Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
What A Week!
Yesterday
I’ve been reading and writing about education laws for most of my career. It wasn’t by choice - I just learned early on that unless I knew what a bill was saying and how the words shaped the actual intent of the proposal in practice, I wouldn’t be effective. Then again, I didn’t have anybody else to do it. Necessity being the mother of invention and all, I became an expert at assessing legislative impact before the ink was dry. And over time, even those who fought me on those assessments would come up to me and say, “yeah, wow, how did you know?”
Malcolm Gladwell explains it in “Outliers,” in his theory of the 10,000 hours. The Beatles weren’t better than everyone necessarily when they started. They just did their craft relentlessly. They logged 10,000 hours and the rest is history. Same here. You probably have too, but when someone questions what your expertise suggests - unless you’re a doctor or lawyer - your judgement likely gets dismissed.
As I wrote last week, I take no pride in telling well-intentioned and extraordinarily committed policymakers that their plans will go awry if they don’t rewrite their proposal.
Nor do I enjoy questioning the editor of the Wall Street Journal as to why their normally spot-on analysis is so off. But yesterday’s editorial, School Choice Revs Up Again, just missed the mark. Here’s why:
First, as I wrote last week regarding Tennessee, we have to be careful to not confuse creating a nice new program with having the intended impact that dollars following kids could have.
But this week, praise is being heaped on Texas as Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and legislative leadership work to push through their school choice bill, SB 2, which already passed the Senate and is being called the biggest program ever created from the start.
Alas, if only that were true. It’s big - a whopping $1 billion to be appropriated for Education Savings Accounts. Students will receive on average up to $10,000 each to use at a private, accredited school or program that meets state requirements, and the state will set up new structures to evaluate and distribute the so-called ESAs, which of course has many cheering. But it’s not a school choice program. It establishes a new governmental program and authorizes the establishment of new intermediary organizations to manage a fund of new money that is not from the education fund. Those funds, that subsidize school districts, will stay there for at least two years, in essence double-funding kids at least until, as in the case of Tennessee, the state funding allocations catch up with them. I spoke to a very popular public official whose state has funds following kids and he was mystified why anyone would do this. There's just nothing big about it.
There’s also nothing big about an ESA which is permitted to fund public school activities, but not a parent’s choice of virtual or online education. That limits the potential for access to innovation, particularly for rural students.
Arizona, Florida, and Indiana have hundreds of thousands of students able to use their actual education funds to follow them to their education of choice, and that includes online learning. This competition that occurs with the transfer of funds has made education better, caused schools that were not working to close and fostered innovative approaches across all sectors. States with top performing choice laws that do it right have fared better on NAEP overall.
In the new "choice" models, there is no competition. And what happens when there isn't a budget surplus or the politics change? The pioneer states of Wisconsin and Ohio struggled when their states were led by union-backed politicians, but they were always able to repel attacks because the process and apparatus that existed was clear, direct and simple - money actually flows with kids from the education budget and to the school of choice. Same revenue stream. No new program needed.
South Carolina’s voucher program was found unconstitutional last year by its high court, which conflicts with rulings from the US Supreme Court. Rather than take their case to SCOTUS, Palmetto state leaders want to change their bill to use lottery dollars to create a new stream of money that doesn’t offend their state’s court. Advocates are cheering. There’s nothing to crow about when we have two Supreme Court cases that would reverse SC's in a heartbeat and constitutional lawyers are standing by to argue it.
Some argue that at least these programs are lifelines for kids stuck in ineffective or failing public schools. Sure. Only if they are not subject to budgets and taxes and political winds. Try growing a program like that and sustaining it, not to mention the positive impact from competitive forces when money moves are missed entirely.
Choice isn't supposed to feel good. It's supposed to have an oversized impact on ineffective systems and drive change for everyone.
There are groundbreaking models that were hard fought politically but worth the fight. If Governors are going to take the enormous effort to build political capital, knock out opponents and even secure a US President’s endorsement, why settle? Aim high. It’s for kids.
Today
Were those really public school teachers out in force at the Capitol, and at the US Department of Education, protesting cuts in contracts, government funding and even Linda McMahon’s nomination as Ed Secretary? Didn’t we just get results from the Nation’s Report Card validating that most of our kids can’t read or do math at grade level?
Interestingly enough, today’s rallies are just proof that reducing the scope and size of federal programs is the right answer. There are signs that actually say the Dept of Ed cuts will cause kids to stop reading! News Flash: They can’t read now!
$190 Billion EXTRA dollars in federal funds were distributed in the past three years and nothing changed. As I argued on NewsNation today, millions of dollars in contracts are going out to people for programs and research that may or may not make any sense for kids. Common understanding of civics dictates that a new Administration have a right to review and course correct.
The teachers unions and their allies do teachers such a disservice - clearly intentionally - by not educating them about how policy actually works and who is responsible for their ability (or hindrance thereof) to do their jobs. That’s what is happening here today.
Tomorrow
Despite the protests, we’re about to get a new Education Secretary. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) will host Linda McMahon tomorrow at 10:00am for her confirmation hearing.
I’ll be there. Tune into ABC Live at 6 pm ET to hear my take from the day’s events.
I know there are issues upon which reasonable people disagree, and we can and should do so, agreeably. However, as my friend Pastor Josh Robertson of Black Pastors United for Education says,
“We need all hands on deck to redeem education in America.”
- Jeanne