________________________________________  THE VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT July 06, 2005 - Vol. 5, No. 27 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯  Covering education news in Vermont and beyond... Informative, provocative, unique... Published by Vermonters for Better Education  VBE 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. Libby Sternberg, executive director: VTBetterEd@aol.com NEWS & ANALYSIS... WHAT THE STUDIES SAY ABOUT EARLY ED At a March conference on early education co-sponsored by the Vermont Department of Education, Dale Goldhaber, chair of UVM's early childhood education department, told the audience that "we don't really know" if quality early education programs benefit populations that are not at-risk. That begs the question -- why is Vermont so eager to spend taxpayers' money on programs that even supportive experts find questionably promising for most kids? Vermont is not the only state moving in this direction. Others have either started universal early ed programs or on the verge of doing so. One of those states is Arizona, where a public policy research organization, The Goldwater Institute, issued a comprehensive report on early ed research earlier this year. Entitled "Assessing Proposals for Preschool and Kindergarten: Essential Information for Parents, Taxpayers, and Policymakers," it is a must-read for anyone involved in this debate. Opponents will likely argue that The Goldwater Institute is a conservative, free-market organization and therefore its work will be biased. Judge for yourself. The report is amply foot-noted and readers can look at the original documents cited and form their own opinions. A link to the report is provided at the end of this article. Here are some highlights: Remember how Vermont proponents of universal early ed argue that for every one dollar spent on universal early ed, the state can save seven dollars later? Turns out that figure has surfaced in the Arizona debate as well. But its veracity is questionable. The origins of this claim, says the report, can be traced to a "cost-benefit analysis from one study of 123 children conducted from 1962-65, which independent peer reviewers found to be compromised by significant sampling and methodological errors." In addition, that particular study only included children at risk of "retarded intellectual functioning" and not mainstream children. Finally, its findings have never been replicated. The report concludes that "some early interventions have had meaningful short-term effects on disadvantaged students' grade-level retention and special education placement. However, the effects of early interventions routinely disappear after children leave the programs." And for mainstream children, the report concludes there is "little evidence to support the contention that formal preschool and kindergarten are necessary for school achievement or more advantageous than learning in a traditional setting, and there is some evidence that day care and preschool can be detrimental." The report quotes Head Start co-founder and current Sterling Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University, Ed Zigler, on the push toward universal preschool: "A second source of the momentum toward universal preschool," Zigler says, "is the inappropriate generalization of the effects of some excellent remedial programs for the economically disadvantaged." So how much are states paying for a program that has doubtful positive effects on the majority of the population? Around $1.5 billion in Georgia -- for no noticeable change. According to the report, in 1993 the Georgia legislature established universal preschool that now serves around 63,000 four-year-old preschoolers. In 1999, researchers at Georgia State University tested children in and out of the preschool programs using the Georgia Kindergarten Assessment Program -- and no statistical difference was found between the two populations. Just as unsettling is the fact that reports show GKAP scores "are essentially the same as they were before Georgia adopted the universal preschool program." The state's school superintendent at the time of the reports said, "The only message you can get from it is that our kindergarten non-ready rate is the same, regardless what we do." The conclusions of the Goldwater report are obvious: "empirical evidence suggests more early education will do little to improve children's long-term education outcomes" and summarizes numerous studies to make this point. Nonetheless, the report's authors do offer some policy recommendations for lawmakers considering early ed schemes: identify, document and track the amount of federal and state spending on childcare, early ed, and other related programs; require impact assessments of any publicly-funded statewide programs; and allow money to follow the child to the provider of the parents' choosing. For the full report, go to: http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article.php/542.html HOW LONG'S THIS BEEN GOING ON? Vermont Public Radio recently aired a report on the early education debate in Vermont. In it, VPR reporter Bob Kinzel reported that Senate Education Chairman Don Collins (D-Franklin) said that including early ed ADM language in the budget bill was merely reaffirming a practice