Preschool Reality Check in New Jersey

My column on universal preschool in the Abbott districts ran today in the Bergen Record.

I say:

IN NEW JERSEY the promises made about the benefits of universal preschool in the Abbott districts have reached unparalleled heights. Recently, Record Columnist Mary Ellen Schoonmaker explained why preschool is "a new front in the nation's war on poverty."

Yet, in the United States preschool enrollment has increased from 16 to 70 percent since 1965. This massive growth in preschool attendance and time spent in the classroom has not resulted in increased student achievement, with U.S. test scores rising only very slightly since 1970 when standardized national testing of fourth-, eighth- and 12th- graders began on the National Assessment of Education Progress.

A vast majority of research on the benefits of preschool shows that disadvantaged children who attend preschool are more prepared for kindergarten than non-preschoolers. However, these early advantages often fade away as the children move through school.

New Jersey is no exception.

Despite the most recent report from the National Institute for Early Education Research that children who went through the Abbott preschool program do better in kindergarten, current academic achievement for third- and fourth-graders in the Abbott districts remains flat or declining. These findings are consistent with a large body of research that shows preschool helps disadvantaged children in the early grades, but that the advantages diminish as the children move through the public school system.

The data from New Jersey standardized tests and NAEP show that, to date, large investments in Abbott districts, and in preschool in particular, have had little effect on the overall performance of New Jersey students.

An analysis of test scores for each Abbott district at Greatschools.net examining results from the state's ASK language arts test between 2005 and 2006 show scores are flat or declining for third- and fourth-graders. In third grade, 20 of the 31 Abbott districts have lower proficiency rates in language arts in 2006 than in 2005.

This trend is worse in fourth grade -- with 28 of the 31 Abbott districts having lower proficiency rates on the fourth-grade language arts ASK test in 2006 than in 2005.

For example, in Passaic, 60 percent of fourth- graders were proficient in language arts in 2005, but only 51 percent were proficient in 2006. In Paterson, 61 percent of fourth-graders were proficient on fourth-grade language arts in 2005, and only 53 percent were proficient in 2006.

Similarly, the NAEP, considered the federal benchmark and nation's report card for student achievement, shows flat or declining scores for New Jersey students. In fact more New Jersey children score below basic (which means they cannot read) on the NAEP fourth-grade reading test in 2005 than in 2003 or 1992.

The percentage of fourth-grade students in New Jersey proficient or higher was 39 percent in 2003 and 37 percent in 2005. In 1992, 31 percent of all students scored below basic in New Jersey and by 2005 32 percent of all fourth graders scored below basic in reading.

However, the news is worse for low-income New Jersey children who qualify for the free- and reduced-lunch program. A higher percentage of the very children who should have seen some improvement from the various investments in the Abbott districts are scoring below basic.

In the case of disadvantaged students who qualify for the free lunch program, 52 percent scored below basic in 1992, 54 percent scored below basic in 2003, and 55 percent scored below basic in 2005 in fourth-grade reading.

Preschool advocates need a reality check. They are making huge promises about future long-term benefits for preschool and calling for ever larger public investments in early education. The history and uneven quality of kindergarten, Head Start, and the public schools call into question the claims that large-scale education for 3- and 4-year-olds will be the great equalizer.

This doesn't mean that preschool has no value, but it is hardly a stellar outcome from an $11,000-per-child investment or much of a surge in the "war on poverty."

Clear backpacks or Asinine School Policies Volume 1,234

This should be out of an Onion story.

But alas, it is another chapter in the ongoing saga of sudents and parents versus dumb school board policies.

Via the Dallas News

At least the school board for Dallas Unified came to their senses and rescinded the policy. But as reported below, there are school districts in America that require students to use clear or mesh backpacks to fight violence and crime in their schools. Oye. My kids started school on Monday and I did not notice a selection of clear packbacks at Target and Staples.

Clear-backpack policy rescinded by DISD

05:39 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 10, 2007
By KENT FISCHER / The Dallas Morning News
kfischer@dallasnews.com

Dallas public school students will not have to tote their books in clear backpacks after all this coming school year.

Dallas ISD board members have decided to rescind the policy, which they had only recently put into place. The change means that kids can go back to using their old backpacks.

The board changed its mind because two board members were absent from the May meeting when the 4-3 vote was taken. Those two board members said they would have voted against clear backpacks, defeating the policy.

Administrators had favored the clear backpacks, saying they would help make campuses safer and student security checks faster. Campuses around the country, including some in Royse City and Garland, have outlawed backpacks that are not mesh or clear.

The scariest thing is that four school board members voted for the policy, meaning they really believe that clear backpacks will have a substantial effect on school safety.

How NOT to Build a School

VIA the Los Angeles Times

The Belmont Learning Complex was envisioned as one of a kind. It would combine the city's first new high school in nearly 30 years with housing and retail development — extras that could raise money to help cap construction costs at about $45 million.

When the school opens in 2008, at least nine years behind schedule, it will indeed make history — with its cost. The final tab will top $400 million, almost certainly claiming the title of America's most expensive high school, and there will be no retail or housing.

The school, now called Vista Hermosa, was conceived in a school district that at the time lacked the expertise to build schools. The Los Angeles Unified School District has since put together the nation's largest school construction program, but the hemorrhaging continues at Belmont. Recent work expected to cost about $111 million will reach nearly $200 million instead.

For all the money spent, "they probably could have built three more high schools, maybe four," said City Councilman Ed Reyes, who represents the area. "That's a very painful reality. I think 70% of the cost was not necessary."

My take on the dismal state of California's school construction process here

Big FAT Surprise Here

More than $1 Billion in federal spending on nutrition programs has NOT reduced childhood obesity.

The federal government will spend more than $1 billion this year on nutrition education:

It emphasizes fresh carrot and celery snacks, videos of dancing fruit, and hundreds of hours of lively lessons about how great you will feel if you eat well.

But an Associated Press review of scientific studies examining 57 such programs found mostly failure. Only four showed any real success in changing the way children eat.

Colbert on No Child Left Behind

I love this.

It is the exact theme of my Reason story How Schools Cheat.

Paycheck Protection, the Supreme Court, & School Choice

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation has won a huge legal battle today.

Today the United States Supreme Court announced it has overturned the Washington Supreme Court’s ruling in Washington v. Washington Education Association and Davenport v. Washington Education Association (WEA). The cases are the culmination of a decade’s worth of work by concerned teachers and the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF), a Washington state think tank. The Court's ruling could potentially affect millions of union-represented workers nationwide.

The Court held today in Davenport that because a public-employee union possesses nonmember feepayers' funds only because of special state- conferred privileges, the state can place a content- based condition on the union's use of those funds -- namely, that the union obtain the feepayers' consent before using the funds for election-related activity.

Several states have passed paycheck protection laws in recent years, including Washington, Michigan, Idaho and Utah. In each case the laws came under relentless legal assault by unions desperate to protect their power to force members to fund their political agenda, regardless of the member's personal views.

This ruling has serious implication for choice-based school reform. In Utah for example, the recently passed universal school voucher legislation has now been held up for a popular vote in a November 2007 intitiative. This ruling should make it more difficult for local unions to divert dues to fight this school voucher program without specific teacher consent. Obviously, national unions will still direct large amounts of money to fight choice in Utah.

Similarly, local union dues are used in every kind of political campaign against choice-based reforms from opposing pro charter school school board members to fighting any state legislation that has choice implications.

Mr Mom

I've been House Dad this week while Lisa is camped out at the Hyatt Regency across the river from the most recognizable skyline in the known world.


The Alliance For School Choice hosts this strategy confab called Battling in the Trenches for those who believe that choice is more than some reproductive rights buzzword.

Why is it that so many people are pro-choice except when it comes to where your kid goes to school? Oh sure, middle class schools do fine and we all went to public school and we survived and we did okay. But what about the kids that are confined to Locke High School in LA, where it isn't even safe to use the toilet? If there is to be even a glimmer of the American Dream for those kids, they need the right of exit.

