Category: Education

BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION CAN DO A LOT WITH EXECUTIVE ACTIONS

The Biden-Harris Administration can make needed policy changes through executive actions or legislation. These two approaches are complementary and should both be used. Getting progressive legislation passed by Congress will be difficult but possible with narrow control of both the Senate and the House. However, there are literally hundreds of important executive actions that the Biden-Harris Administration could take on day one (or shortly thereafter) that are well within its existing authority.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) issued 99 executive orders in his first 100 days and 3,721 over the course of his presidency. Some of them were monumental, such as the creation of the Rural Electrification Administration, which addressed a major infrastructure issue, and the Civil Works Administration, which created millions of jobs to address the unemployment of the Great Depression. These times call for the Biden-Harris Administration to be bold and to aggressively use executive orders to address the serious problems facing our country. Similar to FDR’s situation, Biden and Harris are facing a country in need of relief from a serious recession and high unemployment coupled with a need for major infrastructure investments. They also, of course, have to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and its effects.

The American Prospect magazine and the Biden-Sanders unity taskforce (which was created at the end of the Democratic primaries last summer) have identified 277 executive actions that the Biden-Harris Administration could take immediately. All of them are policies that have broad support within the Democratic Party. Many of them simply more fully implement or better enforce current laws. They would take important steps toward addressing important problems. [1] [2]

In summary, the Biden-Harris Administration could, without having to wait for Congress:

  • Revamp many aspects of our immigration system (see specific examples below),
  • Address climate change along with energy and environmental issues (see specific examples below),
  • Improve our education system and reduce the burden of student debt (see specific examples below),
  • Make our tax system and economy fairer (specific examples will be in my next post),
  • Make important reforms in the criminal justice system (specific examples will be in my next post),
  • Expand access to health care and lower drug prices (specific examples will be in my next post), and
  • Strengthen the safety net by expanding unemployment benefits as well as housing and food assistance (specific examples will be in my next post).

Specific executive actions could include:

  • Change immigration policies
    • Enact a 100-day ban on deportations while reviewing current immigration and border practices
    • Rescind the “Zero Tolerance” immigration policy, which is effectively a family separation policy
    • Rescind policies limiting admissions of refugees and asylees
    • End the freeze on issuing new green cards, which allow non-citizens to permanently live and work in the U.S.
    • Rescind the declaration of an emergency for the purpose of funding a Mexico border wall
  • Address climate change, energy, and environmental issues
    • Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement
    • Re-protect federal land including reinstituting bans on mining and drilling
    • Reinstate the Clean Power rule limiting carbon emissions from power plants
    • Re-institute and then strengthen auto and truck emissions standards
    • Reinstate the Cabinet-level Interagency Council on Environmental Justice
    • Tighten regulations on the release of methane, sulfur dioxide, ozone, mercury, and coal ash
    • Make all 3 million government vehicles at all levels of government zero-emission vehicles
    • Buy clean energy and require federal contractors to do so as well
    • Make home energy efficiency programs accessible for low-income households
    • Establish a task force for planning the transition to clean energy including supports for displaced workers
  • Improve our education system
    • Reduce student debt through various loan forgiveness programs and suspend debt payments during the pandemic
    • Reinstate the program to eliminate racial disparities in school discipline
    • End federal contracts with student loan servicers who have a history of misleading clients
    • Encourage states to develop and adopt a “multiple measures” approach to assessment
    • Appoint a federal task force to study charter schools’ impact on public education and make recommendations to strengthen public schools
    • Aggressively enforce the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
    • Facilitate pathways for early childhood educators to obtain higher education degrees
    • Require for-profit colleges to demonstrate their return on investment before allowing their students to be eligible for federal student loans

Once President Biden and Vice President Harris have been inaugurated, I urge you to contact them and encourage them to act boldly using executive orders to improve racial and social justice as well as the economic well-being of every working American.

My next post will present examples of executive actions the Biden-Harris Administration could take on economic, criminal justice, health and health care, and other issues.