that's been going on for nearly twenty years. "So for the people out there who say we're going to break the bank financially or we're going to close down child care centers - no," Collins said on the air. "We're only saying this is what's been going on I would say close to a decade and in some cases longer. But it's pretty prevalent in most counties in Vermont." Let's examine those claims. It's true that Vermont has been paying for early education for quite some time. But going back to the 1980s, we find Early Essential Education programs for preschool kids with special needs -- as mandated by federal law. This is a far cry from universal publicly-funded preschool. Schools have definitely been drawing down the Act 60 Education Fund for universal preschool for a number of years. But doubts about the legality of that drawdown could have been what led to the rush to include ADM language in statute (or, as Sen. Collins so shrewdly maneuvered it, in the budget bill). Sen. Collins's statement about opponents claiming "we're going to close down private providers" is a straw-man argument easy for him and supporters to knock down. No one is claiming that the state will be shutting down private providers. What opponents argue is that private providers will find it more difficult to stay in business and could be squeezed out of the market once "free" public preschool becomes the dominant provider on the preschool landscape -- something the VDOE seems to be encouraging.  MORE MEDIA PRAISE Readers have let us know of a few other media outlets who have covered the early education issue well and didn't deserve to be lumped in with the "msm" (mainstream media) when VER awarded grades a few weeks ago. Radio & Cable TV host Paul Beaudry hosted FreedomWorks Executive Director Rob Roper, former representative Linda Kirker, and Sen. Don Collins on as guests (separate appearances) on his show (The Comment Show, AM 1420, St. Albans), as well as discussing the topic with his listeners on occasion with no guests. Mike Quaid also covered the topic on his Channel 17 show, Ideas Have Consequences. And Bernier Mayo wrote several excellent editorials on the topic for the Caledonian Record. Hats off to them all!  SUMMER IS.... ....the time for Vermonters for Better Education's annual fundraising efforts. Information is power, a wise person once said. Every week, the Vermont Education Report brings you information on education in Vermont and elsewhere that you won't find in any other media outlet in the state. We are virtually the lone voice of education reporting in Vermont. Shining the spotlight of information on policy discussions has turned out to be a valuable service. Most notably, we raised the alarm on the early education discussion. Without the VER, most of this discussion would have taken place "under the radar" of the mainstream media, far from those whose lives would be effected by it. But we need your help to continue. As we stated last week, Vermonters for Better Education, the publisher of this newsletter, is a small operation with one part-time staff member and a volunteer board. Yet policy-makers and policy-watchers regularly rely on this newsletter for important education information they won't get elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Education Lobby, consisting of the teachers union and allied groups, has both money and personnel to promote their agenda. Despite being outgunned in the resources department, VBE has played an important role in education issues over the past few years, with at least one Vermont Department of Education employee observing how "powerful" we are. Won't you please help us continue our work? Send contributions to: VBE, 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701. Thank you for your continued support!  *   *   * FROM ELSEWHERE... OHIO GOVERNOR CREATES STATEWIDE VOUCHER PROGRAM  Ohio Governor Bob Taft signed a budget bill recently that creates one of the country's largest statewide school voucher plans, according to a press release from the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation. The release goes on to say: "The new Ohio Educational Choice Scholarship Pilot Program will be available to 14,000 children across the state. Children in schools under 'academic emergency' will be eligible for the program, which would allow their parents to use a voucher to choose another school -- public or private. The vouchers will range from $4,250 for K-8 to $5,000 for grades 9-12. Under the budget bill, the current Cleveland program will expand to include students in grades 11 and 12, and increase the maximum voucher amount to $3,450 from the current maximum of $3,000. The legislation will also remove the pilot status of the state's school voucher program for autistic children, increase the voucher amount from $15,000 to $20,000 and eliminate the cap on participation. "  *   *   * WHO COVERS EDUCATION IN VERMONT? We do! 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, 170 Church Street, Rutland, Vermont 05701. VBE is a nonprofit organization and contributions are tax-deductible.  *   *   * The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701, 802.773.5240 Contact VTBetterEd@aol.com for more information.   Subscribe Here SubscribeRemove

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