As Always,

Mr Margaret Thatcher, er, ah, Mr Lisa Snell

Photo Credit: Lisa Snell

Charter School Districts In Georgia

In a potentially strong form of public school choice and competition, Georgia has passed a new law allowing entire school districts to seek charter status. This law would allow districts to opt-out of work rules and credentialing mandates and state mandates like class-size reduction in exchange for fiscal and academic accountability.

A plan that could give Georgia school systems a wider range of freedom to educate students was signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue on Tuesday. The bill, which was pushed through the Legislature by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, would eventually allow school boards to apply for the same flexibility for their entire systems that are already granted to charter schools.

The plan creates a pilot program in which five systems would be allowed to pursue charter status as early as next year.

UPK: Boston Vs. Florida

I report, you decide.

Ok so Boston has a universal program run by the public schools, featuring teachers with bachelors degrees. yada yada yada

Boston preschools falling far short of goals, study says
Teacher quality, site safety faulted
By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff April 7, 2007

Boston's public preschool and kindergarten programs are hobbled by mediocre instruction, unsanitary classrooms, and dangerous schoolyards, according to a first-ever study of the programs.

The quality of instruction and facilities in 70 percent of the classrooms, the Wellesley Centers for Women study said, is inadequate to achieve the school system's primary goal: To get the children, most of whom are black and Hispanic and from low-income families, up to speed by first grade so they are as prepared as their white and Asian peers.

Leaders of the school system, which has spent $7.5 million to add preschool classes the last two years, said they found the results sobering and would launch an overhaul of classroom instruction and teacher training.

The findings of the study, which was commissioned by the school system, also are prompting questions about whether the city, pushed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, moved too quickly to add preschool classes.

"We ought to know what we are doing, so it's very clear we're not just offering child care, but that we're adding programs of substance and integrity," said Elizabeth Reilinger, chairwoman of the School Committee. "When kids are entering the first grade, they should have a sound footing or be a step ahead, not in remediation."

Menino has touted the expansion of preschool from 38 classes in 2004 to 78 this school year as part of the city's progress in education. The school system estimates it will spend at least $20 million a year on preschool education if it meets the mayor's goal of offering free preschool for all 4-year-olds in Boston by 2010.

The researchers also found that the four-year-olds were sitting in their seats (Like K-12 children) being lectured to and responding to flash cards.

For the full sad tale go here.

Florida is looking pretty good. In a statewide parent survey, 92 percent of parents reported satisfaction with their preschool choice and 88 percent reported that their children were progressing in reading and math.

Los Angeles Times Round III

Today we debate teacher tenure.

I say:

Despite Ralph and Walter's horror stories, there is a significant reason to be skeptical of our current tenure system in Los Angeles Unified. It has created intolerable working conditions for teachers, who are less concerned about "lifetime security" than their day-to-day school experience.

Tenure and lock-step salary schedules constrain the professional options of teachers and can create a less cohesive working environment. When principals have little control over their staff, working conditions suffer. Teachers need competition and choice among different kinds of work environments just as much as students.

Again Locke High School is representative of more general trends. The current system has failed when principal Frank Wells declares, "I went to Locke thinking I could turn it around, but I ran into a brick wall... The more you fail, the more money they throw at you. We're filthy rich; I don't want any more of your money. Send me quality teachers."

Wells needs control over his staff to make real changes at Locke. In addition, the number of Locke teachers willing to convert to a Green Dot charter, despite a high level of uncertainty as to each teacher's job security, speaks to the poor working conditions under LAUSD's current tenure-based system.

Evaluating Florida's Universal Preschool Vouchers

This seems like it will be a huge dilemma for the folks at Pre-K Now and other preschool advocacy groups. On the one hand, they lean heavily toward state-run preschool programs with teachers with bachelor’s degrees. Yet, Florida’s new evaluation of kindergartners seems to bode well for a choice-based program where the money follows the child.

Here is the Florida Department of Education press release.

Eighty-two percent of the students who finished pre-K could name random letters as they should, compared with 65 percent of those who did not take part and 71 percent of the children who took some pre-K but did not finish, Goff said.The findings represent students who took pre-K during the 2005-06 school year -- the program's inaugural year -- and are in kindergarten now.

The state screened more than 198,440 kindergartners and found more than 62,000 of them had completed the pre-K program.Based on the results, the state also launched a new Web site Tuesday that allows parents to look up how their child's particular pre-K program did, whether it is part of a day-care center, local church or public elementary school.Each pre-K provider has been given a "readiness rate" from zero to 300. Eighty-five percent statewide scored at least 200. "The higher the number, the better," Goff said.


While these results do not seem overwhelmingly compelling, especially given the research that shows little difference between children in the later grades. The bottom line is I do not see a huge difference between the performance of this choice based system and the more costly programs advocated by preschool advocates.

Yet these advocates still hate the choice-based program. For example, in today's Palm Beach Post, Pre-K Now's executive director, Libby Doggett says in a "Does anyone really think preparing half of Florida's children is a victory?" she asked, referring to the 52 percent of students who were scored the top rating on the inventory - the most reliable of the three tests in her book.

Yet, that is 12 percent more children than the regular school population who are ready for kindergarten. Given that we have zero demographic data about the UPK participants--except that we know lower income children are more likely to participate in "free programs," this doesn't seem like it should be outright dismissed by universal preschool advocates. And the Florida children who went through the program did even better on language and reading readiness assessments. Anyway, this seems pretty snarky from an advocate who regularly trumpets 1-5 point gains for state-funded programs on other assessments of readiness for four year olds.

At least Florida is being super-transparent about performance and, while not the only reliable indicator, parents will have some kind of benchmark to evaluate preschool.

The Proliferation of Charter School Choice.

For yet another look at the diversity of charter schools in the United States, check out these 53 charter schools, recognized by the Center for Education Reform for their excellence.

Similarly, the California charter schools association recently awarded accreditation to 39 charters based on rigorous standards and evaluation.

I like this ongoing trend of recognizing positive deviance--even within an inherently performance-based change-agent education movement. Say that five times...

Mayor's Ticket Wins

Will a win by the Mayor's candidates actually mean real reform for LAUSD? Yesterday I discussed the potential for reform in Los Angeles schools with a Mayor majority on the school board. However, I will believe in real reform when student outcomes change in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Times Round II

Let students vote with their dollars

By Lisa Snell

While transforming Los Angeles Unified will be a difficult job no matter who sits on the school board, I believe there are two significant impacts that could come from a win by the Mayor's candidates—Tamar Galatzan (District 3) and Richard Vladovic (District 7).

First, since they are more open to charter schools, they could help increase the number of high-quality schools in Los Angeles Unified through the direct approval of more charter schools or the support of Mayor-authorized charters. These new schools would be an immediate escape valve for those students languishing in low-performing schools like Locke high school. In addition, the competition from charters will continue to put pressure on the district to change its practices and make district-schools better performers.

Secondly, the Mayor's candidates could help the Mayor push for a school empowerment plan within Los Angeles Unified itself. In Mayor Villaraigosa's education reform plan, The Schoolhouse: A Framework to Give Every Child in LAUSD An Excellent Education, he calls for decentralizing public schools by driving more money into the classroom, empowering principals to make key decisions affecting their schools, and giving schools autonomy over school budgets. Under his plan, money would follow students into schools. Tamar Galatzan has also mentioned local control of budgets as her solution for dealing with district bureaucracy and inefficiency.

Read my whole thing here.

Save Los Angeles Kids Volume I

For the next week, I will debate Cal Poly Pomona professors Walter P. Coombs and Ralph E. Shaffer on the pros and cons of education reform proposals at the Los Angeles Times opinion pages.

