|
9/15/1996
The Washington Post
By David Osborne
Few issues in American education are more controversial
than school choice. Seventeen states have passed public school choice laws,
giving students the right to leave their school district and attend another
public school. These are not voucher programs; with a few exceptions,
parents can't take their public dollars to a private school. Instead, public
dollars move with a student to the new school, creating competition between
districts.
The theory is simple: Different students learn
in different ways, so they need different kinds of schools. Hence students
should be able to choose the schools that suit their needs. If we then let
public dollars follow the children to their new schools, we create consequences
for performance. Good schools earn larger budgets; bad schools have to shrink
and, in some cases, close.
The logical result should be that principals, teachers
and superintendents should start working harder to improve their schools.
THE MINNESOTA STORY
Minnesota has gone the furthest to test this theory.
Since 1990, it has allowed:
- Families to leave their districts and take their
public dollars with them to another district.
- High school juniors and seniors to take their
public dollars to any college in the state and earn both high school and
college credit.
- Dropouts and students at risk of dropping out
to choose any public school in the state, as well as private alternative
schools that contract with public districts.
- Parents, teachers and others to create new independent
public schools, called "charter schools."
Overall, roughly 19 percent of Minnesota public
school students -- more than 150,000 in all -- attend schools they or their
parents choose. Since 1986, the number of alternative schools in Minnesota
has tripled from 108 to more than 300. A competitive market has begun to
emerge.
As choice began, James Tenbusch and Michael Garet
surveyed 126 high school principals. Most said they were making changes
to compete: lengthening their hours, adding more counseling and developing
new educational programs. If they didn't, they said, they might lose students
and money.
In an intensive study of eight districts, the University
of Minnesota's Cheryl Lange found that, "Parents are flexing their
political muscles by demanding desired programs and services. If the requests
are not honored, many threaten to leave the district. Findings suggest that
it doesn't take a large number of families threatening transfer for administrators
to take seriously the requests."
As one superintendent told her, "Open enrollment
has a lot of impact on us. One of the things it does is that we don't dare,
even under budget constraints, we don't dare curtail programs." Cuts
come out of administration, not education.
Opponents of public school choice often argue that
it will help the brightest, most affluent students, but leave poor students
behind in inferior schools, increasing racial segregation. That hasn't happened
in Minnesota, in part because the choice legislation says a student can't
change districts if it would increase racial segregation, a rule that has
kept white students from leaving Minneapolis for suburban districts.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Minnesota is just beginning to use statewide tests,
so there is no data to indicate whether students are learning more in their
schools of choice.
Hard data does exist on one choice program -- the
one that lets juniors and seniors take their high school dollars to colleges.
An evaluation by the state legislature found that 6 percent of all juniors
and seniors were taking some college courses (12.5 percent in the Twin Cities).
With the exception of those at technical colleges, they had a higher collective
grade point average than college freshmen.
Some 73 percent of these students said they were
"very satisfied" with their experience, while 95 percent of parents
said they would "probably" or "definitely" encourage
their children to participate again.
Spurred by competition, high schools had doubled
the number of Advanced Placement courses they offered and tripled the number
of students who took them. Almost 40 percent had also hired colleges to
teach courses on their campuses.
Ultimately, citizens are the arbiters of any public
program's success, and Minnesotans love school choice. By 1994, 86 percent
of adults surveyed supported the program. Seventy-one percent said the increased
competition would improve the quality of education.
|
