F.A.C.E. to FACE

 

F.A.C.E. BULLETIN

3/22/06

 

Dear Friends,

 

 

GUEST EDITORIAL: School Choice Defeat Leave Minority Students in Florida With No Choice, Chicago Defender.

 

Atlanta Constitution Editorial, OUR OPINION: Skeptics aside, vouchers help public schools.

 

Clip of parent testifying in Bill tries to patch voucher dilemma, Associated Press.  We arranged for Ronald Manuel from Orlando to travel to Tallahassee to testify at the House Education Appropriations Meeting this morning.  His son Ron, Jr. attended Jones High School and then Oak Ridge High School, both double F schools, before taking advantage of the Opportunity Scholarship Program.  He is now attending South Orlando Christian School, is in the 11th grade and is very pleased.

 

You can make a difference as a parent!

 

 

Thank you for Stepping Up For Students,

 

Michael A. Benjamin

Executive Director, F.A.C.E.

Florida Alliance for Choices in Education

 

 

 

 

GUEST EDITORIAL: School Choice Defeat Leave Minority Students in Florida With No Choice

by Deneen Moore
March 16, 2006

In Florida, the chances that a black child can get a decent education got worse on January 5, 2006. On that day, the state's supreme court struck down the Florida Opportunity Scholarship Program. This program gave the parents of children who were entering or already enrolled in underperforming government schools the power to move them to other public schools or participating private schools that they felt could do a better job or were a better fit for their needs. It may not have been intentional, but the Florida Supreme Court's decision helped increase segregation more than a gaggle of Klansmen.  

As a result, many minority families lost the ability to move their kids out of schools that lack educational discipline but are brimming in complacency and hostility.  Their only means of escape to schools that focus on learning and accomplishment is to have the financial means. For them, it will be back to their neighborhood schools that lack in diversity almost as much as they lack in educational quality. One must question the decision-making process of the Florida Supreme Court and wonder if the members were even remotely aware of the progress already made through the school choice program. Basically, the Florida Opportunity Scholarship Program allowed students to relocate from local schools that state officials found failing in minimum educational needs. Those students received a voucher redeemable at other participating schools.  It was a great boost for minority students in particular. Out of the 763 recipients enrolled in private schools during the 2004-05 school year, for example, 61 percent were black and 33 percent were Hispanic.  

Independent studies also indicated educational improvement in participating schools. Since 1999, participation in the Florida program progressively increased as more parents and students became aware of it.  Students appeared intellectually stimulated when they were challenged, and optimistic attitudes among the participating students were noted by both teachers and parents.  

  Share your thoughts on this story on the ChicagoDefender.com message board.

These positive facts should be key reasons to continue the Florida Opportunity Scholarship Program and encouragement for other states to implement similar programs. Tragically, in striking down school choice in Florida, nothing was offered as a means to assist those minority students currently enrolled in the programs.  By the end of this school year, most of these students will undoubtedly return to the same poor-quality schools they fled because parents relied on the scholarships. To deprive these minority students of a quality education should be considered a crime. The Florida ruling closes the door on many black and Hispanic students' hopes to achieve a quality education that would help prepare them for a successful future.  

It begs the question: when will those with the authority realize that, without school choice, many minority students will be robbed of a quality education?  What indications of our failing public education system escapes those in power? Failing school systems translate into failed hopes and dreams for minority students.  An abnormally large percentage of the government's schools continue to function on below standard levels, and it seems far more prevalent in minority communities.  

The problem is significantly compounded due to acts of in-school violence and, in many cases, children raising themselves due to the lack of parental guidance and attention. This ruling in Florida should be a wake-up call.  Minority children are depending on those willing and able to take a stand to fight for them so that they can receive a quality education when government schools are clearly failing. I'd truly like to know how many of the Sunshine State's supreme court judges, teachers, and political leaders are willing to send their own children to government schools that receive a failing grade?  In most cases, their wealth and power afford them a choice.  But it's not the same for others.