The first installment is a debate over Mayor Villaraigosa as charter school authorizer in Los Angeles.

They say:

L.A. city councilman Richard Alarcón's plan to have Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa take over the Los Angeles Unified School district by using California's notoriously easy charter school route is a brilliant idea that just won't work. It's another noble effort easily sold to a gullible public but fraught with danger to the schools, the parents and the city.

I say:

Contrary to Walter and Ralph's claims, Richard Alarcón's plan to have Mayor Villaraigosa and the city council run charter schools is a sound plan with a very successful precedent in Indianapolis. Mayor Bart Peterson, a Democrat, has authorized 16 charter schools in Indianapolis since 2002, serving 4,000 children.

Richard and Walter are incorrect that charter schools cherry-pick students. The number of charter schools nationwide grew by 11% in 2006, serving a student body that is on average 53% minority and 54% low-income, according to the 2007 Annual Survey of America's Charter Schools, released last week by the Center for Education Reform.

In Indianapolis, charters have enrolled some of the most disadvantaged students in the city. These students enrolled in charters are far behind their peers in district-run public schools. On average 22% of new charter students passed the state assessment in reading and math, compared with 44% of students in the Indianapolis school district. Yet, these same students have made strong gains in charter schools over time. On average, charter schools have improved pass rates on the Indiana state assessment by 22 points between 2003 and 2005.

For the whole Los Angeles Time debate go here.

Education quote of the year:

VIA the Los Angeles Times:

The principal of one of Los Angeles' most troubled high schools lashed out at the city school system Thursday, saying the behemoth organization is resistant to dramatic reforms needed at his campus and other low-performing schools."It is criminal to allow a school to continue on year after year, the way this one has," said Frank Wells, head of Locke High School in South Los Angeles. "I went to Locke thinking I could turn it around, but I ran into a brick wall." ....

"The more you fail, the more money they throw at you," he said. "We're filthy rich; I don't want any more of your money. Send me quality teachers."

Charters by the Number

Now more than ever the biggest school choice program in America.

Via Center for Education Reform:

The number of charter schools nationwide grew by 11 percent in 2006, serving a student body that is on average 53 percent minority and 54 percent low-income, according to the 2007 Annual Survey of America's Charter Schools, released today by the Center for Education Reform (CER).

For more than a decade, charter schools have experienced double-digit annual growth.
The survey also found that charter school popularity continues to grow among children most in need. In 2006, more than four in ten charter schools served a student body composed of fully 60 percent or more "at risk" and/or minority students.

Nationwide, there are a total of 3,940 charter schools operating this school year, an increase of 323 from last year, according to the survey. A total of 1,156,874 students are enrolled in charter schools in the United States this school year, up 7.4 percent from last year's 1,076,964.

School Choice Revolution in Watts--Competition helps students and teachers

Via the Los Angeles Times, more news on why Steve Barr and Green Dot public schools has single-handedly brought more choices to Los Angeles children:

Challenging the balance of power in the city's public school system, a leading charter school organization is poised to wrest control of a failing high school from the elected Los Angeles Board of Education. ...

Under Green Dot's proposal, which because of state law the Los Angeles school board would appear to have little choice but to approve, the 2,800-student Watts campus would be divided into 10 small Green Dot schools beginning in fall 2008.

"It's a leap of faith, but if you believe in this partnership between Green Dot and Locke teachers, then you believe that we are trying to change education in Los Angeles by turning more attention to students' needs and empowering teachers," said Bruce Smith, an English teacher at the school.

Amid dozens of poor-performing middle and high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Locke has long languished as one of the worst. At least one of every two students drops out, while the majority who remain score at or near the bottom on standardized tests.

More than half of the school's 73 tenured teachers signed petitions this week expressing interest in converting Locke into Green Dot charters. Once verified, the petitions — copies of which were obtained by The Times and checked against a roster of the Locke faculty — would legally allow Green Dot to petition the board for control of the school. Many un-tenured teachers also signed the petitions.

This is my favorite part:

And Green Dot is proposing a clean break.

The group's charter petition — a copy of which was provided to The Times and which must be voted on by the seven-member school board — calls for Green Dot to receive its funding directly from the state, instead of allowing it to first pass through district coffers. Teachers who wish to remain at the deeply troubled school would have to re-apply for their jobs to principals hired by Green Dot. The extensive labor agreement negotiated by the district's teachers union would also be thrown out, as Locke teachers would work under the shorter, simpler pact signed by Green Dot's union.

Indeed, the plan promises to escalate the long-running power struggle that has pitted the fast growing Green Dot against the school board and the union, United Teachers Los Angeles — both of which have much to lose.Green Dot illustrates how school choice and competition offer relief and better conditions for both teachers and students. Green Dot is exhibit A in the case against the idea that competition will somehow have a negative impact on teachers.

Green Dot illustrates how school choice and competition offer relief and better conditions for both teachers and students. Green Dot is exhibit A in the case against the idea that competition will somehow have a negative impact on teachers.

A comeback...

I know, I haven't blogged in a long time. But I'm going to attempt a comeback. I still blog over at Reason Foundation's Out of Control Blog. I am going to make an effort to cross-post and add new posts here. It is sad when my eight year old is better at keeping up her blog.

Grading California's Education

Hi, it's Mr. Lisa Snell here, guesting for the old lady, whose traveling to Lexington even as we speak. The following is cross-posted at The Wine Commonsewer.

Looks like TWC may have to stop insulting people by asking them if they were educated in Californicate public schools. According to the latest information from my better half, California public schools have made tremendous strides in putting together a curriculum that actually focuses on education. I'm still skeptical but she's still the expert on the subject and she says....

Much has changed in the past decade in terms of curriculum in California schools. Democrats, allied with Republicans in the Legislature, required the state board of education in 1995 to ensure that instructional materials in math and reading teach systematic, explicit phonics, spelling and basic computational skills.

Whole thing here.

The local rag, the Riverside Press Enterprise, put together a special Sunday feature called Grading Education and asked a panel of experts to comment on various aspects of education here in the Golden State.

In his contribution, Lance Izumi outlines some of the same-same complaints that make rational people crazy.

....in an effort to be inclusive of women and racial minorities, the textbook lavishes attention on people of relatively minor consequence, like the woman who established the first tennis court......... The biography of Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani in American Nation is longer than the bio of Abraham
Lincoln.

Overall Grade: Still a lousy C overall. With a solid D + in public school finance and not much better marks for teaching poor kids.

For ten grand plus per kid we ought to see straight A's.

We Report. You Decipher.

As Ever,

TWC

No On California's Proposition 1-D

With Prop 1-D, California taxpayers are again being asked to sign off on a multi-billion dollar bond issue. Guess what? It's for the kids.

Our local school district has been flirting dangerously close to tax-paid advocacy and may be over the line in principle, if not in fact, when it used tax dollars to promote this bond issue in two direct mailings.

My analysis of this bond issue appears in the San Diego Union Tribune today.

Only one of the six new schools scheduled to open this fall in San Diego actually met the deadline for the first day of school. San Diego voters approved a $1.51 billion local bond measure in 1998 and were promised 13 new schools and three rebuilt schools. Most of these schools are behind schedule and over budget.

San Diego's experience is representative of the overall school construction process in California. Children continue to languish in deteriorating or overcrowded classrooms, but not because of a lack of money. In the past decade, California voters have approved nearly $100 billion in school construction bonds at the state and local level. The state still has more than $3 billion in school construction funds that have not been spent from the last school bond initiative. Yet, with Proposition 1D, voters are being asked to approve another $10.4 billion (costing taxpayers $20.3 billion with interest) for school construction.

Whole thing here.

Cupcakes Need Not Apply

I flew back from Chicago on Saturday, which didn't leave a lot of prep time for my son's birthday on Monday. I took him to breakfast and, at his request, picked up some of those awful cupcakes they sell at the supermarket with the intention of handing them out at the end of class.