[1]      Moran, M., 7/28/20, “The 277 policies for which Biden need not ask permission,” The American Prospect (https://prospect.org/day-one-agenda/277-policies-biden-need-not-ask-permission/)

[2]      Dayen, D., Fall 2019, “The day one agenda” and related articles, The American Prospect (https://prospect.org/day-one-agenda)

EFFECTS OF RACISM Part 1

The murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer kneeling on his neck for nine minutes (while three other officers facilitated the killing) has brought the racism of U.S. society to the forefront. The attention to racism is going beyond this specific episode and is including the underlying, long-term racism of the U.S. economy, our society, and the policies, funding, and practices of federal, state, and local governments. (See my previous post here for more background.)

The effects of racism, of racial prejudice and discrimination, on black people today are broad and pervasive. They are the aggregation of current policies, practices, and characteristics of the U.S. economy and society, as well as the cumulative effects of 400 years of racism. I can’t do justice to all the effects in a couple of posts, but I will start by highlighting some of them. Some, particularly the better-known ones, I will just mention and others I will present in more detail. They are in no particular order, in part because they are all intertwined and the relative importance or severity of them is difficult, if not impossible, to determine.

Some of the detrimental effects of racism on black people evident today include:

Education

  • Black students, on average, attend K-12 schools of lower quality (e.g., less experienced and qualified teachers, less funding, lower quality materials and facilities) than white students. Housing segregation has been widely acknowledged for decades as the driver of racially unequal access to a good K-12 education. This is a result, in large part, of the fact that funding for K-12 schools comes primarily from local property taxes. As a result:
    • Black students have less success in our K-12 school systems than white students. Notably, their graduation rates are lower.
    • After their K-12 education, black students attend and succeed at lower rates in higher education than their white peers.
  • Good, development-nurturing early care and education (aka child care) is generally less accessible for black families and children than for white ones. Except for the federal Head Start program, good quality early care and education (ECE) is unaffordable and often not conveniently located for black families. The Head Start program, which targets children in families below the federal poverty line (about $22,000 in annual income for a family of three, which could be a single parent with two young children), only receives enough funding to serve about half of the eligible 3 and 4 year olds and about one in ten of the eligible infants and toddlers.

