Tag: public schools

American Prospect Strikes Mother Lode of Falsehood

By
Andrew J. Coulson

Dana Goldstein of the American Prospect blogs that “research clearly shows that students using vouchers perform no better academically than their socio-economically similar peers in public schools.” This is flamboyantly false.

I recently reviewed the literature comparing public, private, and truly free market school systems, and an expanded version of that study is forthcoming in the Journal of School Choice. The JSC version tabulates the findings of 65 scientific studies (including every U.S. and foreign voucher study I am aware of), collectively reporting 156 comparisons of educational outcomes. What does the research “clearly show”? It shows this:

Summary of Findings Comparing Private and Government Schooling,
by Result and Outcome Category

 

Total

Ach

Eff

Sat

Ord

Fac

Ear

Att

Int

Sig Priv. Advantage

106

46

25

11

5

2

5

11

1

Insignificant

37

28

1

0

0

0

5

3

0

Sig. Gov’t Adv.

13

10

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

 

The above table summarizes the results of the scientific literature, showing the number of findings favoring the private sector by a statistically significant margin, the number that are insignificant, and the number favoring the public sector by a statistically significant margin. It does this for all eight available outcome measures: academic achievement, efficiency (achievement per dollar spent per pupil), parental satisfaction, the orderliness of classrooms, the condition in which facilities are maintained, the later earnings of graduates, the highest school grade or degree completed, and effect on measured intelligence. And it incontrovertably shows that private sector outperforms the public sector in education across all of those measures.

But there’s more. As I note in the conclusion: “It is in fact the least regulated market school systems that show the greatest margin of superiority over state schooling.” When the above results are winnowed down so that we compare only free markets of private schools that are funded at least in part directly by parents to public school monopolies like those of the United States, the findings are even more starkly divided:

Summary of Findings Comparing Market and Gov’t Monopoly Schooling,
by Result and Outcome Category

 

Total

Ach

Eff

Sat

Ord

Fac

Ear

Att

Sig Mkt Adv.

59

20

17

6

4

1

3

8

Insignificant

13

7

0

0

0

0

3

3

Sig. Gov’t Adv.

4

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

 

Note the staggering overall results. Findings favoring free market school systems outnumber contrary findings by a margin of 15 to 1. They also outnumber the combined insignificant findings and the findings favoring monopolies by more than 3 to 1. Most tellingly, when we look at efficiency we find that there are NO results in the literature that favor government schooling and NO results that are statistically insignificant. EVERY study that compares academic achievement per dollar spent per pupil between market school systems and public school systems finds a significant market advantage.

Goldstein and The American Prospect should obviously print a retraction. But if they are interested in the truth, they might want to do something more. They might want to ask themselves why they continue to cling to a monopoly system that has been overwhelmingly discredited in the scientific literature….

Topics: 
Education and Child Policy

Ed. Dept. Advisor Wary of Politicizing the Curriculum

By
Andrew J. Coulson

Mike Smith, a senior education advisor to Ed. Secretary Duncan, expressed concern yesterday about the possible ill effects of federal government standards. In a Library of Congress presentation, Smith told the crowd that if common national standards are funded by the federal government, “you can’t keep ideology or politics out of the ball game.”

This is a pearl of empirically validated wisdom. The problem is that it has been empirically validated at the state and district levels as well as the national level, as Neal McCluskey demonstrated in “Why We Fight: How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict.” And the U.S. is not alone in finding that official government schools cause social conflict over what is taught.

What can we do about it? How about real educational freedom that gives choice to both parents and taxpayers, eliminating the source of the problem?

Topics: 
Education and Child Policy

Vouchers vs. the District with ‘More Money than God’

By
Andrew J. Coulson

Editor’s Note: This post was updated on March 9, 2009.