Home baked goodies are already banned but I was surprised when Ms Eno reminded me of the new state law prohibiting cupcakes in California classrooms.

I then checked with the office for approved treats and learned that Pudding Cups are okay. Pudding Cups?

Oh Arnold, that's so MUCH better.

Non-fat milk, water, sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, modified corn starch, cocoa (processed with alkalai), salt, sodium stearoyl lactate, artificial lavors

140 calories of which 45 are from fat

16 grams sugar
21 grams carbs

On The Air In The Windy City

One explanation for calling it the Windy City because early Chicago politicians & boosters were so full of hot air.

I'm scheduled on Eileen Byrne show on WLS 890 (Chicago) at approximately 10:00 AM Central (8:00 AM PDT) Thursday July 27.

Listen live here.

Kids Can't Forge Notes Anymore

Things never change. Right? Seems like they don't but in my school district, the custom of sending a note to school explaining why your child was absent the day before has gone the way of the green chalkboard (they use white boards now). Administrators hope that the parents will make the call but if we don't the office secretary will. This must be more time efficient than filing odd shaped pieces of paper with scribbling all over them and it's certainly more convenient for parents.

My Kind Of Town

If you happen to have a couple of spare twenties and you happen to be in Chicago Thursday drop by the Metropolitan Club in the Sears Tower for lunch. I'll be the July headline act for The Heartland Institute's 2006 Educational Choice Speaker Series.

Off To Wisconsin

It eats up your weekend to fly on Sunday morning, but Lisa is scheduled to testify before the Wisconsin legislature Monday morning so she's off to LAX. She'll be pointing out the pitfalls of the plan to lock Cheesehead kids into a universal pre-school style plan.

She was a bit glum about the prospects and the flight. Being that my glass is always half-empty, I cheered her up with my observation that in fifty years all this wouldn't much matter because the state will mandate universal tax-paid public education from birth to age twenty.

That put a little fire in her eyes.

Probably, she countered, but I still beat Rob Reiner.

With a little help from her friends, a couple twenties, and some bailing wire, she turned back the rising tide.

And what's so small to you
Is so large to me
If it's the last thing I do
I'll make you see

Like Suzanne Vega, Lisa's got a Rock In Her Pocket.

She appreciates all of your support.

(posted by Lisa's Mister)

Cross Posted at The Winecommonsewer

First Day Of School

It's 2006 and my kids go to a public school in an upscale neighborhood. Why am I filling out Emergency Notification Cards in ink, by hand? Worse, there is a blue one and a white one containing identical information, both of which must be completed in detail, presumably to be filed in some sort of oversize throwback of a card catalogue for reference by the office staff at Wilson Elementary School in Eagle Glen. The cards are even labeled, so color blind people can tell the difference. The blue one says blue at the bottom and the white one says white. I'm guessing that grew out of George Bush I's ADA act.

Again, it's 2006. The hard drive on my laptop is big enough to contain the names, addresses, and phone numbers for every student in the district (including Great Aunt Susie's cell phone number).

California spends ten grand plus per student per year, you'd think they could pop for a $1,500.00 computer to keep track of student emergency notification information. Or maybe they already use a computer. But if that was the case why would they ask each parent to complete two identical cards, one white, one blue.

What Are They Learning?

The three of us sisters and our families spent July 3rd at Huntington State Beach, which is exponentially more crowded than any beach in Hawaii. After a day in the sun, Jacob's ten-year-old cousin, Clayton, came home with us and stayed most of the week.

Over grilled burgers one night, we were all regaling Clay with stories of our recent trip to Maui, and explaining how much warmer the Pacific Ocean is in Hawaii compared with Southern California.

His response? Well, that's because of global warming.

....Cuz I Like Pina Coladas



At Napili Beach after Coconut Shrimp and the best French Onion soup ever.

82: Down In Flames

This isn't news any more so I just want to thank everyone for their support throughout this campaign. It is rare to best the educational establishment, particularly in California. The few of us throwing rocks at Goliath feel especially vindicated now.

Is it too late to say here today, gone to Maui? We were on an early flight the day after the election......

No On 82

The same public school establishment that cannot keep your child safe in high school asks that you let them have your four year olds. Hyperbole? Perhaps, but it isn't much of a stretch.

New York Times: David Brooks Says No On 82

That isn't a big surprise coming from Mr. Brooks and this is nevertheless an important piece. It's a Sunday NYT op-ed and will be read nationwide by an audience who may not be familiar with California's Prop 82 or the concept of Universal Preschool in general (coming to your state soon). Any negative light cast is welcome.

Read the whole story here. Registration may be required.

I hope this doesn't jinx the whole thing but the latest polls show Universal Preschool votes at 41% in favor and 46% against. That's a drop of twenty percentage points over the last couple months.

Cross your fingers.

Preschool Heroes (Davids) & Villians (Goliaths)

Over at Tykes on Trikes I'm listed as one of the heroes of the war on the Meathead Initiative (Prop 82). That put a big smile on my face.

On Air Now

I'm on KFSO right now with David Gold.

Bay Area listeners can tune in 560 AM or listen live here.

I'll also be on KFSO again at 4:10 - 4:30 on the Barbara Simpson show.

Thanks for your interest.

Upcoming Appearances

I'll be on C-Span's Washington Journal to discuss the universal preschool proposal on California's June 6 ballot, Saturday, June 3, at 9 a.m. EDT/6 a.m. PDT. For more information or to watch the program online, go here.

I'm also scheduled on KABC's The Al Rantel Show at 2:00 p.m. Eastern/11:00 a.m. Pacific on Monday, June 5. Listen live here. KABC is home to Larry Elder and Sean You're A Great American Hannity. For LA Metro & The OC tune in to AM 790

You can listen to an archive of my appearance on the Larry Mantle Show on KPCC radio here.

Thanks, once again, for your support and all of your emails.

On With The Junkyard Dogs of Talk Radio

I'm scheduled for the four o'clock hour (PDT) with John & Ken on KFI AM 640 this afternoon along with Chris Cardiff, one of two authors of the new study noted below.

Click here to listen live.

Click on the picture above (or click here) for a podcast of a recent Prop 82 public appearance in Los Angeles.

It should stream in Windows Media Player but it seems to want to download in other applications.

Run time is about a half hour.

Thanks for your interest.

Reexamining RAND's Economic Case for Universal Preschool

New Study: California's Preschool Benefits Were Miscalculated & Overstated

A Rand Corporation study that claims universal preschool will deliver $2.62 in benefits for every dollar spent by California taxpayers has been thoroughly discredited by two San Jose State University economics professors who show the Rand preschool study "cherry-picked" data, based its claims on "unbelievable assumptions that bias the results," and omitted numerous costs and other factors that significantly lower the alleged benefits of universal preschool. The review of the Rand report, published by the Reason Foundation, uses Rand's own data and methodology and finds that California would actually lose 25 to 30 cents for every dollar spent on universal preschool when just a few of the Rand report's most glaring mistakes are corrected. And the Reason study concludes those losses would be even greater if many of the proposed preschool program's costs, wrongly excluded from Rand's calculations, were included in the analysis.

As Project Director, I am quoted in the Press Release:

It turns out the emperor has no clothes. The oft-cited Rand study doesn't stand up to basic scrutiny and universal preschool can't deliver on the overly optimistic promises that Rand and others have made. Instead of spending billions each year and naively hoping universal preschool will deliver a miracle, we need to fix our state's broken educational system.

Full Study Online Here

Press Release Here

Little Johnny Does Islam

The same 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled the phrase under God in the Pledge of Allegiance to be an unconstitutional imposition of religion on the inmates of the public school system recently ruled that.....

Reciting aloud Muslim prayers that begin with "In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful . . "

Memorizing the Muslim profession of faith: "Allah is the only true God and Muhammad is his messenger."

