funding education in the washington, d.c. public school system :

Funding Education in the Washington, D.C. Public School System:

Virtues, Vouchers

and the

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

Kevin R. Slaughter

George Mason University

April 20, 2023

IntroductionThis presentation discusses the latest

piece of federal legislation designed to reform the nation’s public school system – the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) of 2001.

It examines the provisions which allow allocation of public funds in the form of vouchers to finance alternative opportunities for education within private, religious, or charter school environments in the Washington, D.C. school system.

Introduction

Key Areas for Discussion

The Act: What is its primary mission? What demands are placed on the public schools? What is the effect of recent Supreme Court rulings?

The Figures: statistical data on vouchers and funding education.

The Debate: Will implementation of vouchers lead to a new class of separate, but equal public schools?

The No Child Left Behind Act

Signed into law on January 8th, 2002.

The NCLBA ‘01 represents the most dramatic reform of education policy in 38 years.

Image: http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/highlights/02.html


Parental Choice & Accountability

Parents with a child in a school identified as needing improvement can transfer their child to better performing public school or public charter school.

Parents can use federal education funds for “supplemental educational services (ex: tutoring, after school services, and summer school programs).


Parental Choice & Accountability

Approximately $200 million in federal funds could be available to state and local communities to help establish and fund charter schools.

Each state and U.S. territory must submit an Accountability & Standards Agreement documenting how they will comply with the NCLBA. Washington, D.C.’s plan was submitted and accepted on June 10th, 2003.


Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

June 27th, 2002 – U.S. Supreme Court upholds Ohio’s pilot program that provides educational choice options.

Court determined program did not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution, strengthening the legal basis for implementation of voucher programs to fund public, parochial, or charter school education alternatives.


“… the Ohio program is entirely neutral with respect to religion. It provides benefits directly to a wide spectrum of individuals, defined only by Financial need and residence in a particular school district.”

- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist- June 27th, 2002

Image: http://www.virtualology.com/uschiefjustices/WILLIAMHREHNQUIST.NET


Criteria for Private Choice Programs

Any government program must have a secular purpose to survive Establishment Clause challenge.

A school choice program must offer only indirect aid to religious schools.

The benefits of a school choice program must be made available to a broad class of beneficiaries.


Criteria for Private Choice Programs

A program must not be set up in a way that favors religious options over secular options.

States must ensure that parents have adequate nonreligious educational options.


The D.C. School Choice Initiative

Bush Administration proposal to implement its voucher and public school choice test program in the DCPS system.

The District’s elementary & secondary education funding increases 15% to $92 million in the 2004 fiscal budget.

Voucher program funded from a $75 million national Choice Incentive Fund.


“Under this program, the Department would make grants to support projects that provide low-income parents […] with the opportunity to transfer their children to higher-performing public and private schools, including charter schools.”

- Under Sect. Eugene W. Hickok- May 9th, 2003

Image: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/hickok.html

The FiguresNat. Assessment of Ed. Progress (NAEP)

2000

6% of D.C. 4th and 8th-graders tested at the proficient or advanced levels in math.

76% of the District’s 4th-graders and 77% of 8th-graders scored at the “below basic” level on the NAEP’s math assessment.

10% of 4th-graders and 12% at the 8th-grade level could read proficiently.

56% of 8th-graders and 72% of 4th-graders were below basic in reading skills.


2002

31% of fourth-graders, 33% of eighth-graders and 36% of 12th-graders could read at least at the proficient level -- meaning they could handle challenging subject matter.

36% of fourth-graders and 25% of eighth-graders performed below the basic level, failing to demonstrate even partial mastery of reading.


2002

Reading scores were uniformly disappointing among the nation's high school seniors, with 26% scoring below basic in 2002, a decline of 2 percentage points from 1998.

36% of 12th-graders scored at or above the proficient level, down from 40% in 1998.

The FiguresVouchers Before the NCLBA

1999 – 63% of Americans said they knew very little or nothing at all about school vouchers and how they work.

2000 – 44% of participants in a Washington Post/Kaiser/Harvard survey said they did not know what the term “school vouchers” meant.

2002 – 49% of respondents in a NAACP Poll opposed school vouchers.

2002 – 76% of D.C. voters said they opposed private school vouchers.

The Figures

Image: http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kimages/kpoll83.pdf

The FiguresVouchers After the NCLBA

The 34th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll finds “51% of respondents support giving vouchers to parents to use at a school of their choice […].”

Figures from the Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies determines “57% of African Americans, compared with 49% of the adult population generally, said they supported school vouchers; 74% of blacks with children and 75% of blacks under age of 35 supported the policy.”

