School Reform Must Come First – Choice is the Best Answer

The following story from Inside Bay Area.com chronicles the hopes of California Schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell that an independent study carried out by researchers mostly from Stanford University will divine how much “it costs to educate a student.” Mr. O’Connell and other members of the public education spending lobby are hoping that the “Getting Down to Facts” study will be the catalyst by which state legislators are duped into believing that throwing more money into the current public school system will result in better educated students.

Here is an excerpt from the story (please honor the writer by clicking on the headline and reading the full article):

O'Connell searches for the true cost of education
California superintendent hopes $2.6 million study drives funding of state's schools
By Grace Rauh, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:12/01/2006 02:56:56 AM PST

SAN FRANCISCO — For years it has been a rhetorical question. But for the first time this spring, Californians may finally get an answer. Exactly how much does it cost to properly educate a child?

"We actually asked what is the actual cost to educate a student," O'Connell told the crowd. "I hope that (the answer) really drives the discussions in Sacramento."

… The $2.6 million study responsible for uncovering this elusive answer was funded by four foundations and led by Stanford University. O'Connell, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislative leaders commissioned the research and the results should be released in two to three months.

"I hope it's a benchmark," O'Connell said after his speech, from the floor of an education trade show taking place alongside the conference. "I hope it's more than a study that is placed on the shelf. I hope it drives education funding."

… California voters support spending more money on public schools, but only if there is greater accountability over how that funding is dispensed, according to a new statewide poll released Thursday by Children Now, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in Oakland.

… "There's not a big divide in the electorate in terms of making major changes in education," said Ted Lempert, president of Children Now. "They are saying loud and clear that the system is unacceptable and we need major change in California."

For Lempert, the key to the polling results is the realization that voters want education reform and financial accountability. They are saying, "Let's do both. Let's do them together. Let's get them done," he said.


Mr. Lempert is correct, and the polling (some of which I have seen) is correct; voters do want major changes in education and they want the system to improve. The answer, however, cannot be more taxpayer funds coupled with window-dressing reforms to “make finance more transparent” or “hold schools accountable.”

For example, when Proposition 98 was passed, it contained an accountability tool for schools to make taxpayers more aware of how schools use money and how students are performing (that’s one way the spending lobby sold Prop. 98 to voters). The tool contained in Prop. 98 is the School Accountability Report Card (SARC) – you know that all important document you have read and studied to determine the success of schools in your area. If you haven’t read one, you can find it here. Good luck in finding any meaningful accountability. How many failing schools have been shut down due to the imformation on the SARC?

Legislators – and probably this task will fall on Republicans (Democrats are too beholden to the California Teachers Association, the teachers union) - should use the call for additional spending to foster meaningful education reform in California. They should instist that meaningful reform must be enacted before any additional taxpayer funds are dumped into the public school monopoly.

The first and most meaningful reform would be to provide parents with a choice on where they send their child to school. If, as the “Getting Down to Facts” study has been advertised, researchers can determine “the actual cost to educate a student” then quantifying an opportunity scholarship (or school voucher) should be easy. Meaningful reform would attach the “actual cost of educating a student” to each student who would then have the option to take that money and spend it at a traditional public school, a chartered public school, a private school, or even a home school. Any school that receives funds through an opportunity scholarship should agree to be judged through a value-added analysis of student performance on core academic subjects (reading language arts and math) as a means to qualify to receive those funds. Beyond the basics, schools could specialize in classical liberal arts, vocational education, college preparation, fine arts, etc. Schools that succeed in educating students would flourish and those who don’t would be weeded out through analysis of student performance and the marketplace.

Without meaningful reform, more money will not improve education in California.