Deneen Moore is a member of the National Advisory Council of the black leadership network Project 21. Comments may be sent to Project21@nationalcenter.org.

Atlanta Constitution Editorial

 

OUR OPINION: Skeptics aside, vouchers help public schools
Jim Wooten - Staff
Sunday, March 19, 2006

An education idea that never had much merit --- automatic admission to the University of Georgia or to Georgia Tech for the top 10 percent of the state's high school graduating classes --- was relegated last week to the ash heap of history.

The proposal flunked out of the Georgia General Assembly, an accomplishment of some renown since legislation middlin' and mediocre got advanced in bulk.

Also rejected was a proposed constitutional amendment to clarify the state's right to buy social services, such as drug counseling, from faith-based organizations. It failed after being trashed by Democrats as a conduit for school vouchers. "I'm opposed to anything that opens the door to vouchers," said Rep. Stan Watson (D-Decatur), voicing the suspicions of teacher unionists and other status quo interest groups.

Gov. Sonny Perdue, at whose behest the amendment was introduced, insisted it wasn't.

While it probably wasn't, it should have been.

Clearly, when the top 10 percent of the state's public high school graduates don't qualify on merit, something is broken.

Jay P. Greene, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who also heads the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, spoke recently to the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, an Atlanta-based think tank, on education's myths.

He noted, for example, that graduation rates and achievement test scores are flat over the past 30 years, while spending, when adjusted for inflation, has doubled --- puncturing the myth that more spending produces better outcomes. "There's no statistically significant relationship between spending and achievement," he said.

Another myth, which goes to the heart of the 10-percent proposition, is "the notion that we have a large pool of students who are fully qualified to go to [a four-year] college, but can't because there's insufficient aid or insufficient affirmative action."

The problem is not insufficient aid or affirmative action, said Greene, "the problem primarily is a lack of qualified students."

About 4 million students nationally enter high school every year. Of those, 2.8 million graduate. But of those who do, only 1.3 million have taken the high school courses needed to apply to most every four-year college: four years of English, three of math, and two years each of natural science, social science and a foreign language. "If you don't have those, almost all doors are shut."

So, said Greene, "if 1.3 million students are graduating high school with a college-prep transcript, guess how many students enter a four-year college for the first time each year? 1.3 million. More or less everybody who is college-ready from our k-12 system goes to college. We have very little reservoir of students who meet the minimum qualifications to go to a four-year college who can't because of money or access."

Another myth, which relates to the suppositions of Democrats and interest groups opposing the governor's Faith & Family Services amendment, is that school choice --- in whatever form --- drains talent and resources from traditional public schools. Vouchers are a disallowed form of school choice in this state and one that frightens the bejesus out of the public school monopoly everywhere.

Choice for Georgia parents is limited to a handful of public charter schools --- 47 this year and probably 60 next --- two-thirds of them in metro Atlanta.

"What happens when we expand access to choice and competition?" asked Greene. "A series of studies have looked at this. Every one of them has found a positive relationship between choice and competition. In fact, I'm not aware of a single study of the choice program in the United States that finds a negative relationship between expanding school choice and student achievement in public schools."

Florida has a voucher program --- or did until the state Supreme Court we saw up close in the hanging chads debacle struck it down. Students in chronically failing schools were offered vouchers to go to other public or private schools. Four studies examined the impact of vouchers and the threat of them.

"Those four studies all found that public schools facing increased choice and competition made exceptional improvement, made greater gains in student learning than other public schools in Florida that faced lower levels of competition," said Greene, who conducted one of them.

Eventually, defenders of the status quo notwithstanding, Georgia parents will win school choice. And when it does, public education will be stronger for it.

> Jim Wooten is associate editorial page editor. His column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

jwooten@ajc.com

Click here to read article

 

 

 

Florida Alliance for Choices in Education (F.A.C.E)

If you no longer want to receive this mailing or you wish to unsubscribe from
F.A.C.E mailings, please send an e-mail with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line to mbenjamin@flace.org.