Parental Choice Raises Standards
May 8, 2007 by admin
Filed under Fund The Child, General
Free to choose, and learn, an article in the Economist explains how new research shows that “parental choice raises standards—including for those who stay in public schools”. (Hat tip: Extreme Wisdom) [Emphasis mine]
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The state pays; parents choose; schools compete; standards rise; everybody gains. |
A simple plan that is cheaper and results in a better educated populace. With a better educated populace, government run schools will no longer be able to use kids as pawns in their efforts to get more taxpayer money. Their money grabs and spending sprees will come to an end. This is the real reason the education establishment does not want each child funded equally. They know they their gravy train will be cut off and they will have to compete to earn the parents trust by producing results.
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Voucher schemes are running in several different countries without ill-effects for social cohesion; those that use a lottery to hand out vouchers offer proof that recipients get a better education than those that do not. Voucher programmes in several American states have been run along similar lines. Greg Forster, a statistician at the Friedman Foundation, a charity advocating universal vouchers, says there have been eight similar studies in America: seven showed statistically significant positive results for the lucky voucher winners; the eighth also showed positive results but was not designed well enough to count. |
In addition to the better education results, the costs for the voucher program was lower than that of the state run schools.
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The voucher pupils did better even though the state spent less than it would have done had the children been educated in normal state schools. |
There are many examples of how school choice benefits not only the rich, but the poor as well. There is a great example of this in a Jesuit school on the south side of Chicago.
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The school started out taking anyone who would go, but now tearful parents approach staff every week at mass, pleading for a place for their children. And that is because the experiment has succeeded beyond the Jesuits’ wildest dreams. Cristo Rey drives a pretty hard bargain. Everyone leaving the school today has a place at college and a belief that they will ‘be something’ At the age of 14, children must commit, single-mindedly, to working for a place at college. The dress code is strict, punctuality rigorously enforced, and students who lie about being on drugs are kicked out. So are any who promote, or recruit for, gangs. In return they get an intensive high school education in small classes, freedom from intimidation and a counselling system that does its best to defuse domestic issues such as abuse, violence, drugs and crime. It costs $10,000 (£5,300) a year, in a neighbourhood where the average family of five lives on little more than $30,000 (£15,900). And how it finds the money is perhaps the real secret ingredient of Cristo Rey’s success – a formula in which there seems to be no losers. Paying their way The school sends its students downtown, to work as temps for five days every month in the gleaming high rise offices of lawyers, banks and insurance companies. |
Just think about this school. It pays its on way while the students get real world experience and a great education. How many more poor students could this school help if every child was funded equally? Why does the education establishment continue to insist on their one size fits all approach? The system is too costly and cannot be sustained. The taxpayers are not a open wallet for educrats to plunder whenever they desire.
The solution is simple, Fund Every Child Equally regardless of sex, race, creed, their place of residence and most importantly, the school they choose to attend. The Department of Education can then be abolished along with repealing NCLB. The nationalization of our schools can cease and local control returned to the parents, where it belongs.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] School choice provides competition. This competition helps bring about more parental involvement and raises the scores of those who choose vouchers and those remaining in the public schools. It will force the freedom principals need to innovate to help the students. [...]
[...] School choice provides competition. This competition helps bring about more parental involvement and raises the scores both for those who choose vouchers and for those remaining in the public schools. It will force the freedom principals need to innovate to help the students. [...]