It’s Time to Go Back to School! But Before We Do…

On this national holiday, the American Federation for Children celebrates the social and economic accomplishments of the American workforce and continues to advocate for more educational options so that our future workforce will be stronger for our nation.

From everyone at the American Federation for Children and the Alliance for School Choice, Happy Labor Day!

Despite Inconclusive Audit Results, Impact of School Choice Programs Remains Strong

Despite a state audit of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) released this week that could not conclude how the voucher schools impacted state scores for the program’s participants—in part due to a recent change in state testing requirements—overwhelming evidence still shows strong benefits from participating in voucher programs.

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program requires that all students in grades 4, 8, and 10 who participate in the program take a nationally normed standardized test. The School Choice Demonstration Project, which conducts a gold-standard, independent evaluation of the program, found earlier this year that students participating in the Milwaukee voucher program show gains in academic achievement and are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll and subsist in college.

The independent evaluation's results showed that vouchers students were more than 7 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than students in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).  Studies also show that a majority of parents with children in the program would rate their child’s voucher school with an “A,” compared to only 34 percent of MPS parents.  In particular, “MPCP parents are most satisfied with what is taught in school, school safety, and the amount their child has learned.”

Dr. Patrick Wolf, the principal investigator of the School Choice Demonstration Project and lead researcher on the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, said the following about the Legislative Audit Bureau’s inconclusive results:

"We pointed out, ourselves, that it was difficult to untangle the academic gains from the Choice Program from any boost they might have received by switching to a high stakes test. Still, the evidence is clear that participants in the Choice Program graduated from high school, enrolled in four-year colleges, and persisted in college at significantly higher rates than did comparable MPS students. This finding of higher educational attainment in the Choice Program, which is ignored in the Audit Bureau report, is important because higher levels of attainment are closely associated with a host of better life outcomes for individuals and society. The fact that private school choice programs boost educational attainment has been established by every study that has examined that question, in the District of Columbia, New York City, and Milwaukee."

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MSG

Condoleezza Rice Calls for School Choice to Address “the Civil Rights Issue of Our Day”

Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice waves to the crowd
prior to her speech last night at the GOP Convention.

Earlier this week we implored New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to speak about the need for expanded educational options during his speech at the Republican National Convention.  But it was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who last night gave what many have called the best speech of the entire GOP Convention.  Rice spoke of her personal story growing up in the Jim Crow south and rising above the entrenched segregation to become the secretary of state.  And she also spoke at length about the education crisis in America:

But today, today, when I can look at your zip code and I can tell whether you're going to get a good education, can I honestly say it does not matter where you came from, it matters where you are going?  The crisis in K-12 education is a threat to the very fabric of who we are.

Rice continued:

And we need to give parents greater choice, particularly, particularly poor parents whose kids, very often minorities, are trapped in failing neighborhood schools.  This is the civil rights issue of our day.

Many have called her speech “presidential” and “secure.”  A former speechwriter for President Reagan called the speech a “serious speech about big things.”  We also appreciate how it didn't strike a partisan tone, which is fitting, considering the fact that education reform is strongly embraced by members of both political parties.

One thing is for sure: Condoleezza Rice joins a strong list of supporters—both Democrats and Republicans—who support school choice. 

Watch the video below to see for yourself:



- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MSG

Virginia Walden Ford: "I am offended" by racist Louisiana teachers' union attacks

After the Louisiana Federation of Teachers took to Twitter to spread baseless rumors that the Black Alliance for Educational Options supported “teaching that the KKK is good,” longtime education reformer Virginia Walden Ford, who was instrumental in fighting for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship, wrote the following letter:

Last night, I learned that the Louisiana Federation of Teachers took to Twitter to spread a false, ridiculous, and offense rumor.  They claimed that the Black Alliance for Educational Options—an organization that fights to provide a high-quality education to black children—supports teaching that the Kl Klux Klan is good.

I am offended.

The Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) is a group that works tirelessly to ensure that black children have access to the best educational options.  The reality is that black children are being left behind: the achievement gap is far too large and more black men are in prisons than in colleges in this country.

In Washington, D.C., I worked side-by-side with BAEO to fight for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.  We worked together because the children of D.C.—just like the children in Louisiana and all across the country—deserve a great education.  It is our duty to ensure that all of our children, especially our disadvantaged children—receive a great education.  And it’s working.  In D.C. scholarship program, more than 85 percent of participating students are African American and the program has a graduation rate of 91 percent.  And just last week, the Brookings Institution and Harvard University released a study that demonstrated that African American students who receive a voucher are 24 percent more likely to enroll in college.

We have come so far as a nation, but we have so more work to do.  Growing up, I attended one the first desegregated high schools in Arkansas.  Today, we have leaders standing up for our children.  Great leaders, from Condoleezza Rice—who just yesterday called our education crisis the social justice issue of our time—to Newark Mayor Cory Booker, are fighting entrenched special interest groups that are more interested in protecting the status quo than in finding solutions to our education crisis.

