Say Anything Blog

Which no doubt makes the teacher unions happy, but leaves those of us concerned with seeing our kids get the best education they can a little cold.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan argues that we have an obligation to disregard politics to do whatever is “good for the kids.”

Well then, one wonders, why did his Department of Education bury a politically inconvenient study regarding education reform? And why, now that the evidence is public, does the administration continue to ignore it and allow reform to be killed?

When Congress effectively shut down the D.C. voucher program last month, snatching $7,500 Opportunity Scholarship vouchers from disadvantaged kids, it failed to conduct substantive debate (as is rapidly becoming tradition).

Then the Wall Street Journal editorial board reported that the Department of Education had buried a study that illustrated unquestionable and pervasive improvement among kids who won vouchers, compared to the kids who didn’t. Not only was the report disregarded, the Department of Education issued a gag order on any discussion about it.

Is this what Duncan meant by following the evidence?

When the Obama administration says things, they don’t necessarily mean them.  As we’ve seen again and again, everything they say comes with an expiration date.  In this instance, that expiration date was the moment it became clear that the results from this study weren’t going to line up with their pre-conceived political notions.  Not to mention the desires of their Big Labor puppet masters.

Ultimately, though, this study just solidifies evidence we’ve seen from other use of vouchers around the country.  In Florida, over then-Governor Jeb Bush, a similar voucher program for kids in failing schools was implemented to a good deal of success.

The saga began in 1999, when Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law the first money-back guarantee in the history of public education: the Opportunity Scholarship Program. Under the program, whenever a public school receives two failing grades on Florida’s academic performance standards, state educational officials come into the school with a remedial program, and the students are allowed to transfer to better performing public schools or to use a share of their public funds as full payment of private-school tuition.

Six years later, only 750 children are attending private schools using opportunity scholarships. But their footsteps have reverberated across the state, prompting failing public schools to reform. Steps taken by failing schools have included spending more money in the classroom and less on administration, hiring tutors for poor performing teachers, and providing year-round instruction to pupils. ...

The results have been stunning. Even with tougher state standards, nearly half of Florida’s public schools now earn “A” grades, while a similar percentage scored “C’s” when the program started. A 2003 study by Jay Greene found that gains were most concentrated among schools under threat of vouchers.

Most remarkable has been minority student progress. While the percentage of white third-graders reading at or above grade level has increased to 78% from 70% in 2001, the percentage among Hispanic third-graders has climbed from 46% to 61%, and among blacks from 36% to 52%. Graduation rates for Hispanic students have increased from 52.8% before the program started to 64% today; and for black students from 48.7% to 57.3%. Minority schoolchildren are not making such academic strides anywhere else.

Vouchers work.  School choice works.  The only people who say those things don’t work are teachers, their union representatives and their apologists.  But those people aren’t motivated by a desire for well-educated kids but rather a desire to line their own pockets.