1.  Changing the Vision for Public Education
  2.  Choices That Are Changing Lives in D.C.
  3.  The Evolution of School Choice Consumers
  4.  Editorial on the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program

Changing the Vision for Public Education
School Reform News, published by the Heartland Institute, May, 1999

This article is as current today as it was 8 years ago. The terms “public education” and “public school” are not interchangeable terms. They have two distinct meanings. -RD

Quotes from article:

“For example, I have a number of schools in my area that people in the area generally don't send their children to. What has happened is that the most desirable schools tend to be the magnet schools and so students get bused all over, away from their neighborhood. But if parents don't get their children into the magnet schools, they leave the city. So a big thrust will be to replicate the magnet schools on a neighborhood basis.

“One of the ways we'll do that is to look at the schools with waiting lists. All of our Montessori schools, for example, have waiting lists, so why not have more Montessori schools and why not localize them? Now, that's simple in theory . . . but what you have to do is get a building in the neighborhood. That's not so simple because the school buildings are already being used.”

[snip]

"We're elected by everyone and yet the attitude has been that we should exclude students who don't go to public schools. Why shouldn't we be serving them?"

To read the whole article click on this link:
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=11909

Choices That Are Changing Lives in D.C.
By Fred Hiatt, May 21, 2007

"If it were up to the children and their parents, there'd be no question that the District's five-year experiment with school vouchers would be renewed for an additional five years or more.

That's the most emphatic finding of an independent evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program published last week. 'The vast majority of families participating in this study are satisfied with the OSP in general, and their choice of new schools in particular,' the report found."

To read more follow this link.

The Evolution of School Choice Consumers
Parent and Student Voices on the Second Year of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program by Stephen Q. Cornman, Esq., Thomas Stewart, Ph.D., Patrick J. Wolf, Ph.D.

"In the 50 years since economist Milton Friedman published 'The Role of Government in Education' scholars and policy makers have been debating how parental choice through market mechanisms can and does operate in education. Market "optimists" argue that education is a service that can be produced under a variety of arrangements and that parents are natural education consumers. Market 'pessimists' argue that education is a public good that should be produced in government-run schools, and that school choice programs suffer 'market failure' because only advantaged families will have the resources and experience to choose effectively. These academic debates continue to this day."

You can read the full report here (pdf).

Editorial 

Summary of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program

In December of 2004, the DC School Choice Incentive Act became law. This created a federally funded pilot program called the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. The program is to operate for five years and be implemented by non-profit organizations headed by the Washington Scholarship Fund. It is also for the poorest of children in Washington D.C. The impact of the program is being rigorously studied for student outcomes including achievement.

In May of 2007, the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP), which is part of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, published an independent report about the experiences of families who are part of this pilot. The report is titled: The Evolution of School Choice Consumers: Parent and Student Voices on the Second Year of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (see link above).

Were the parents pleased? Did the parents consumer skills improve as they sought out a school for their child? What opportunities or challenges did the families experience in their new schools? What other resource or support do these families need because of their choice? These were a few of the questions asked of families in the program.

Overall parents were satisfied with the program. They had increased involvement in the education of their child. These parents did not get involved with parent-school organizations but rather involved with things specific to their child. Their children were performing better. They had concerns about the future of the program and what would happen if they began to earn too much to be qualified for the scholarship.

The children in this program have been given opportunities that they would not have had otherwise considering their financial status. Many people have a choice of moving to a school district they like, putting their child in a private school, or to homeschool. Some of us simply cannot afford to do this. Would choice work for all parents? Judging from the experiences of these parents, the answer is yes.

What implications does this hold for Vermont? Real parental access to educational opportunities will create better educational situations for children to be in. As parents seek better educational situations for their children, those situations will improve for all the children in the school. The benefits far out weight any concerns against empowering parents to act more freely on their children's behalf.

Who Covers Education in Vermont?

We do!  Please consider a gift to Vermonters for Better Education, the publisher of the weekly Vermont Education Report, Vermont's ONLY continual source of education news. Send donations to: VBE, PO Box 72, Woodbury, VT 05681. VBE is a nonprofit organization and contributions are tax-deductible.

The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education PO Box 72 Woodbury, VT 05681 - 802-472-5491. The Vermont Education Report may be reprinted with the editor's permission. For more information contact: VBE@comcast.net or visit us on the web.

VERMONTERS FOR BETTER EDUCATION is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to enlist parents and the public at large in achieving quality educational opportunities for all the children of Vermont by monitoring the state of education in Vermont; promoting the value of educational freedoms for all parents; and giving parents the evaluative tools with which to identify excellence.

Retta Dunlap, executive director
VBE@comcast.net