|
4401-A
Connecticut Avenue, Box 294, Washington, DC
20008
Tel: (202) 244-7535, Fax: (202) 244-7584
|
Education Exchange
Volume 3, Issue 9 -- September
1999
|
Focusing on
Education Reforms at Your School, in Your State
Legislature, and in Congress
|
Fears
About Public School Safety
Cause Increased Home School Inquiries
As a new school year gets under way around the country,
school administrators are placing more emphasis than ever on
safety concerns. Tragic shootings that occurred over the
past two years in Littleton, CO, Jonesboro, AR, Paducah, KY,
and elsewhere have received a great deal of media attention,
ratcheting up fears of parents and students alike.
In Chicago, the District's CEO, Paul Vallas, has chosen
to require see-thru backpacks for students, which he says
are no more invasive than previously instituted random
locker searches. Many schools employ armed guards, and
utilize metal detectors. Video monitoring is becoming more
and more common.
To some, the safety solutions being put in place are
infringing on students' rights and making schools appear
more like prisons. To others, no amount of gadgetry or new
policy actions will take away the possibility of
student-on-student violence.
Safety concerns have risen on the scale of reasons why
people are inquiring with state home school organizations.
Exact data is difficult to come by, but in Arkansas, in the
year following the shootings at Westside Middle School in
Jonesboro, home school numbers rose by 30 percent according
to Jerry Cox, Executive Director of The Education Alliance,
the primary home school organization in the state. Cox noted
that there was an approximate 1,000 student increase in home
school numbers during the state education department's
reporting period immediately following the shootings that
occurred in March 1998.
Cox added that safety has been given as a reason for
interest in home schooling far more frequently during the
past two years than it had been in the past, when academic
and social/cultural concerns ranked at the top. While it has
not surpassed academic concerns, safety issues now hold an
equal footing in the inquiry calls to The Education
Alliance.
The Arkansas numbers indicate a correlation between the
Jonesboro shootings and interest in home schooling in the
state, but Cox noted that other factors that were occurring
simultaneously cloud the matter. During the period between
1997 and 1998, when Arkansas' home school numbers rose from
6,000 to 9,000, the state eased its regulations on potential
home school families, making it easier to opt out of public
schools in favor of the home school alternative.
Kevin Swanson, Executive Director of Christian Home
Educators of Colorado, notes that inquiries to his
organization increased from an average of 10 to about 50 per
week in the first two months following the Columbine High
School shootings in Littleton. He noted that the inquiries
have increased still more during the month of August, to
between 60-80 per week.
In the past year, Christian Home Educators of Colorado's
database has grown from 10,000 to 12,000 families, though
Swanson could not say with certainty what percentage of the
families viewed safety as a primary reason for making the
move to home schooling.
Brian D. Ray, President of the National Home Education
Research Institute, says "research and experience show that
one of the most quickly-solidifying reasons for home
schooling over the past few years has been the safety of
children. This includes physical safety, drug and alcohol
safety, sexual safety, and psychological and emotional
safety." Noting that there has been a 7-15 percent per year
increase in home schooled students over the past 5-10 years,
Ray believes the increased safety concerns will inevitably
lead to an increased acceleration in the number and
percentage of our nation's children in home-based education.
Hard enrollment data on the 1999-2000 school year will not
be available until mid-term.
Fuller
Debunks "Lies" About Milwaukee
Parental School Choice Program
Dr. Howard Fuller, Founder and Director of Marquette
University's Institute for the Transformation of Learning,
brought his wealth of experience in the Milwaukee Public
School system to the Heritage Foundation lecture stage on
September 9. As superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools
(MPS) during the first half of the 1990s, Fuller experienced
the formation of the Milwaukee Parental School Choice
Program (MPSCP) from the inside.
One of the nation's foremost school choice advocates,
Fuller boldly debunks what he terms "lies" being told about
Milwaukee's school choice program. Fuller identified People
for the American Way (PFAW) and the National Education
Association (NEA), one of PFAW's primary funders as
opponents. He says, "It's too late to pull punches and be
nicey, nicey..."
Fuller notes, "You cannot have a democracy unless you
have an educated populace. Choice is not a miracle movement,
but it is a movement that has to be to give poor parents the
same opportunity those with money already have." He deems it
a clearly unacceptable notion that poor kids from
dysfunctional families cannot be successfully educated.
There are good examples throughout the country where kids
from difficult backgrounds and circumstances are receiving
good educations.