Chanting "Praise be to Allah" in response to teacher prompts.

Professing as "true" the Muslim belief that "The Holy Quran is God's word."

Giving up candy and TV to demonstrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Designing prayer rugs, taking an Arabic name and essentially "becoming a Muslim" for two full weeks.

......is not.

Imagine a teacher asking her class to give up candy in order to better understand Prayer and Fasting week at the local Baptist church. Uh-huh.

The lesson in this is a simple one. Public Education is an oligopoly that is largely controlled by a few well-connected individuals and organizations that are in ridgid philosophical lockstep with one another.

The debate will rage around what is taught and who gets to pick course material. But the real resolution won't come until there is something approaching choice in public education.

As my husband is fond of saying, lot's of people are pro-choice until it comes to public education.

Whole story here. More here.

Hat Tip to Nobody's Business.

On Air Now....

I'm talking about Universal Preschool on the Larry Mantle Show right now.

Listen in So Cal on KPCC 89.3 FM or go here and listen live.

Thanks

UPDATE: One of my husband's clients just called him and asked if that was really me (Lisa) that he just heard on the radio. Always nice to know that somebody is listening out there.

UPDATE: Listen to the archived show here. Scroll down to May 26, Proposition 82.

Requires Real Player which you can download free here.

I'm delighted that the following Op-Ed appeared in the Orange County Register this morning here (free registration may be required)

Preschool for all? Don't feed the beast

Claims that preschool boosts reading scores later are at odds with history

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lisa Snell is director of education at Reason Foundation

"Preschool for All" supporters keep moving the goalposts in the debate over universal preschool, desperately searching for an argument that can actually hold up to scrutiny.

First, it was important to get all kids into preschool. But it turns out two-thirds of California's kids are already in preschool, and taxpayers would be paying over $2.4 billion a year just to inch that total up to 70 percent.

Now supporters say universal preschool will improve California's dismal national reading performance. In a new report, "Building Blocks of Reading," advocates of Proposition 82, the "Preschool for All" initiative pushed by actor/director Rob Reiner, argue that universal preschool will help to prevent reading difficulties in young children. Half of all the state's fourth-graders are failing basic reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide test of reading achievement. And California fourth-graders perform significantly worse than students in 44 other states, so we certainly need to improve.

Unfortunately, we're going to need to find another way to fix our schools and reading scores because the data clearly shows preschool is not a silver bullet that improves reading achievement.

U.S. preschool enrollment has increased dramatically, jumping from 16 percent in 1965 to 66 percent today. But getting kids into school earlier has not translated into higher test scores. "Student achievement has stagnated or fallen in most subjects since 1970. … That is the verdict of the five most reliable sources of evidence," the report's author, education researcher Andrew Coulson, reports.

Georgia and Oklahoma in the 1990s became the first two states to implement universal preschool. We see disappointing results from both states, especially in reading.

Oklahoma and Georgia, both with universal preschool now in place for years, scored below the national average in fourth-grade reading on the standard National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in 2005. In fact, Georgia and Oklahoma ranked in the bottom 10 of states for increasing fourth-grade reading scores from 1992 to 2005.

Oklahoma is often hailed as the national model for universal preschool. Yet, it was the worst performer of all states in terms of making gains in fourth-grade reading during the years 1992 to 2005, actually losing 4 percentage points.

Thirty-three percent of Oklahoma's fourth-graders were reading at a level below "basic" in 1992. By 2005, that number was 40 percent. While the number of kids reading below the basic level was increasing, the number of fourth-graders reading at a basic level was falling. In 1992, 38 percent of Oklahoma fourth-graders scored basic in reading but by 2005 the number had slipped to 35 percent.

These reading scores fell despite the fact that all the children that took the 2005 reading tests were eligible for universal preschool. One would probably assume that Oklahoma's large, statewide investment in universal preschool, including highly paid, credentialed teachers and a high-quality curriculum, would have a positive effect on fourth-grade reading scores. Clearly, it did not.

Meanwhile, none of the states that made the biggest improvements in fourth-grade reading scores on the NAEP tests during 1992-2005 had implemented universal preschool.

One factor behind preschool's failure to boost reading scores is "fade out." A UC Santa Barbara study this year found preschoolers were more prepared for kindergarten than nonpreschoolers, but that those advantages faded away by the third grade, and thus preschool had "limited use as a long-term strategy for improving the achievement gap." This "fade out" phenomenon has been replicated in many large-scale preschool studies.

After years of so-called reform efforts aimed at improving subpar reading performance in California schools, universal preschool has become the latest panacea. Universal preschool is not a silver bullet. California test scores since 1970 and, more recently, Georgia and Oklahoma's universal preschool results, clearly show universal preschool is not a "Building Block for Reading."

Miserable reading scores are just one example of our broken educational system. Adding a new $2.4 billion-per-year preschool layer to the existing failing bureaucracy won't help. As Ronald Reagan would say: Don't feed the beast.

California Supreme Court Reinstates Exit Exam

High School seniors who failed California's proficiency exam will be disappointed to learn that they probably are not going to graduate.

That seems almost impossible because earning a passing grade on the proficiency exam only requires slightly more than half the right answers on a test that is geared to 8th grade math and 10th grade English.

Right now I'm just really scared, said Mansi Goshi, a Magnolia High School (Anaheim) senior who has a 3.4 GPA but hasn't passed the exit exam. Last week, she thought she might get a diploma.

I think the appropriate question is not whether or not a student should be given (yes, given) a high school diploma for keeping a seat warm. Instead we should ask our public high schools how any student can finish 12th grade with a 3.4 GPA and not have proficiency in English at the 10th grade level and math at the 8th grade level.

Full story here (registration may be required). More here.

Update on Full Focus

Apparently the show I'm taping this afternoon in San Diego will air at 6:30 PDT broadcast from SDSU (the Party School of the Great Southwest) on KBPS Channel 15 San Diego.

The show will be archived here for a week. You can access the archive using Windows Media Player.

Thanks for your interest.

No Offense High School

The latest incident in the public school culture wars comes from Liberty High School in Texas.

Liberty is a first-year school and commemorated that event by portraying the first-year brand new Jefferson nickel on the cover of the year book. Of course, that meant removing the phrase In God We Trust from the yearbook's cover image.

Janet Travis, principal of Liberty Elementary School in Colleyville, wanted to avoid offending students of different religions.

The ACLU is delighted, calling the removal appropriate, sensitive, and constitutional, but many parents are less than delighted and some are angry. One parent suggested......

.....that the school could have used a different symbol for liberty, such as the Liberty Bell or the Statue of Liberty, if it was concerned about giving offense.

But Liberty PTA honcho Tom Gardner said...Get This...

those symbols may not be acceptable to everyone, either.

Aside from the tremendous waste of time and effort that could have been spent on productive pursuits, they could have avoided all of this by naming the school something like No Offense High School and skipped the concept of Liberty altogether.

Public schools already do that on a daily basis anyway.

Whole thing here.

Hat Tip to Jeff Taylor at Reason Express

On Air This Afternoon

I'll be in Pasadena today as a guest on Patt Morrison's show on KPCC (NPR) . It is scheduled live for 2:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time (5:00 EDT). I'm probably debating former venture capitalist Phil Halperin (again), president of Silver Giving and huge supporter of Universal Preschool. I'm tentatively scheduled for the early part of the program.

There's a listen live radio button on KPCC's main page or if you're local tune in 89.3 FM.

Upcoming Appearances

On Wednesday I'm taping a half hour segment in LA for Adlephia Cable's local programming. Later in the day I'll be in San Diego taping for the KPBS Full Focus show. I'm not sure when that will air so check back for updates.

Thanks for your interest and support in reforming public education.

Banned In The Desert

I was barred from the Pro-82 press conference in Indio so I hung around outside with my lowly stack of photocopied LA Times editorials from this morning (see previous post).

