Ken’s Take: I haven’t bought into the line that Pres Obama surrounds himself with good people. Consider Biden, Geithner, Napolitano for starters. But, I was enthusiatic re: Arnie Duncan — Obama’s pick for Sec. of Education. That is, enthusiastic until his first official action: bowing to the teacher’s union and killing the Washington DC school voucher program. Read on …
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Arnie Duncan, U.S. secretary of education, in a WSJ op-ed:
“When parents recognize which schools are failing to educate their children, they will demand more effective options for their kids.
The only open question is whether or not we have the collective political will to face the hard facts about American education. We must close the achievement gap by pursuing what works best for kids, regardless of ideology. In the path to a better education system, that’s the only test that really matters.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124035679795740971.html
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From the Heritage Foundation Daily Wire:
Earlier this month, Duncan sent letters to 200 District of Columbia low-income families informing them that he was taking back the $7,500 in scholarship vouchers that the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program had previously awarded them.
The evidence is in. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program works.
A Department of Education study showed the students in the scholarship program the longest performed at reading level approximately 1.5 to 2 full school years ahead of students who applied but were not lucky enough to be admitted to the program. But instead of “pursuing what works best for kids, regardless of ideology” Duncan did the exact opposite. He moved to kill the program by sending the rescission letters mentioned above.
The Washington Post explained why:
“It’s clear, though, from how the destruction of the program is being orchestrated, that issues such as parents’ needs, student performance and program effectiveness don’t matter next to the political demands of teachers’ unions.”
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April 28, 2009 at 6:45 am |
Professor, I’m disappointed. Why/how can anyone be enthusiastic about educational policy in America? It is based on so many falsehoods that I don’t know where to start. It’s almost like everyone wants to ignore the role of student ability as the primary determinant of performance differences and talk around it as long as they want to (all for noble political and social reasons), but any astute observer must at the very least, laugh at the song and dance and never find hope in inevitable futility. Chicago did not perform any better because of Duncan’s influence on that school system. It’s so funny that you get promoted in American government for achieving objectively little, while corporate people with genuine achievements get lambasted continually (no, I’m not talking about bankers either).
April 28, 2009 at 10:04 am |
Princeton, NJ school students cost ~$14k per year while Trenton, NJ area students cost ~$13k per year with drastic differences in performance. If a poor mother in a Trenton apartment wants to send her student to the better Princeton schools she is legally forbidden from doing so. Even if she is willing to pay the incremental $1000 per year in education costs and she drives junior to school each day.
We’ve locked ourselves into a situation where the affluent, via residency, can exlude others from basic public services. Anyone that has ever purchased real estate knows one of the key pricing factors are the school districts.
We will always have idiots, miscreants and thugs in our society. But it strikes at our basic premises of freedom that many families are forced into underperforming schools solely because of where they live. Give us a voucher system and allow successful schools and administrators to flourish and the others to fail. We’ll still have disenfranchised and apathetic parents and students but we’ll at least have a means of progression for those parents that want to elevate their kids in society.