U.S. Public Education System

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U.S. Public Education System
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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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Report on the Quality of School Environments
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Lesson Quality
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MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE PERFORMANCE Average
mathematics and science performance of 8th
graders for the 38 participating countries 1999
Mathematics Average score relative to the United States Science
Australia Belgium-Flemish Canada Chinese Taipei Finland Hong Kong, SAR Hungary Japan Korea, Republic of Netherlands Russian Federation Singapore Slovak Republic Slovenia Significantly Higher Australia Belgium-Flemish Canada Chinese Taipei Czech Republic England Finland Hungary Japan Korea, Republic of Netherlands Singapore Slovak Republic Slovenia
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MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE PERFORMANCE Average
mathematics and science performance of 8th
graders for the 38 participating countries 1999
Mathematics Average score relative to the United States Science
Bulgaria Czech Republic England Latvia-LSS Malaysia New Zealand Not significantly Higher Bulgaria Hong Kong, SAR Latvia-LSS New Zealand Russian Federation
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MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE PERFORMANCE Average
mathematics and science performance of 8th
graders for the 38 participating countries 1999
Mathematics Average score relative to the United States Science
Chile Cyprus Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of Israel Italy Jordan Lithuania Macedonia, Republic of Moldova Morocco Philippines Romania South Africa Thailand Tunisia Turkey Significantly Lower Chile Cyrus Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of Israel Italy Jordan Lithuania Macedonia, Republic of Malaysia Moldova Morocco Philippines Romania South Africa Thailand Tunisia Turkey
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Class Size
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Student Teacher Ratios
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School Satisfaction
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School-Related Violence and Safety
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Overcrowding in Schools
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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

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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

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• Policy Debate Focuses on
• School Choice as a Solution to the Problem

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
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Civic Values in Education

• Integration
• Tolerance
• Public spiritedness
• Democratic values
• Commitment to the public good

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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

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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

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Ability to Exercise Choice

• Number of schools in district
• Ability to pay

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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

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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

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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

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

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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

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Empirical data from the National Education
Longitudinal Study (NELS)
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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

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Racial Tolerance

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

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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

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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

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Suggested Policy Solutions

• For-Profit Schools
• Charter Schools
• School Vouchers

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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Rational for Vouchers

• The governments 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)

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Charter
Voucher

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

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

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Access to Schools With Vouchers

Admissions
Tuition
Nonselective
Selective Doesnt 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
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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

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School Vouchers

• Florida
• Bush-Brogan APlan for Education
• Cleveland
• Scholarship and Tutoring Program
• Milwaukee
• Parental Choice Program
• Vermont/Maine
• Voucher Programs

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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 Constitutions
  separation of church and state

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• 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 states
  tuition program may not be expanded to include
  parochial schools

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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.

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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

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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