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Monday, September 04, 2006
Star Parker :: Townhall.com Columnist
Where's the courage in education reform?
by Star Parker
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Los Angeles Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa soon will exercise more control over Los Angeles' deeply troubled school system as result of legislation that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign.

Similar initiatives in Boston, Chicago and New York City have resulted in some improvement in their school systems. But the real question on the table is why _ given that the future of children is at stake, and hence the future of our country _ do we settle for tepid reform when we need bold and innovative change to make a difference?

Yes, again I am talking about the need for competition in education and for school choice.

Freedom, competition and choice are what have produced the world's most powerful economy. Yet the very factors that have made America great, and have distinguished us from the rest of the world, are prohibited from operating in the education marketplace, where we produce our future citizens and workforce.

Sure, maybe giving the mayor more control and having more accountability will help in Los Angeles. But does anyone really believe that shifting around bureaucrats in a monopoly controlling 746,000 students and 80,000 employees is really going to make a big difference?

And, perhaps more to the point, will anyone claim this is the best possible answer? And, if not, what does it say about America today if we are allowing interests other than the welfare of children dictate how we manage education?

The dropout rate among Latino students in the Los Angeles Unified School District is 60 percent. Among black students it's 57 percent. Average proficiency in English and math is under 30 percent.

By the California Department of Education's own Academic Performance Index, 46 percent of elementary schools score 3 or below out of a possible 10, 72 percent of middle schools score 3 or below, and 66 percent of high schools score 3 or below.

As result of a complaint filed by my organization, CURE, along with the Alliance for School Choice, the California Department of Education is investigating compliance of the LAUSD with the school transfer provisions of No Child Left Behind.

According to NCLB, students in failing schools must be notified and permitted to transfer to another school. We have found that 250,000, about 30 percent, of the students in the LA system are eligible for such transfers, yet notification is not being given and there have only been only slightly more than 500 transfers.

Given the disaster that is taking place, you would think that the priority in the state would be to consider every possible option to find an optimal solution to educating Los Angeles' children.

But this is not the case at all.

The measure to give the mayor more authority wound up being watered down as result of pressure from the unions. Continued...
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About The Author
Star Parker is a nationally syndicated columnist through the Scripps Howard News Service and a regular commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News, as well as author of White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay.
 
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(36 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Sep 5, 2006 - 9:34 PM EST
Roy Romer, LAISD School Superintendent
As a former resident of Colorado when Roy Romer was governor (he a Dem, I a Republican), I knew him to be more of the Dem Leadership Council mold than the ultra-left sort that dominates LA politics today. I was not a fan, but he was a no-nonsense sort who looked for policies (too statist for my taste) that worked.
If Roy Romer cannot turn LA schools around, then NOBODY, on the political horizon who is realistically likely to take charge there, CAN.
It is time for LA to run massive 200,000- student experiments in charter schools and public-schools-for-choice and vouchers and education tax credits and pay-for-performance and performance measurement and alternative certification and no certification and differential pay for science teachers and tenure abolition and McGuffey and core reading/writing/arithmetic/science/history/art and...
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Reply # 2
Date: Sep 5, 2006 - 8:05 AM EST
Note to Go Europe
You wrote: ".... introducing a voucher system will allow the rich to get cheaper private schooling, will remove the well off from the schools which will remove many of the best students ... Those who are left over will be the poorest who will suffer from severe budget cuts as the DOE's money goes to pay private schools."

I noted from your later posts that you are apparently not from the US, so I offer a couple of points of clarification.

1. For the most part (although it has changed some with the No child Left Behind program) the cost of public education is paid by the individual state(s), using money raised from property taxes - applied to homes and apartments within the state. So it is state, not federal money that funds the schools;

2. The parents of the "rich" have already paid their school taxes to the current public system, via the property tax, even if their children do not go to school there.
Now, if one were so inclined, one might argue over how horrible it is for the "rich" to get something for their tax monies, but I'll leave that for another day;

3. Statistics that I have seen indicate that per pupil private schooling is generally about 70% of the per pupil cost of our most expensive public schools. Strangely enough, the most expensive public schools on a per pupil basis are some of the worst-performing in the country (Washington DC and Atlanta come to mind). If I am remembering correctly, I think each was in the range of $12-13,000 per student per year.

Finally, I would say that there is some real value to "...removing many of the best students" from the present system. We often hear the concern of those who fear for the poorly-performing students in the system. They (rightly) worry about how to "save" them. I suggest that we need also worry about "saving" the best performers from the forced mediocrity of our public schools.

Unless, of course, said mediocrity is your goal.
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