One of the more outlandish claims debunked by Dr. Fuller
was made in June 1999 by North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt.
Hunt told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that rather than
helping poor, black, inner-city children, the Milwaukee
Parental School Choice Program primarily served parents of
"suburban white kids who are either already in private
school or whose parents wanted them to be there." The fact
is that Milwaukee's school choice law requires applicants to
meet certain low-income standards as well as to live within
the Milwaukee School District. Additionally, the original
law (1990) stipulated that choice students must come only
from Milwaukee public schools or no school. Thus, the facts
completely refute the widely disseminated claim by Hunt,
PFAW, and others.
Another argument Fuller refuted was that "Public schools
have to take all kids, and private (i.e., choice) schools
can cream off only the best." Based on firsthand knowledge
gained from his years as Milwaukee's superintendent of
schools, Fuller says, "They [public schools] may take them,
but they don't necessarily keep them." Many public school
districts, including Milwaukee, gladly send at-risk students
to alternative schools, which are often private
organizations to which the district contracts for this
service. At the same time, choice school laws (and charter
school as well) often have random selection requirements
built in, which effectively keeps them from doing the very
thing the opponents claim.
Opponents of Milwaukee's choice program also claim that
it drains millions of dollars from the public schools, thus
harming the students who have stayed behind. Again, however,
the facts prove a different story. Joe Williams of the
Milwaukee Journal writes, "In the case of the
financial draining of MPS, the figure most often used is $22
million... Because the MPS budget was padded in earlier
years to prepare for the eventual hit from school choice,
massive cuts to existing programs were never realized in the
district once the voucher floodgates were opened. In fact,
per-pupil spending increased in the district under school
choice." Additionally, in the Milwaukee school system,
charter and voucher schools do not have access to the same
property tax dollars that public schools receive, noted
Fuller. This means that even fully-funded vouchers are
significantly less than individual student funding in the
public schools.
Of course, one of the most commonly heard arguments
against vouchers is that it violates the separation of
church and state (inaccurately portrayed as a constitutional
edict). In a 1998 decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court,
however, permitted the Milwaukee program to expand the MPSCP
to include religious schools. The U.S. Supreme Court
declined to hear the case at that time. Fuller says this was
critical to the continuation of Milwaukee's choice program,
and that a related argument &endash; that the MPSCP is
simply a way to prop up Catholic schools &endash; is also
not supported by the facts. In reality, African-American
churches (that are not Catholic) are moving rapidly to open
schools providing needed capacity for the choice program.
Fifteen-thousand student voucher slots are now authorized,
but significantly less are currently available.
Fuller noted that prior to the Milwaukee school board
election last spring, all five teacher union candidates
campaigned with the slogan "This is a referendum on school
choice." When all five lost their races, they claimed it had
been a "referendum on laptop computers."
And so goes the battle for and against school choice.
It's up to the media, and even more to the parents, to seek
out the facts behind the rhetoric. Dr. Fuller's experience
is a good place to begin.
Seattle
Area Charters First Gay Lesbian PTSA
With the blessing of the national PTA, directors of the
Washington State PTA recently chartered the Gay Lesbian PTSA
of Greater Puget Sound. Leaving no doubt that it is a
special interest group for homosexuals, the group of
Seattle-area parents, teachers and students joins the ranks
of organizations influenced by the gay and lesbian agenda in
public schools. The new group hopes to address issues
reportedly faced in some schools by homosexuals, bisexuals
and transgendered students, their teachers and parents.
Unlike most local affiliates of the PTA which are tied to
a single school, the Gay Lesbian PTSA expects to be active
in several schools and districts in a region around Seattle.
A Seattle school board member questioned whether the Gay
Lesbian PTSA could step in over the existing parent teacher
organization. Time will tell.
Because the majority of PTA affiliates function at
elementary schools, Eleanor Durham, a Seattle lawyer and
member of Parents and Teachers for Responsible Schools, sees
this as "a strategy afoot to get down into kindergarten and
indoctrinate children on the acceptance and normalcy of
homosexuality." She added that this new PTA "is just another
effort to create a forum for homosexual activists to
activate their agenda in the public schools."
Linda Jordan, another member of Parents and Teachers for
Responsible Schools, characterized the Seattle area public
schools as already promoting inappropriate values through
pro-homosexual curricula. "When it's concerned with
heterosexual information, parents have to be notified and
they have to be given the option to opt out. But when it
came to homosexual education, parents were not given an
option to opt out or review materials. That's just
outrageous," Jordan said.