This week, education secretary Arne Duncan referred to DC public schools as a district with “more money than God.” Perhaps he was thinking of the $24,600 total per-pupil spending figure I reported last year in the Washington Post and on this blog. If so, he’s low-balling the number. With the invaluable help of my research assistant Elizabeth Li, I’ve just calculated the figure for the current school year. It is $26,555 per pupil.

In his address to Congress and his just-released budget, the president repeatedly called for efficiency in government education spending. At the same time, the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate have been trying to sunset funding for the DC voucher program that serves 1,700 poor kids in the nation’s capital. So it seems relevant to compare the efficiencies of these programs.

According to the official study of the DC voucher program, the average voucher amount is less than $6,000. That is less than ONE QUARTER what DC is spending per pupil on education. And yet, academic achievement in the voucher program is at least as good as in the District schools, and voucher parents are much happier with the program than are public school parents.

In fact, since the average income of participating voucher families is about $23,000, DC is currently spending almost as much per pupil on education as the vouchers plus the family income of the voucher recipients COMBINED.

So Mr. President and Secretary Duncan, could you please sit down with Democratic leaders in the Senate before next Monday’s vote on an amendment to keep funding the DC voucher program, and reassert to them your desire for efficiency and your opposition to kicking these children out of a program that they depend on?

Here are the details of, and sources for, the DC education spending calculation:

Excluding preschool, higher education, and charter schools, the main education expenditures in the District are as follows:

Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education $4,917,325
DCPS (k-12 relevant items only, see below) $593,961,000
OSSE (k-12 relevant items only, see below) $198,277,000
Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization $38,368,800
Non-public Tuition** $141,700,442
Special Education Transportation** $75,558,319
Capital funding $239,033,000
Total DC k-12 budget $1,291,815,886
DCPS official total enrollment (incl. special ed.) 48,646
Total per pupil spending $26,555

Budget Sources:

DC budget FY2009, Agency budget chapters, part 2

DC Budget FY2009, Capital Appendices, part 2

DC Budget FY2009, Operating Appendices, part 2

Enrollment Source:

Linda Faison at DCPS, e-mail, March 5, 2009

The non-k-12 items excluded from the OSSE budget were:

            amount      code     description

$36,697,000  A245 public charter financing and support
$85,943,000  a430 early care & education administration
$6,322,000  a431 childcare program development
$14,544,000  a432 pre-k and school readiness
$459,000  a433 early childhood infants and toddlers
$2,036,000  a434 income eligibility determination
$37,000  a440 career & technical education
$34,397,000  a475 DC Tag
$726,000  a470 post secondary educ & workforce readiness
$4,574,000  a471 career and tech education
$3,237,000  a472 adult and family education
$1,800,000  a477 adult scholarship

The non-k-12 item excluded from the DCPS budget was:

            amount      code     description

$58,780,000  2200 early childhood education

Transfers from OSSE to DCPS (count in OSSE budget, but not in DCPS budget):

Revenue code Amount

706 $18,172,000
727 $90,290,000
728 $1,370,000
Topics: 
Education and Child Policy

Solving the Evolution Question

The Texas state board of education is currently engaged in a debate over science standards and how to teach evolution in public schools, the Associated Press reports.

In a recent Cato policy analysis, Why We Fight: How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict [pdf], Associate Director of Education Policy Studies Neal McCluskey examines the root cause of the debate, and how to fix it.

McCluskey writes:

Ultimately, the problem in Texas isn’t whether or not the theory of evolution has weaknesses, or whether pointing to such weakness is religiously or scientifically motivated. The problem is that the public schooling system requires everyone in the state to fund schools that take a single view, resulting in divisive conflict in the short-term and erosion of liberty in the long. Add to this that government-mandated orthodoxy is inherently incompatible with free inquiry, and it is clear that what Texas needs isn’t to decide what everyone will learn, but how to give everyone the ability to choose where and how their children will be educated.

For more on solutions to America’s troubled education system, check out McCluskey’s book, Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education.

Topics: 
Cato Publications, Education and Child Policy

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