I believe in school choice because the children that we have been left behind need an educational lifeline and they need it now.  Vouchers provide that opportunity.

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers owes BAEO an apology.  I have spent my life working—alongside BAEO and all school choice advocates—to provide a better education for our children.  And I didn’t do it to be accused of supporting a hate group that terrorized a generation of Americans by spreading hate and fear.

—Virginia

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice

Freakonomics and School Choice

Freakonomics, the 2005 best-selling book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times writer Stephen Dubner, made economics both readable and entertaining.  And now the authors of the blog behind the bestseller have turned to school choice.  In a blog post published earlier this week, the Freakonomics bloggers have taken a good look at the effect of school choice on student motivation and academic outcomes.

Citing a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the freakonomists unsurprisingly communicated the data in an easily-digestible manner for everyone to understand.  The result:

[W]e use unique daily data on individual-level student absences and suspensions to show that lottery winners have significantly lower truancies after they learn about lottery outcomes but before they enroll in their new schools. The effects are largest for male students entering high school, whose truancy rates decline by 21% in the months after winning the lottery.

The freakonomists go on:

We interpret this as students exerting more effort towards academics at their current school due to an increase in intrinsic motivation from knowing that they will be able to attend a school of their choice in the subsequent school year.

Furthermore, test scores seem to bolster the argument:

We then examine the impact attending a chosen school has on student test score outcomes. We find substantial test score gains from attending a charter school and some evidence that choosing and attending a high value-added magnet school improves test scores as well. Our results contribute to current evidence that school choice programs can effectively raise test scores of participants. Our findings suggest that this may occur both through an immediate effect on student behavior and through the benefit of attending a higher-performing school.

The folks at Freakonomics give us yet another reason to support all educational options.

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MSG

Governor Christie Should Talk Education at the GOP Convention

Governor Chris Christie, who is giving the keynote address tonight at the Republican National Convention, has a great opportunity to address an issue that both Republicans and Democrats need to hear: creating more educational options for children all across the nation.  When the governor takes the stage tonight, he should use that time to talk about school choice.

While pundits and talking heads argue that America is more polarized than ever before, Christie should point out that school choice—in both vouchers and scholarship tax credit programs—are supported by both Democrats and Republicans.  Rather, it’s partisan politics as usual that is preventing school choice from becoming a real option for so many American families.

In New Jersey, for example, Governor Christie championed the Opportunity Scholarship Act (OSA), a scholarship tax credit program for children from low-income families.  And he had strong Democratic support in the legislature.  Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Assemblyman Angel Fuentes, Assemblyman Troy Singleton, and Senator Raymond Lesniak are only some of the prominent Democrats who supported the initiative.  In fact, the legislation had enough votes in both chambers to pass.  Why isn’t the OSA law in New Jersey?  The Speaker of the Assembly never let the bill come to a vote.

But a setback in New Jersey isn’t the only story.  In 2011, seven new private school choice programs were created and 11 programs were expanded.  And in 2012, five new programs were created and six programs expanded.  This work was often done in a bipartisan manner.

A Lone Star Leap Towards School Choice

On Friday, the Texas State Senate Education Committee held a hearing on bringing a school voucher program to the Lone Star State.  Legislators have been considering enacting prischool choice legislation, with nearly successful campaigns in 2007 and just last year.  While advocates already testified on the merits of school choice, here’s another list on why Texas should enact a statewide, accountable private school voucher program.

Reasons Texas Should Enact Private School Choice

1. Only 29 percent of 4^th graders and 27 percent of Texas 8^th graders are proficient in reading.  In math, 39 percent of 4^th graders and 40 percent of 8^th graders are proficient.

2. Nearly half—48.8 percent—of Texas students qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.  That’s more than the national average.

3. According to the U.S. Department of Education, Texas only graduates three-fourths of its high-school students. 

4. Graduation rates of school choice programs are high.  The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program boasts a graduation rate of 91 percent—more than 30 percentage points higher than students in D.C. Public Schools.  The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program demonstrated graduation rates at more than 7 percentage points higher than students attending the Milwaukee Public Schools.  And a recent study of a New York City voucher program found that African American recipients are 24 percent more likely to enroll in college as a result of participating in the voucher program.

5. Parents of students who participate in private school choice programs are overwhelmingly satisfied with their child’s academic program.  Consecutive surveys in Louisiana show parental satisfaction of the program above 93 percent.  Surveys in Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, Florida, and Ohio have all shown high parental satisfaction rates and feedback.

6. School choice fosters competition: A study of the Florida Scholarship Tax Credit found that the passage of the program led to standardized test score gains in the public schools most likely to lose students to private schools.

7. But most important of all, parents know best.  Families have the right to escape failing schools and send their children to a school that will provide a quality education.  No one is better suited to see that their children thrive than parents.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the happenings in Texas as legislators work to expand charter schools and bring private school choice to Texas families. And for more research into the benefits of school choice, visit our research page here.

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MSG