"There are an awful lot of parents, teachers and students
who do not affirm homosexuality, whether it's based on their
religious beliefs or their own moral values or medical
concerns," said Jordan.
This isn't the first time that the PTA has disregarded
the medical consequences and often early death as a result
of homosexual lifestyles. It's Elementary, a
1998 video which uses elementary children engaging in
discussions of homosexuality with homosexual teachers never
mentions the consequences of same-sex lifestyles.
Nevertheless, Debra Chasnoff, a coproducer and director of
It's Elementary, praised several PTA presidents
in Maryland, California and Colorado who "have gotten into
gay and lesbian issues" and are advocates of the video.
Originally produced as a training tool for teachers,
portions of the video are shown in classrooms with children
as young as kindergarten, a practice that concerns many
parents and others.
Former Seattle Council PTSA President Erika Davis Pitre
is among those concerned about this special interest Gay
Lesbian PTSA. "I don't support that," said Pitre "if we're
going for the black PTA, the Hispanic PTA and the gay and
lesbian PTA. There is already enough separation of people's
needs. We should come together regardless of our differences
and work on solutions together."
National
Research Council Calls for Expanded School Choice
In Making Money Matter: Financing America's Schools, a
1999 study on education finance, the National Research
Council proposed "empower[ing] schools and parents to make
decisions about the use of public funds (thereby altering
governance and management relationships)."
The study finds that the need for this proposal is more
compelling in urban districts due to the large number of
disadvantaged students faced with racial and economic
segregation. These children generally have "less choice over
where and how to educate their children than suburban
residents have."
The study, commissioned by the U.S. Department of
Education, goes on to state, "Both theory and empirical
evidence suggest that, among choice options, charter schools
and vouchers, rather than interdistrict and intradistrict
choice programs [often known as public school choice], the
approaches most worthy of further exploration as vehicles
for improving poor performing schools."
Though well-known school choice efforts are underway in
Milwaukee, Cleveland, and now the state of Florida, as well
as other locations on a privately funded basis, the NRC
report finds "the existing small-scale efforts are unlikely
to provide adequate information to assuage the concerns of
those who question the need for so dramatic a break with
traditional school finance policies."
Other recommended school finance proposals in the NRC
study include:
- reduce funding inequities and inadequacies;
- invest more resources in developing capacity; and
- alter incentives to make performance count.
EPI's
Education Quick Facts
- The SAT was taken by more minority students this year
&endash; 33 percent compared to last year's 25 percent.
More minority students also are taking advanced placement
courses. This year, 30 percent took such classes, up from
the 22 percent last year. (Source: Teacher
Education Reports, Feistritzer Publications,
September 6, 1999)
- According to a recent national poll of more than
20,000 middle and high school students conducted by the
Josephson Institute of Ethics: 70% of high school
students admitted cheated on an exam at least once in the
last year, 78% said they had lied two or more times, and
an amazing 47% acknowledged having stolen something from
a store in the last 12 months. (Source: Education
Reporter, September, 1999)
- A recent survey of school principals found that 31
percent faced lawsuits or out-of-court settlements within
the past two years &endash; up from less than 10 percent
a decade ago. And 65 percent changed some school programs
due to liability concerns. (Source: Investors
Business Daily, September 16, 1999)
- According to a study by Bruce Fuller of the
University of California, Berkeley, and Luis Huerta of
Stanford, about 14 million students are involved in some
type of "choice" program such as vouchers or charter
schools. Seven million are entering alternative programs
that did not exist a generation ago. Five million attend
private or parochial schools. And, two million new
families are participating in [public school choice]
programs. (Source: "Alternative Schools Attract 1 in 4
Students," USA Today, September 8, 1999)
- Two-thirds of faculty at U.S. colleges and
universities say that keeping up with information
technology is a major source of stress, according to a
new UCLA study that surveyed 33,785 faculty members.
According to survey director, Linda Sax, the sheer volume
of information available on the World Wide Web is
intimidating to many scholars, but is likely to cause as
much stress in future generations of scholars who will be
more technologically savvy. (Source:
Newsweek, August 31, 1999)
Copyright 1999
Education Policy Institute, PMB 294, 4401-A Connecticut
Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20008-2322 202/244-7535, Fax
202/244-7584 http://www.educationpolicy.org
|