The Figures

Image: http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kimages/k0209pol.pdf

The DebateD.C. Politics Before the Bush Proposal

Mayor Anthony A. Williams “does not support public funds for vouchers in private schools,” according to his spokesman, Tony Bullock.

Peggy Cooper Cafritz, D.C.’s School Board President says, “This board is solidly against vouchers.”

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton – “If the Bush Administration ‘is seriously interested in alternative education in the District they will allow us to put our share [of the voucher money] into our charter schools.”

The Debate

“The real question is why are upscale suburban school districts not opening their doors to the families of poor black and Latino children who have vouchers.”

- NAACP Pres. Kweisi Mfume- June 27th, 2002

Image: http://www.naacp.org/leadership/presimessage.shtml

The Debate

“We consider vouchers bad public policy […] Many voucher schools will pass muster, but the public needs to know about the ones that are failing.[…] Voucher schools that refuse to be held accountable to the public must not get public dollars.”

- AFT Pres. Sandra Feldman- July 2nd, 2002

Image: http://www.aft.org/stand/previous/2002/0702.html

The Debate

“We fail when we do not hold our elected officials accountable. […]. This has allowed voucher advocates to get a foothold in the education debate by dividing our communities with offers of so-called ‘choice.’”

- NEA Pres. Reginald Weaver- October 6th, 2002

Image: http://www.nea.org/columns/rw021006.html

The DebateD.C. Politics After the Bush Proposal

March 29th, 2003 – Cafritz reverses her position on vouchers saying, “D.C. officials should ‘accept the federally sponsored voucher or scholarship program.’”

May 1st, 2003 – Mayor Williams announces endorsement of the voucher program after discussions with Bush Administration.”

May 2nd, 2003 – Councilman Kevin Chavous gives tentative support to vouchers “contingent upon public schools also receiving significant funds from the federal government.”

The Debate

“We’re willing to try an experiment […]. We need to be putting together more good schools and shutting down bad schools, and to the extent we’re doing this – and I think this helps – it’s a good thing.”

- Mayor Anthony A. Williams- May 1st, 2003

Image: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/photo/?nav=hptop

The Debate“There is a reason why pro-voucher forces have been obsessed with making the largely black, highly visible school system in the nation’s capital the poster child for vouchers. They believe that imposing vouchers here is the best way to break through continuing national opposition.”

- Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton- May 1st, 2003

Image: http://www.yourcongress.com/profile.asp?member_id=365

The Debate“Mayor Williams and School Board President Cafritz have gone out on a limb by publicly reversing themselves. To their credit, and to the benefit of the children and families of D.C., the children of the nation’s capital have a chance at real choice – real freedom – in getting a better education.”

- Casey J. Lartigue, Jr., Cato Institute- May 30th, 2003

Image: http://www.cato.org/people/lartigue.html

Conclusion

There is a clear shift in the District of Columbia’s education public policy. Two significant events – passage of the Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 with its proposed voucher program for the District and the continuing lack of positive performance in the public school system – have forced D.C.’s elected officials and school administrators to rethink their positions on education funding policy and public school choice.

Conclusion

There are no definitive studies to indicate voucher programs vastly improve students’ education or learning environments, or that racial, gender, or religious diversity in student populations will be negatively impacted due to the “creaming” of prize students from the ranks of public schools into private or parochial schools.

ConclusionThis presentation is not suggesting that

all public schools are bad or that students attending the nation’s public schools are receiving inferior educations. In fact:

National Center for Education Statistics “nearly 85 percent of the wealthiest families in America choose to send their children to public schools.”

Money Magazine - “about 10 percent of all public schools – about 2,000 nationwide – are as outstanding academically as the nation’s most prestigious and selective private schools”

Conclusion

The District’s Best High Schools 2003

Benjamin Banneker High School (52)

Washington Math, Science & Technology Charter School (391)

Woodrow Wilson High School (702)

School Without Walls Charter School (761)

Image: http://www.msnbc.com/news/917011.asp?0cb=-115157201

Conclusion

What this research suggests is the need for a fundamental change in the overall strategy for educating children, particularly in the nation’s capital… If the District’s residents, political officials, and public school educators are willing to give this new proposal serious consideration, it may well be a good thing.

Conclusion

“The really big problem with public education has been its unwillingness to look at itself and change. No school bureaucracy will reform itself internally. It only comes through pressure. And the most effective form of pressure is choice.”

- D.C. Councilman Kevin P. ChavousMay 2nd, 2003

Thank You!

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