On their way out, camera crews from the NBC & CBS affilliates in Palm Springs interviewed me. Send me an email and let me know if I made the Six O'Clock news. Thanks.

CBS is Channel 2 and NBC is KMIR Channel 6 in the desert communities of Palm Springs, La Quinta, Indio, Palm Desert...........

LA Times Says NO on Prop 82

This may or may not be a coup but it is certainly a huge boost to those of us struggling to keep Meathead's mitts off the fridge.

.......Proposition 82, the initiative on the June 6 ballot that would provide preschool free of charge to every 4-year-old in California, has a defect common to most initiatives: It's so poorly designed that it could do more harm than good. Californians should vote no on Proposition 82.

The initiative would set up a cumbersome bureaucracy and place it under the state Department of Education, which has done a disappointing job with K-12 schools. It would make taxpayer-funded preschool available to middle-class and rich families, which can easily afford it. It could worsen the teacher shortage by draining public schools of qualified teachers. And though the initiative allows private preschools to become part of the system, it's written in such a way to favor programs at public schools.

In order to pay for 25,000 to 50,000 additional children in preschool, taxpayers would foot the bill for the 325,000 other 4-year-olds already in preschool. That's partly why the measure is so expensive.

Whole story here (registration may be required)

Now, I've got to run off to Indio and crash a press conference.

Me & Goliath

There are a few other voices in the darkness besides mine and we all feel a little like Biblical David. It is a long uphill struggle to drive a stake into the heart of Universal Preschool in California.

The measure (Prop 82) drew $2.4 million in contributions in 2005, much of it from Reiner's earnings as producer of Castle Rock Entertainment and from his father, actor and comedian Carl Reiner. Other prominent donors included Los Angeles billionaire Eli Broad, Warner Brothers President Alan Horn, author Robert Mailer Anderson, Paypal co-founder Elon Musk, DreamWorks Studios CEO David Geffen, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and San Francisco financier Warren Hellman, a Republican.

Californians to Stop Higher Taxes, reorganized in November to fight Prop. 82, raised roughly $185,000 last year. Contributors included San Francisco Republican John Fisher of the family that owns the Gap children's and adult apparel chain.

From the San Francisco Chronicle story, here.

Meathead's Silver Bullet

I was quoted this morning in an Associated Press story by Juliet Williams that appeared in the Washington Post, Forbes.com, MSNBC and dozens of other places.

Unfortunately, the gist of the story was a positive spin on the California's proposed Universal Preschool Initiative (Prop 82).

The No on Proposition 82 campaign referred questions to Lisa Snell, director of education at the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation. She has been critical of the June ballot initiative but is not part of the campaign. Snell said the best use of limited preschool money would be in small-scale, intensive intervention programs for low-income and minority children. She said similar programs, such as those in Oklahoma and Georgia,have not produced significant academic gains.

I think that they (Prop 82 proponents) are counting on it being a silver bullet for fixing reading achievement in California. In the other two states that have universal programs it really hasn't panned out for them yet in reading achievement.

Whole thing here or here.

Not For The Convenience of Any Parent

Lisa had to turn down an appearance on network TV on Friday. Why? Well, the House Blond, Katie, has the lead in the second grade production of Little Red Riding Hood. Obviously the right choice.

Then it occurs to me. Why is the play happening at 2:00 in the afternoon when most parents are at work? In fact, almost every public school event is scheduled during regular school hours. That seems like a big change from my day when most school events were scheduled for the evening so that the parents could attend after work hours.

What is up with that? Is there some kind of union work rules that dictate teachers only have to put in an evening appearance on Back To School Night and for Open House?

As Ever,

The Designated Spouse

Visit the Designated Spouse at The Winecommonsewer

The Latest In The War On The Meathead Initiative

On Tuesday morning, May 16, I will debate Prop 82 live from the Embarcadero in San Francisco on AM 960, The Quake (the Will & Willie Show) scheduled for 8:05 through 8:30 AM.

Listen live here.

I appreciate your interest.

"New" Laptops for Teachers

Florida Governor Jeb Bush's proposal to give a laptop to every teacher in Florida is big news this week.

All of Florida's nearly 164,000 public school teachers would receive laptop computers under a $237 million plan to recruit and retain educators, which Gov. Jeb Bush unveiled Monday at North Miami Middle School.

This story is shocking for what it tells us about the state of public education in America. With average per-pupil spending hovering around $10,000, a classroom of twenty students generates approximately $200,000 for a school district. A laptop computer for a teacher should be a standard expense of any public school. It is ridiculous that laptops are "extra" and goes to the inefficiency of the entire system. At the California charter school where I serve as a board member, laptops for our teachers are just part of the regular cost of educating children.

No wonder their is a labor shortage in education. Professionals want to be provided with the tools to do their job. School districts already receive plenty of money to afford a laptop for every teacher.

No Way Out: Community Edition

Its not always just individual families that want to escape a low-performing school district. The Los Angeles Times reports on an entire community desperate to escape. Of course their home district is holding them and their money hostage.

The move also would have meant that Ladera residents no longer would help pay off Inglewood school bonds — although they would have been required to chip in for those in the Culver City district.

Unless Inglewood got enough new homes or other development to make up the difference, Inglewood taxpayers would have had to shoulder more of the burden of paying off the bonds.
Several committee members nonetheless expressed sympathy for the Ladera Heights residents, who said they have tried for years to work with Inglewood to improve the schools before giving up and seeking a better situation for their children.

"I appreciate very much what the Ladera Heights people are trying to achieve," committee member Lloyd de Llamas said. But, he said, he could not vote for a transfer that would shift so much of the property tax base from one district to another.

"I hate to think that education has come down to just being about money," said committee member Frank Bostrom, one of the two "no" votes against rejecting the proposal.

People in Ladera Heights, a largely residential community of about 8,000 people, say they have long been unhappy with the Inglewood schools, citing low test scores and a rate of high turnover in district leadership.

Many send their children to private schools or get permits to let them attend campuses in other districts. According to school district records, fewer than 350 students from Ladera Heights attend Inglewood schools.

Amazon Rocks: Public School Edition

A great New York Daily News investigation into the New York City Department of Education book purchasing practices.

The bottom line: Amazon and Barnes and Noble are much cheaper!

Despite massive buying power that could muscle big discounts, the city's Department of Education pays more for some books than everyday online bargain-hunters, a Daily News investigation found.

An analysis of 25 popular children's books and literary novels found that principals and teachers who buy through the department's Fastrack purchasing system spend an average of $1.76 more per tome than shoppers who choose the lowest-priced book on Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble's Web site.

With 1.1 million students, city schools could negotiate rock-bottom prices for nearly anything they need to buy, yet a paperback copy of the Dickens classic "David Copperfield" costs them at least $5.94 - $3.30 more than the price on Amazon.com.

A school that wants "The Complete Chronicles of Narnia" in hardcover would have to spend an extra $19.50 to buy the collection at the school's $51 price, instead of Amazon's $31.50.

Lisa Guest of Walter Williams On The Limbaugh Show

This is the trusty husband, guest posting...... and braggin' on the Old Lady.

Walter Williams will be sitting in for Rush Limbaugh on Friday January 20, 2006 and barring some off-the-wall Murphyism, Lisa will join him during the 1:00 pm (EST) hour (10:00 am PST). I'm betting the Meathead Initiative will come up, but the they'll be discussing education generally as well as education choice, particularly in view of the Florida Supers, who recently went on record in finding educational choice to be unconstitutional by saying that....

....private schools aren't uniform when compared with each other or (with) the public system

Now, there's a revelation. In the words of Huey Lewis, Sometimes Bad Is Bad, and, apparently so long as it's uniformly bad, like say, Compton or Oakland, then it's okay. They certainly didn't mean districts like ours where some schools are high performing and some are, well, not uniform. Your Results May Vary. Wait. If public schools aren't actually uniform, then Fla's public schools are, by definition, unconstitutional. Gladys! Get Fla on the line.

Ron Meyer, lead attorney for the coalition that included the teachers union, the PTA, League of Women Voters, & the NAACP that challenged the voucher program had this to say.

It (the victory) means that Florida's taxpayers will not be forced to pay for schools which are unaccountable. The public schools of Florida will welcome the return of these voucher students at the end of the school year.

Not mentioned is this: The 700 affected students are 95% minority and will be welcomed back to the absolute dregs of the most abysmal schools in Florida. Those students vouchered out of the public school system in the first place because the program was designed to get kids out of the worst of Florida's failing schools.

On that note, anybody see John Stossel's Stupid In America: How We Cheat Our Kids Friday night? A calculated effort to induce anger and tears to be sure, but it worked.

Institute for Justice represented the families and has the details of the whole sordid affair here.

This was originally posted at The Wine Commonsewer

TWC

On the Radio

For those of you in the northeast, I and possibly, Shikha Dalmia (live from India), am scheduled to appear on John Batchelor's talk show around 9:30 pm EST on Boston's WRKO. The main goal is Meathead bashing so it may be fun. Thanks for your interest.

You can listen live from WRKO's page here.

Universal Preschool on the Backs of Poor and Minority Women.

My brilliant colleague and friend Shikha Dalmia and I continue with our one-two punch to Rob Reiner and his plans for universal preschool in California. I post today's full Wall Street Journal piece below. A subscription is required to get it from the WSJ.

I also link to our piece from Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle which examines the unintended consequences of Quebec's universal preschool program which costs 33 times original projections - and yet isn't producing academic improvements.


The Wall Street Journal
COMMENTARY

'Meathead' Is at It Again
By SHIKHA DALMIA and LISA SNELL
December 8, 2005; Page A16

LOS ANGELES -- Celebrities with a social conscience are a growing breed in Hollywood. But it would be nice if they'd stick to whales and landmines and leave our children alone.

Unfortunately, California parents have no such luck. Movie-director-turned-child-advocate Rob Reiner recently acquired a million signatures to put his Preschool for All initiative on the California ballot next June, his second attempt to launch a "universal" preschool program. The initiative would impose a 1.7% income tax on couples making over $800,000 a year ($400,000 for individuals) to offer three hours of free preschool for all the state's 4-year-olds.

This soak-the-rich scheme would put $2.3 billion into the state's coffers that Mr. Reiner might himself control if he unseats Arnold Schwarzenegger as the next governor of California. (The gubernatorial ambitions of Mr. Reiner -- who once played Meathead alongside Archie Bunker in "All in the Family" -- are an open secret in the Golden State).

But the people most dreading Mr. Reiner's latest foray are not the super-rich, who would no doubt find ways to dodge -- by moving out of the state if necessary -- what would effectively be a 19% increase in their tax rate. The real victims would be low- to middle-income women who run nearly all private early-care centers that comprise 70% of California's child-care industry. The onerous credentialing requirements and union mandates that the initiative would trigger would devastate the industry's entrepreneurs without improving instruction one iota.

Consider Cynthia Leahy, founder of Montessori Schools of Fremont. She started her first center 30 years ago in a small Sunday school with nothing except her Montessori training and her "sweat equity," she says. From these humble beginnings, she has created a thriving little Montessori empire consisting of five schools catering to 400 kids of all age groups from infants to high-schoolers. She employs 68 people, 80% of whom are minorities, a reflection of the predominantly nonwhite, professional, immigrant community that is so typical of Silicon Valley. But she fears that the Reiner initiative would make it impossible for private Montessori schools to survive and throw her life's work into jeopardy -- not to mention the livelihood of her staff.

The initiative would require all preschool teachers to obtain both a bachelor's degree and a one-year certificate in early childhood development by 2014. All of Ms. Leahy's teachers already have bachelor's and even master's degrees, followed by a very intense training in the Montessori method. Asking these teachers to spend thousands of dollars to return to school for a certificate that is of zero value in their classrooms is ridiculous. Ms. Leahy fears that this would prompt moms on her staff to quit along with others who are close to retirement, leaving her with a disproportionate number of younger, inexperienced teachers.

But Dennis Vicars, CEO of the Professional Association for Childhood Education (PACE) -- an organization that also advocates universal preschool but by enhancing parental choice -- has even deeper fears for the fate of private schools. He notes that the initiative would potentially make Ceera (California Educational Employment Relations Act) -- the California labor law that is even more friendly to unions than its notorious federal corollary -- binding on private schools that accept any initiative funds. These schools would be forced to pay wages on the K-12 teacher scale negotiated through a mandatory collective bargaining process, and they might even have to submit any disciplinary action against employees to union-prescribed arbitration.

In other words, these schools would end up paying higher wages for less experienced staff over whom they would have little control. Fully private schools like Ms. Leahy's can avoid union and other government meddling by foregoing initiative funds -- at the risk, of course, of being driven out of business by public schools offering fully subsidized care.

Women like Iris Fox, who runs California Young World in Sunnyvale, don't even have this Hobson's choice. Her school, though private, is a nonprofit that receives government grants for low-income kids. It is therefore automatically subject to all state regulations. This means that if Mr. Reiner succeeds, Ms. Fox would have to ask all her teaching aides -- who face no government requirements right now -- to spend two years obtaining an associate's degree, as required by the initiative. This would be difficult for many of them because they are immigrants who speak English only as a second language. Ms. Fox hires them expressly to help communicate with the polyglot mélange of kids from Vietnam, India, Lebanon and China in her classrooms. These aides would find something else to do, she fears, leaving her much more dependent on staff that cannot fully connect with the kids.

Even more bizarrely, she points out, the regulations would impose a curious double standard, forcing her to pay more than twice as much to the preschool teaching staff, which would be covered by the initiative's collective bargaining mandate, than the regular staff, which would not.

California's teacher unions lobbied for the collective bargaining provisions in the initiative, although they are still withholding their formal blessing to express their displeasure at its failure to prohibit private participation in the program, as Mr. Reiner's previous preschool initiative did. But given how difficult it would be for private providers to meet the credentialing and salary requirements, the current initiative may have the same effect.

Driving out women and minorities, closing down private providers, and delivering preschools to a union monopoly would of course all be worth it if, in the end, children were better off. But studies have found virtually no gains on cognitive outcomes for preschoolers taught by teachers with bachelor's degrees.

But the most powerful evidence that Mr. Reiner's requirements would, if anything, hurt rather than help California's kids is California's K-12 public school system itself. After all, it is run by teachers with precisely the kind of fancy education degrees drawing union wages that Mr. Reiner wants in preschools. California's fourth graders' reading and math scores are 47th among the 50 states on national tests. Furthermore, a study by the Rand Corporation this year found California's children trailing on every objective measurement of student achievement -- even after controlling for its disproportionate number of low-income, minority kids.

Mr. Reiner is a fine film director. But this initiative is a turkey, not a blockbuster. It would be better for California's 4-year-olds if he'd leave his initiative on the cutting room floor.

Ms. Dalmia is a senior analyst and Ms. Snell the director of education policy at Reason Foundation, a California-based free-market think tank.

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113400678561116975.html

Wal-Mart News

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 11,000 apply for 400 openings at retailer's new Oakland store.


Apparently they missed the teachers' union message:

Consumers shopping for back-to-school supplies are being asked to boycott Wal-Mart by the nations' biggest teachers unions and other labor leaders, who contend the company's pay and benefit policies cost taxpayers and hurt communities.

School Cheating Epidemic-Among Adults



Last week, Esther Jones, the principal of Santa Ana's Saddleback High School, circulated a memo asking teachers to reassess the failing grades of 98 students in hopes of helping the school meet the federal No Child Left Behind Act's standards. The note read, "please review your records for these students and determine if they would merit a grade of 'D' instead of a failure."

My opinion piece from Sunday's Orange County Register continues here. Registration may be required.

How Schools Cheat Florida Edition

The Primary Sources section of the July/August 2005 issue of The Atlantic looks at a study of how Florida suspended more low-scoring students than high-scoring students during testing periods--even when the students committed similar school crimes.

From The Atlantic:

Since 2001, when the No Child Left Behind Act tied federal school funding to performance on annual tests for students in grades three through eight, critics have charged that the law encourages schools to boost their test scores artificially. A new study of one potential score-padding maneuver—suspending probable low scorers to prevent them from taking the test—provides grist for this argument. Researchers examined more than 40,000 disciplinary cases in Florida schools from the 1996-1997 school year (when Florida instituted its own mandatory testing) to the 1999-2000 school year. They found that when two students were suspended for involvement in the same incident, the student with the higher test score tended to have a shorter suspension. This isn't in itself surprising: high achievers are often cut some slack. But the gap was significantly wider during the period when the tests were administered, and it was wider only between students in grades being tested that year.

The full study —"Testing, Crime and Punishment," David N. Figlio, National Bureau of Economic Research, is here.

You can read all about potential score-padding maneuvers in my Reason, June 2005, How Schools Cheat story.

Head Start Round UP or perhaps down

Julian Sanchez over at Reason's Hit and Run, has a round up of the various Head Start headlines.

Interesting to see the different spins on a new report gauging the effectiveness of Head Start:

Washington Post: "Head Start Children Show Some Gains"
Washington Times: "Head Start fails nearly half of study's 30 measurements"


NPR: "Head Start Study Suggests Minimal Benefits"


Head Start press release: "New Head Start Impact Study Shows 'Very Promising' Early Results, Points to Success of Program Boosting School Readiness of America's Most At-Risk Children. NHSA Warns of 'Politically Motivated Distortions' From Head Start Critics With Track Record of Negativity Toward the Program"

That last one's particularly telling—a kind of scrambling preemptive strike that reeks of desparation—but it's probably necessary to read the full report before jumping to conclusions. I do wonder, though, whether if the negative assessment is borne out, Head Start will stop being this sort of exemplar of what's wrong with libertarians and small-government conservatives (i.e. "These people even would repeal Head Start! It's puppies in blenders next!").


Unfortunately, spending billions on universal preschool is on the docket next and the libertarians and small-government conservatives who have reservations about turning a mixed preschool market over to the state will continue to be portrayed as the puppies in blender camp.

California Assembly to become Textbook Publisher

Since the legislature has already outlawed homemade cookies and cupcakes for school birthday parties, now the state assembly has voted to limit all school textbooks to 200 pages.

From a San Jose Mercury News editorial:

Maybe Democrats in the state Assembly should just go ahead and write textbooks for California's students. They're so confident they know what constitutes a good one.

For instance, who knew that making a textbook longer than 200 pages was such a bad idea that there needs to be a law against it?

Well, 42 Assembly Democrats knew. On Thursday they approved AB 756, a bill by Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, that says: Neither the State Board of Education nor a local school district ``may adopt instructional materials that exceed 200 pages in length.''

Textbooks, the bill's supporters argued, should sum up the basics and then refer students to the Internet and to libraries for the rest. Plus, shorter is lighter and cheaper.

Maybe. Their assumption doesn't seem that obvious to us. It seems like something that ought to be decided -- just brainstorming here -- by actually reading each proposed textbook, as opposed to laying down an arbitrary limit.

The bill doesn't jibe with other instructions (some from the Legislature) that textbook publishers have been getting to avoid textbooks that are just dry columns of words. They must be full of pictures and charts. And in each subject, they have to cover the state's comprehensive curriculum requirements. This makes them longer.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

A few weeks ago, the Democratic leader in the Senate, Don Perata of Oakland, held a news conference to say that his colleagues were committed to more funding for education and less interference in day-to-day decisions.

National Implications of Florida Voucher Case

I share my op-ed in today's San Diego Tribune.

Via Reason Alert:

State Aid for Students at Private Schools

"Last school year, more than 200,000 of California's college students received Cal Grants from the state government (via taxpayers) to help cover the costs at the public or private university of their choice, including religious colleges, like the University of San Diego. But that may change. Next week the Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether that state's Opportunity Scholarships Program, which provides the parents of more than 700 students in failing public schools the right to move to better-performing schools, including religious schools, violates the state constitution because it provides 'aid' to religious schools in violation of the Florida Constitution's Blaine Amendment. The most obvious flaw in the claim is that the program doesn't provide aid to religious schools, but to parents and their kids in failing schools. Nevertheless, lawyers on both sides agree the decision will have implications for states like California, where financial aid winds up at religious institutions. Today, 38 states, including California, have placed some restrictions on government aid going to sectarian schools." - In today's San Diego Union Tribune, Reason's Lisa Snell writes that failing public schools, school choice, and the separation of church and state have been rolled into one Florida Supreme Court case that will likely impact the rest of the country.

Unfortunately, My 2001 Prediction about Edison and the Chester, Pennsylvania School District was Correct

In the last couple of days the end of Edison's contract in Chester, Pennsylvania school district has been big news. In 2001 in this policy brief, I first predicted the failure of this contract:

The Role of Interference in Failure

With each new school contract signed, it seems that Edison loses more autonomy. The company currently has a deal with the Chester Upland School District. But Education Association members there voted against an agreement that would have allowed more frequent teacher evaluations and extended the length of both school days and the school year. No, doubt these compromises impact the way future contracts are negotiated.

Unfortunately, thirty years of research demonstrates a very low rate of success in privatization efforts where contractors are unable to make decisions about their employees. A comprehensive World Bank study of 200 privatization contracts found that all but one of contracts overseeing an unsuccessful privatization effort included limitations on the contractor’s freedom and authority over labor. In contrast, all of the successful contracts gave the contractor maximum autonomy over personnel decisions—including the ability to fire personnel and set wages.

From CNN's report on the end of the Chester Upland contract:

Edison Schools, a for-profit company hired four years ago to run eight of the city's nine schools, is pulling out in June, partly because it has not gotten paid about $4 million in fees.

The decision followed a tumultuous year that began poorly -- with book shortages, teacher shortages, and a riot at the high school that led to 28 arrests -- and got steadily worse, with Edison at the mercy of local officials when it came to control over the district's finances and getting the information it needed to do its job.

Among other things, it turned out that the district's poor accounting concealed a $35 million budget deficit. District officials said recently that without an immediate loan to pay teachers, the system would have just $9 left in the bank.

"We have not been able to work well together," Edison spokesman Adam Tucker said. "We knew that we were no longer going to be enough of an active agent for positive change."

In the policy brief linked above, I detail all the reasons that Edison's contracts violate classic privatization best practices that are essential elements for successful privatization contracts.

In this December 2002 Reason piece, I look further into why Edison schools should not be the litmus test for school privatization:

On top of that, Edison has a lousy business plan. Instead of working with individual customers, it has dealt only with large government bureaucracies. To win contracts, it gave up the integrity of its original pedagogical model. Edison sometimes sacrificed key pedagogical components (such as longer school days and more teacher training) to satisfy the unions and school districts.

Many other for-profit education companies have realized that the key to growth is to satisfy students and their parents rather than the bureaucrats who can sign large government contracts. According to a January report by the Commercialism in Education Research Unit at Arizona State University, there were 36 for-profit education management companies in the U.S. in 2001, operating 370 schools in 24 states. An overwhelming majority of those schools are public charter schools, which receive their funding only after attracting students to enroll in their schools. These companies have managed to grow their businesses incrementally, hoping for a small profit at each school.

Only when the funding truly follows a child will we have a market in education that is responsive to the right customers: the students and their parents. To the extent that Edison has failed that test, the company has also failed public education.