By Jodi Weigand
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, January 9, 2011
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, January 9, 2011
This week Pennsylvanians will get a look at a plan to use state money to give low-income families alternatives to public school.
State Sens. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, and Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, will release their proposal for a tuition voucher system mid-week. Parents could use the money to send their child to a public, parochial or private school of their choice.
"Anyone who is currently sending their child to a school they know is not performing well academically or where their child may not be safe, but don’t have financial means to provide the best for their child, will be relieved of that," Williams said. The plan's prospects are rosier with a Republican-controlled Legislature and Republican Gov.-elect Tom Corbett, a proponent of school choice. Outgoing Gov. Ed Rendell was never a proponent of school choice. Former Gov. Tom Ridge pushed it, but proposals failed in the state House three times between 1996 and 1999.
The plan provides up to an $8,000 voucher to families with an annual income of no more than 130 percent of the federal poverty level, he said. For a family of four, the income limit would be $28,665. Vouchers will be available in the first year to students from a failing school under state standards; the second year to students in a failing school district; and in the third year to any low-income student, he said. The bill doesn't include oversights for private schools to account for how the money is spent, Williams said.
Corbett has said an integral part of his school choice plan is a grading system for schools, under which students at failing schools would get vouchers to attend the school of their choice. Public school officials and teacher unions worry about accountability for private and religious schools, which aren’t beholden to the same open-governance laws. A funding plan hasn't been outlined, but some worry that the vouchers will divert money from already financially strapped school districts.
“I’m not against competition,” said Highlands School District Superintendent Joseph Latess. “But if I’m a parent or a taxpayer, I should know that a considerable amount of money is going out of the district to fund students’ education (elsewhere).” Elizabeth Hoagland, 51, of Whitehall said she would support a voucher system that keeps the money inside the district.
“I’m for it as long as there’s something that says you have to send your child to a parochial school or private school within your community or district,” she said. “I’m in Baldwin-Whitehall (School District), and if someone wanted to go to St. Elizabeth or St. Gabriel, I’d be fine with that.”
There are 18 voucher programs in 12 states, according to the Pew Center on the States, a public policy research group. Milwaukee’s 22-year-old voucher program, the first in the nation, helps low-income families send their children to private schools. Cleveland’s broke ground via a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said the city district’s scholarship program didn’t violate the separation of church and state by including religious schools.
Since 2006, Ohio has been testing a statewide system similar to the one Corbett has proposed. It gives students attending low-performing schools up to a $5,000 yearly voucher to attend a private school. The public school receives the money from the state and once a child is accepted into another school, the money is transferred there. "That money is a loss for the school district, but there’s still a portion of the money that they get from us," said Patrick Gallaway, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education. Research is mixed on whether voucher systems improve test scores either by sending students to better performing schools or by prompting failing schools to improve.
The Commonwealth Foundation, a free market think tank in Harrisburg, and the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, each support school vouchers and cite U.S. Department of Education research showing students benefited from the D.C. school district's federally funded program. It provides parents up to a $7,500 voucher annually to send their children to a private school.
The impact on students' reading scores was the equivalent of 3.7 months of additional learning, and seniors were 21 percent more likely to graduate, said Katrina Currie, a research associate with the Commonwealth Foundation.
"Giving the parents the choice to put their child in the school that’s the best fit for them helps the child’s achievement," she said. However, a review of two decades of research of school voucher systems found that, at best, students show relatively small gains in achievement, according to a 2008 study by a Columbia University sociology and education professor. Wythe Keever, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, whose union locals represent thousands of teachers statewide, said vouchers are not a "silver bullet solution" to public schools' problems.
"If you look at test scores in private and public schools and adjust for things like student characteristics, public school students perform just about as well," he said.
State Sens. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, and Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, will release their proposal for a tuition voucher system mid-week. Parents could use the money to send their child to a public, parochial or private school of their choice.
"Anyone who is currently sending their child to a school they know is not performing well academically or where their child may not be safe, but don’t have financial means to provide the best for their child, will be relieved of that," Williams said. The plan's prospects are rosier with a Republican-controlled Legislature and Republican Gov.-elect Tom Corbett, a proponent of school choice. Outgoing Gov. Ed Rendell was never a proponent of school choice. Former Gov. Tom Ridge pushed it, but proposals failed in the state House three times between 1996 and 1999.
The plan provides up to an $8,000 voucher to families with an annual income of no more than 130 percent of the federal poverty level, he said. For a family of four, the income limit would be $28,665. Vouchers will be available in the first year to students from a failing school under state standards; the second year to students in a failing school district; and in the third year to any low-income student, he said. The bill doesn't include oversights for private schools to account for how the money is spent, Williams said.
Corbett has said an integral part of his school choice plan is a grading system for schools, under which students at failing schools would get vouchers to attend the school of their choice. Public school officials and teacher unions worry about accountability for private and religious schools, which aren’t beholden to the same open-governance laws. A funding plan hasn't been outlined, but some worry that the vouchers will divert money from already financially strapped school districts.
“I’m not against competition,” said Highlands School District Superintendent Joseph Latess. “But if I’m a parent or a taxpayer, I should know that a considerable amount of money is going out of the district to fund students’ education (elsewhere).” Elizabeth Hoagland, 51, of Whitehall said she would support a voucher system that keeps the money inside the district.
“I’m for it as long as there’s something that says you have to send your child to a parochial school or private school within your community or district,” she said. “I’m in Baldwin-Whitehall (School District), and if someone wanted to go to St. Elizabeth or St. Gabriel, I’d be fine with that.”
There are 18 voucher programs in 12 states, according to the Pew Center on the States, a public policy research group. Milwaukee’s 22-year-old voucher program, the first in the nation, helps low-income families send their children to private schools. Cleveland’s broke ground via a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said the city district’s scholarship program didn’t violate the separation of church and state by including religious schools.
Since 2006, Ohio has been testing a statewide system similar to the one Corbett has proposed. It gives students attending low-performing schools up to a $5,000 yearly voucher to attend a private school. The public school receives the money from the state and once a child is accepted into another school, the money is transferred there. "That money is a loss for the school district, but there’s still a portion of the money that they get from us," said Patrick Gallaway, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education. Research is mixed on whether voucher systems improve test scores either by sending students to better performing schools or by prompting failing schools to improve.
The Commonwealth Foundation, a free market think tank in Harrisburg, and the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, each support school vouchers and cite U.S. Department of Education research showing students benefited from the D.C. school district's federally funded program. It provides parents up to a $7,500 voucher annually to send their children to a private school.
The impact on students' reading scores was the equivalent of 3.7 months of additional learning, and seniors were 21 percent more likely to graduate, said Katrina Currie, a research associate with the Commonwealth Foundation.
"Giving the parents the choice to put their child in the school that’s the best fit for them helps the child’s achievement," she said. However, a review of two decades of research of school voucher systems found that, at best, students show relatively small gains in achievement, according to a 2008 study by a Columbia University sociology and education professor. Wythe Keever, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, whose union locals represent thousands of teachers statewide, said vouchers are not a "silver bullet solution" to public schools' problems.
"If you look at test scores in private and public schools and adjust for things like student characteristics, public school students perform just about as well," he said.
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