining a public education system that works for all of our state’s families. The demand continues to be high — with just over 3,400 enrolled in public charter schools and another 3,600 on waiting lists, public charter schools are a school-choice option that Rhode Islanders have embraced. It is time for us to put aside the “us against them” mindset, focus on the facts, and work together to improve the state’s overall public-education system.

Stephen A. Nardelli is executive director of the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools.