I frequently post critiques of privatization–with special emphasis on school privatization, aka educational vouchers. Some twenty or so years ago, privatization enthusiasts had a standard answer for every perceived government malfunction: let the private sector do it! This approach had multiple, significant drawbacks, and as those drawbacks became too obvious and costly to ignore, the early enthusiasm faded–except in education, where the “market can solve all problems” ideologues were joined by rightwing activists pursuing a vendetta against teachers’ unions, and by religious folks who chafed at separation of church and state and wanted a First Amendment “work-around.”
“How do you improve the performance of the nation’s public schools?” was–and remains– a fair question. Urban school districts, in particular, face multiple challenges, and when the question of how to meet those challenges became an everyday topic following publication of A Nation at Risk, political figures offered two wildly competing suggestions: “the market can solve everything” ideologues insisted that competition from private schools would incentivize public school improvement; supporters of public education lobbied for additional resources, to be deployed in line with reforms suggested by new academic research.
As we know, vouchers won the political debate. It was a disarmingly simple fix, championed by people who not-so-coincidentally stood to gain from it. Unfortunately, however, despite the promises, vouchers have failed to improve test scores or educational outcomes. (They have been a financial boon for well-to-do families, however, a fact that will make it much more difficult to end these boondoggles.)
Surprisingly, the news is much better from those much-maligned public school systems. Take, for example, Chicago’s public schools, once one of the worst performing systems in the country. As the American Prospect recently reported, “a system that used to be ridiculed has become a model for schools in other cities.”
In 1987, a visit from Bill Bennett–then Secretary of Education–prompted labeling Chicago’s schools the worst in the country. Half of the district’s high schools ranked in the bottom 1 percent nationwide, nearly half of the students dropped out before graduating, and some schools were physical danger zones. Since then, however, Chicago’s public schools have become markedly better.
Black and Latino third graders from low-income families have been, at least according to 2017 data, outperforming their counterparts elsewhere in the state. Graduation rates rose to 84 percent in 2023, within hailing distance of the national average. In 2022, three-fifths of high school graduates enrolled in college immediately upon graduating high school, an increase from previous years, countering the national trend of declining college attendance during COVID; more of them are earning degrees than in the past. This track record is among the best urban school systems in the nation.
A new book, “How a City Learned to Improve its Schools” explains that structural changes, and the policies and practices that they generated, have emerged from a continuous improvement, ‘tortoise beats hare’ approach. As the book readily admits, Chicago’s improvement hasn’t been a straightforward march-to-success narrative. Struggles and setbacks have included teacher strikes, fights over school closures, administrative churn, and high-profile CEO misconduct.
But through it all, the system has continued to improve.
Graduation rates and other measures of accomplishment have continued their steady rise. Nor has the system lost its penchant for evidence-driven changes. The most significant example is the ongoing expansion of early education, with its demonstrated promise of shifting the arc of children’s lives, auguring well for their success. A commitment to experimentation has prompted the system to partner with the University of Chicago Education Lab in testing promising innovations, such as intensive math tutoring for ninth and tenth graders who were mired amid long division and fractions; and a summer internship program that has given students the soft skills they would need in the world of work.
Chicago isn’t alone. Another book, “Disrupting Disruption: The Steady Work of Transforming Schools” highlights three other successful systems: Union City, New Jersey; Roanoke, Virginia; and Union, Oklahoma–systems with a majority of students who are low-income and disproportionately racial and ethnic minorities. In each of these districts, the graduation rate has steadily increased and the opportunity gap has essentially become a thing of the past.
What lesson should we take from all this?
The American journalist H. L. Mencken said it best: “Every complex problem has a solution which is simple, direct, plausible — and wrong.” Fixing thorny problems is almost always an incremental task requiring consistent, evidence-based analysis and constant adjustment. Americans have an unfortunate penchant for simple, “plausible” remedies that don’t require hard work.
Far too often, as with our current costly, divisive and failed voucher programs, those “simple” ideologically-motivated solutions don’t improve anything–they just add new problems to the old ones.
Vouchers do hurt public schools yes. Public schools have to go back to educating thru finding the correct curriculum and sticking to it.
Is there information anywhere about any issue of our daily lives that is not now a politically controlled issue? We find Republican infected foundations in that control over all aspects of life; one source of the insidious infection is simply the repeating of lies till they become believed as the truth. Where better to infect in masses than our schools, now along with our churches and combining the two is a double whammy.
“Far too often, as with our current costly, divisive and failed voucher programs, those “simple” ideologically-motivated solutions don’t improve anything–they just add new problems to the old ones.”
Professor-a few questions for you or your subscribers:
1. When do vouchers get paid to a private school?
2. If the voucher money is paid on Day 1, or close to Day 1, what happens to the money if:
A. The student moves?
B. The student is kicked out?
C. The students not there for other reasons?
3. If the student is kicked out, are public schools mandated to take the child back, regardless of the reason the student was kicked out…..and, obviously, if so, does the money follow the student from the private/charter school to the public school?
As I try to awaken, too many other questions come forth.
As usual, Professor, thank you for today’s column. D
The first question that comes to mind is how do we reverse twenty years of no (rich) child left behind? Do we find donors to replace the funding of public schools or do we try to make the money that’s leftover for public schools stretch far enough to cover the cost of implementing evidence based changes? Given the recent history of trustee appointments at the public colleges and universities in Indiana can we trust that any partnership with them would not be politicised?
Since I don’t like to ask questions without proposing a solution or two, consider applying for grant money to fund it for at least five years. You need at least five years to gather the data to make an assessment of the progress of any program. Partner with schools like Butler. Smaller liberal arts colleges and universities would recognize that they have skin in the game. Improved public education would let them spend less money on remedial education. Seems like a win/win for everyone.
Dennis, voucher funds return to the State General Fund when a student leaves the private school. The money does not go back to public schools. And another important fact, the majority of families taking vouchers are for students that have never attended a public school. When the GOP claims an increase in voucher use, it does not mean that people are leaving public schools, it indicates the increase in eligibility for the voucher funds due to the high income limits. Vouchers are often called “the Carmel spring break fund,” another way to say these vouchers are being misused.
I feel that the amount of the voucher should be limited to the amount of taxes paid to their state. That could save $10,000s of dollars for public schools. Isn’t that part of what we pay property taxes for??
It seems that there was a better understanding of what was expected from teachers and what was expected from parents in the past. Their joint goal was the creation of functional adults.
What has changed is less about teachers and more about parents.
I think the cause may be the decline in two-parent households or two parents who work so hard to make a living that there is insufficient quality time and energy for parenting. Of course, a cause of that is the failure to educate parents about the demands of that job and the impact of advertising on our expected lifestyle.
We are the safest and most comfortable humans ever and expect more. Why? The portrayal of what we should expect in life from pervasive 12/7 advertising to pay for 12/7 entertainment.
Our media has enslaved us.
Absent strong families to nurture assets children need to become successful students, public schools far too often become a basket to be held accountable for more than just fundamentals of education. America needs to rethink the role of public school education and how “the village” needs to show up to provide for everything else to ensure every child integrates assets required to become a successful contributor to the next generation.
Mitch Daniels started the failed privatization of government responsibilities in IN. Does anyone else recall how many billions of dollars we lost when he turned over our medicaid program to IBM? He then started the IN voucher program because he wanted to bust the teachers unions. The fact that our public school systems are being financially bled weighs on my mind daily as I keep trying to think of a way for citizens to file a lawsuit against our state government.
Most people in rural areas where, there are only public school systems, have no idea that our taxes are being taken to fund private religious schools in urban areas.
I’m beyond angry that our despicable republican state legislature refuses to require those private schools to meet the same legal requirements that public school systems must meet. Public school systems are required to account for how they spend every penny of tax revenue funds they receive, yet the private religious schools that receive vouchers don’t have to answer for a single penny. If I correctly understand our state’s Constitution those private schools should also meet the same legal requirement. They should be financially audited as frequently as public schools are in order to show the public how our tax dollars are spent. They also should also be required to accept all students that apply – no more cherry picking. Public schools have been forced to make cuts elsewhere in their budgets so they can cover the additional expenses necessary to educate and care for the mentally and physically handicapped students while private schools can and do choose to refuse to accept those students.
The same despicable legislators created the semi-private IEDC. That quasi-government entity has spent billions of dollars buying farm land in central IN and has nothing to show for it. The IEDC is also NOT required to answer to the public for how our tax dollars are being spent.
Rant over.
Pete … you and I were writing at same time and just to say your thoughts echo my same concerns for what is expected of public school education, care providers, youth development programs, and families. The families who have social capital (the initiative to enroll) do it best.
Norris, paradoxically, I do not believe that our species can flourish in perfect comfort and safety surrounded by entertainment all of the time.
We really need purpose.
Nancy, I could go on and on about Mitch Daniels and the damage he did to the State of Indiana before he set up his presidential job at a public university. That stunt he pulled at Purdue should have been rescinded immediately by the next governor. It was never mentioned, showing how corrupt Indiana is and has been for a long time.
Why do you think Indiana privatized the lottery? It’s hard to accept kickbacks and donations from the lottery when the state runs it.
Once the dollars followed the students in Indiana, there was a massive exodus of white students from urban to rural schools. In my county, they claim they don’t track race data between city and county schools. They know, but they just don’t put it on the application. No evidence or data gives them an easy out – plausible deniability.
Both parties are corrupt, but the Republicans are the masters of writing boilerplate laws to circumvent accountability. State officials can completely tie the hands of local officials as well. In my case, in East Central Indiana, the state owns our urban public school system. In 2017, local officials put together a video on the white flight from urban to county schools. They were extremely careful about how it was worded and only chose officials who played the game very well. Ball State University has been running urban schools since then, but NOT ONE single study has been released about how many white students have returned to the city school system. I intentionally ride by the county schools when parents can pick up their students and the lines are miles long.
The market doesn’t fix racist segregation, which was the point of the dollars following the students.
By the way, I was able to watch Bad Faith last night. It’s only about 90 minutes long, and it flows quickly. I’d strongly encourage anybody posting here or reading the blog to watch it. It’s definitely worth the $1.99 rental fee to stream it. The point was made very clearly that the motive has been Christian Nationalism from the beginning—when it started and how we got to Trump and what we can expect should Trump win this election.
I remember when Michigan was passing an anti-bullying bill for schools several years ago and representatives of Catholic schools protested for religious reasons. They wanted to be able to have protection for some of the questionable ways (discipline)they treated their students. Governor Gretchen Whitmire said nothing doing, that the law applies to all schools in Michigan. I think any school that accepts vouchers should have to post US Constitution and Bill of rights and apply those rights to the students in the schools. I know the world of difference that vouchers would have made for the big Catholic families back in the day. Most of those families weren’t rich and struggled to care for all the kids. I remember 60 students in each classroom, hardly ideal conditions to learn.
Like what has been posted before, the voucher program requires a check from the school districts for students accepted to private schools.
Taxes everyone pays, if you really read your tax bills, about 75% goes to schools. When the school district writes a check for between 10 and 15,000, for every student attending a private institution, the district raises the taxes. And as you have noticed, they very rarely if at all post The district’s declaration of increase, until after the fact. It used to be posted on the front page of the newspaper, now, it’s a tiny blurb in the back of the paper which very few people read now. But afterwards, the county will send out the increases that have been approved. So they use sleight of hand to keep taxpayers from mounting a defense against those taxes.
If you have a family, as mentioned above in one of the other comments, maybe a Catholic family with four (4) school age children, And that family possibly renting a home. They decide they want their kids to go to a Catholic school instead of public school. They fill out the paperwork, and the school district cuts a check for each student. So that’s 10 or 15,000 ×4……
Those families do not pay property taxes, so, the burden gets transferred to the senior citizens which are on a fixed income, and or those who could be disabled and other issues. Around here, veterans if they are more than 75% disabled, their kids can get vouchers, and they pay no property taxes. So yeah, it’s a scam. And it is not sustainable.
And as I was told by our state representative, the teachers unions are the biggest drivers in preventing tax reform, because they want a larger base to pay into the teachers public pension fund. If an inch is approved, a mile is taken.
Many moons ago, there used to be volunteer programs at the public schools to help out the teachers, folks who had the time, maybe grandparents, maybe mothers of some of the kids in school, would become a teacher’s assistant. Unpaid, but hands-on to help students.
The wealthy scam the system, those families with a lot of kids scam the system, the teachers unions scam the system, and this is something that is not sustainable. It takes a while to figure out how to finagle the system. And once it’s figured out, Katie bar the door. Except, that door has been broken down a while ago.
Todd – yes, I recall how Mitch appointed trustees at Purdue that would hire him as the next president. I’m a Purdue alumna and was not happy about that. During his tenure at Purdue I and many other graduates were ashamed to claim where our degree was from. We also can’t forget that he purchased a for-profit online college and named it Purdue Global. We feel that taints our degrees as ‘less than’. As a final blow to alumni those trustees renamed State Street (the main street on campus) as Mitch Daniels Blvd.
I’m sure you recall hearing that Daniels’ protege Pence followed in his former boss’ footsteps by appointing trustees to Ball State with the intention of being their next president when his term as gov ended because he knew he had no chance for a second term.
Here are my not easy answers –
Return to the idea that public education is a tax supported public good and has nothing to do with how much parents (or individual tax payers) pay. I have no children and have always supported public education in the hope of a more discerning polity. Education is a public good.
Turn teaching into the highly respected, highly paid profession it should be (like in Finland). More money for teachers and for schools with smaller class sizes. Studies have shown that there is an improvement when size drops below 18-20 (I don’t remember the exact number). When I was in public school, the standard class size was 40.
More parental involvement.
Anecdote
My cousin took a job teaching at an inner city middle school in Detroit. He insisted on the same standards one would expect in the suburbs and also insisted that parent-teacher conferences happen. The improvement was huge and he even took his class on their first ever class trip to DC.
He left when administrative support of him faltered, and knives started showing up in school. Still, while it lasted, parental involvement seemed to have helped.
Indiana will pay approx $600M in taxpayer funded vouchers in 2024, paid mostly to religious schools. It is a concerted effort to defund public schools and eliminate teachers’ pensions from state obligations.
Income limit for a family of 4 is now $230,880. Most of the students using the vouchers have never attended a public school.
In many counties in Indiana, public schools are the largest employer. There are few private schools in rural counties. If public schools in those counties close for any reason, there is little choice available, to say nothing of the economic impact of school closures may have on those counties.
Along with medical deserts, we may wind up with education deserts as well.
Lots and lots of very good thoughts….however, no one answered my question #3: when a child is kicked out of a private, charter school, for any reason, other than criminal, must a public school accept this child?
The effectiveness of school vouchers was one idea that my education hero,the late and great John Holt, got wrong, I’m sorry to say.
As Teresa Kendall stated, when a voucher student leaves a private school, the pro rata amount of the voucher for the time after the student leaves returns to the state. However, the private school can, and many do, still demand the student pay tuition and fees for the rest of the month, semester or even school year, regardless of why the student left. There are numerous collection cases in Marion County courts for those bills. In the typical case, the defendants (often low income parents) fail to appear or respond, the case is quickly decided for the private school as a default judgment, and the parent(s)’s wages are garnished to repay the debt. I have extensive research. Media are largely uninterested.