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School Choice 101
When people hear the term school choice, they think of charter schools or vouchers. School For Thought believes it is time for a quick refresher course in School Choice.
School choice is defined here as: “a matter of form, school choice does not give preference to one form of schooling or another, rather manifests itself whenever a student attends school outside of the one they would have been assigned to by geographic default. The most common options offered by school choice programs are open enrollment laws that allow students to attend other public schools, private schools, charter schools, tax credit and deductions for expenses related to schooling, vouchers, and homeschooling.“
Many Canadians are familiar with public school choices such as alternative public schools, magnet schools, or open school boundaries. These choices are limited by the whim of the local school authorities, or in the case of Edmonton, enhanced by the competition offered by other school choice options. Today’s lesson is on the main forms of school choice currently being offered in the U.S. and parts of Canada.
CHARTER SCHOOLS
Charter Schools are autonomous public schools that operate under a specific educational focus that enhances choice within the public system. They are directly funded and operate autonomously, outside of the school board bureaucracy. They are free to spend their funding as they see fit, but must be accountable for their results. They usually governed by a small board. They cannot exclude students and must be accessible to all. They cannot charge tuition fees. They are non-profit.
Charter schools are freed from bureaucracy so that innovative teachers and educational leaders can serve students’ needs in ways not served by the regular public system. They might have a particular teaching approach (direct instruction or Montessori). They might be same-sex schools, arts, sports, or science schools. They might be special needs schools-for at risk students, or special education, or drop-out students. There could be as many charter school types as the community desired. The best charter schools are also freed from staffing and collective bargaining restraints. They are then free to hire the right teacher or principal for the position.
Charter schools are granted their ‘charter’ either from a school board or from the provincial education authority. This charter is granted for a limited time period, three to five years, and is renewable as long as they meet the mandate of their charter. Any entity may apply for a charter-an individual, an organization, a group of parents or teachers, a trades organization.
Charter schools must be accountable for their academic results, for their finances, and for meeting the mandate of their charter. As public schools, they must meet the requirements of any provincial curriculum and participate in any testing. In Canada, they are not affiliated with any religious organization, but can provide religious instruction, much as the publicly-funded Catholic system does.
In the U.S., charter schools are very popular and the laws governing them vary widely by state. Alberta is the only Canadian province that allows charter schools. For a look at Alberta’s charter schools, watch the SQE DVD here.
VOUCHERS
Voucher programs can take two forms, public or private. Public vouchers allow families to take their per-pupil education tax dollars and use them towards a private school of their choice, similar to how a scholarship works. Private vouchers essentially work the same way, but the funding comes from private sources rather than from the government. In Ontario and Alberta, Children First School Choice Trust is a source of limited private vouchers for low-income families. Vouchers are for limited amounts, usually considerably less than the regular per-pupil public school funding. Public voucher programs may be limited to eligible schools or by family income. In the U.S. voucher programs are limited by caps on the total number of vouchers offered in any year.
In Canada, some private schools are directly funded to a varying degree depending on the province.
TAX CREDITS
Tax credits are non-refundable amounts, based on tuition paid to eligible private schools, that can be deducted from income tax. They can be partial or full tax credits up to a certain dollar limit and can be income contingent.
A variation on the theme is the Universal Tuition Tax Credit concept whereby essentially any taxpayer - parent or grandparent, neighbour or friend - could contribute to the education of any elementary or secondary child, including their own children, and then qualify for a tax credit. Because some low-income families will may not have enough taxable income to qualify for a personal tax credit, the Universal Tax Credit includes a feature that’s similar to the one already in operation in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Florida, whereby individuals or corporations can donate to scholarship granting organizations which in turn award scholarships to poor families. Thus, low-income families would have to pay only part of their children’s schooling costs, with the scholarship granting organizations, such as Children First, paying the rest.
A universal tax credit could be granted to home-schoolers as well.
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There are naturally pros and cons to all the above alternatives, but having a variety of choice mechanisms that people can take advantage of allows more families more choices.
The opposition to school choice is fierce because it puts control of education dollars in the hands of individuals. In a 2006 essay, Choosing School Choice, Malkin Dare wrote:
“The absence of school choice is primarily justified by people’s desire for one strong public school system where all children attend a common-denominator neighbourhood school. Unfortunately, the more children attend neighbourhood schools, the less satisfied parents tend to be with those schools. Monopolistic schooling has inherent defects, including the dominance of special-interest groups like teachers’ unions; excessively-uniform school policies; weak and inappropriate incentive structures; and inefficient, unresponsive bureaucracies. Even with the best of intentions and highly-qualified teachers, monopolistic school systems invariably disappoint.
“The opponents of school choice argue that offering parents their choice of schools would lead to all kinds of undesirable effects such as a two-tiered education system; a mass exodus from publicly-funded schools; social and religious fragmentation; the emergence of fanatical and/or fraudulent schools; and inefficiencies resulting from duplication of administrative costs. None of these arguments holds up to an empirical assessment of education practices in jurisdictions with more school choice.“
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Quick Update to this post. Here are two more examples of school choice in action and their effects on public schools:
Report finds KIPP students outscore public school peers. “Middle school students in the Knowledge Is Power Program, a charter school network with a major footprint in the District and other cities, significantly outperform their public school peers on reading and math tests, according to a new study.“ Read here.
Competition boosts public schools. “The study found public schools’ performance improved when they were faced with the possibility of losing students to private schools. At issue is the Florida Tax Credit Scholarships, which provide vouchers to children from poor families.“ Read the article here.
The fact remains that the arguments of the opponents have prevailed up to this point and show very well in polling that proponents of choices outside the public system have a tough battle because people not only don’t want the choices outside the system, they don’t want to pay for them either.