Health and health care

  • Black people have a shorter life expectancy than whites: 75.5 years versus 79.1 years.
  • Black mothers experience higher pregnancy-related maternal mortality rates than whites: 4.1 vs. 1.3 deaths per 10,000 live births. This difference persists even after adjusting for potentially related factors such as age, education, and income.
  • Black infants experience higher mortality rates than whites: 109 versus 47 deaths per 10,000 live births.
  • The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the inequities in health and health care for black Americans. Black people in the U.S. have had somewhere between 33% and 40% of COVID-19 cases despite being only 13% of the population. Their cases tend to be more severe and the black death rate is over twice that of whites (62 vs. 26 per 100,000). (See previous posts on the disproportionate impact on Blacks and the reasons for this.)
  • Research has found that respiratory conditions (including asthma) that make one more vulnerable to COVID-19 are more common among people with long-term exposure to air pollution and that a small increase in exposure to fine particulate air pollution — tiny particles in the air — leads to a significant increase in the COVID-19 death rate. Low-income and densely populated areas (whose residents are disproportionately black) have higher levels of air pollution due to higher levels of vehicular exhaust, emissions from buildings’ heating systems, and emissions from power generation and industrial facilities.
  • Hospitals that serve primarily white people have 60% higher per patient funding ($8,325) than ones that serve the highest proportions of black people ($5,197). The primarily white-serving hospitals had nearly twice as much capital spending (e.g., for new equipment and modernization) as the hospitals with the most black patients. The white-serving hospitals had more specialty services, better nurse-to-patient ratios, fewer safety hazards, and lower readmission rates. [1]
  • Black people have less access to health care, both based on the locations of services and due to lack of insurance. In addition, they receive lower quality and biased care when they receive health services. For example, a 2003 National Academy of Sciences report, “Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care” examined 480 studies and found that for every medical intervention black people received poorer-quality care than white people, even when income and insurance were equal. [2] Medical decisions, diagnoses, and treatments have been found to be racially biased with worse outcomes for black patients than white ones.
  • The high levels of stress that black people experience due to racism, economic insecurity, and other factors have been linked, for both children and adults, to chronic health problems (e.g., asthma, obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes) and mental / behavioral health problems (e.g., behavior and anxiety disorders and substance abuse). The stresses of what are referred to as adverse childhood experiences (e.g., child abuse or neglect, violence in the home or neighborhood, parents’ mental health problems) have been found to contribute to a higher prevalence years later of chronic adult health conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and anxiety disorders. The stresses of economic insecurity, neighborhood and household violence, and racism, collectively sometimes referred to as allostatic load, have been linked to higher rates of negative health outcomes, including shorter lifespans and more low birthweight babies. For example, the prevalence of diabetes is 66% higher among Blacks than whites and elevated blood pressure is 49% higher. Blacks have more chronic health conditions even when researchers compare them with whites with similar levels of education and income.
    • Examples of stressors that black people deal with regularly include being presumed to be dangerous or a criminal and being presumed to be in a non-professional or subservient role. For example, black people are often presumed to be staff in a hotel, restaurant, store, or golf club, rather than a customer. Or, as former Massachusetts Governor Patrick stated, “Like every other Black trial lawyer I know, I have been mistaken for a defendant awaiting trial” when arriving in a courthouse or courtroom to argue a case. [3] These types of role misidentification are commonplace. Almost every black person – if not every black person – can cite multiple times when this has happened to them. This requires them to control their anger, frustration, and sometimes their fear time after time after time. This takes a toll on one’s stress level, happiness, and well-being.
    • Black parents routinely feel anxious when their sons and daughters are not in their home because they know of the dangers that discrimination and prejudice present when they are out in public. Black parents know they must have “the talk” with their children, especially their sons, where they tell them that regardless of the situation or provocation they must stay calm, keep their hands visible, and avoid confrontation, particularly with police officers.
  • Because they are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods, black people often live in food deserts, where access to affordable, good quality food is difficult. Supermarkets are typically not located in those neighborhoods, so a long trip, often on public transportation, is required to reach them.

In my next post, I will provide an overview of the detrimental effects of racism on black people in terms of economic inequality, housing, criminal justice, and voting. I welcome your comments with reactions, thoughts, and questions relative to this post and the larger issue of racism in the U.S.

[1]      Dayen, D., 6/19/20, “Unsanitized: Structural racism and the coronavirus crisis,” The American Prospect (https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-structural-racism-and-the-coronavirus-crisis/)

[2]      Villarosa, L., 4/29/20, “ ‘A terrible price’: The deadly racial disparities of Covid-19 in America,” The New York Times Magazine (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/magazine/racial-disparities-covid-19.html)

[3]      Patrick, D., 6/16/20, “America is awakening to what it means to be Black. Will we also awaken to what it means to be American?” (https://medium.com/@DevalPatrick/america-is-awakening-to-what-it-means-to-be-black-3eb938969f7f)

ISSUES WITH THE OPERATION OF CHARTER SCHOOLS

SUMMARY: Having looked at problems in our public schools and the problems with student selection, retention, and outcomes in charter schools, let’s take a look at some issues with the operation of charter schools. Charter schools:

  • Divert money, time, and attention from public schools;
  • Lack financial accountability and transparency;
  • Often have high administrative costs and salaries, but low instructional budgets and teacher pay; and
  • Subcontract with for-profit entities and ones with ties to senior administrators producing inefficiencies and conflicts of interest.

As a result, charter schools undermine our public schools and are not an effective strategy for improving our education system as a whole.

FULL POST: Having looked at problems in our public schools and the problems with student selection, retention, and outcomes in charter schools, let’s take a look at some issues with the operation of charter schools. Having charter schools means operating another system of schools in parallel to our public schools. This diverts money, time, and attention from operating and improving public schools. Members of the legislative and executive branches of government, as well as school system administrators, spend time and energy authorizing, overseeing, funding, and debating charter schools. Some of the money, time, and attention of parents, the public, and philanthropists is spent on charter schools instead of on our public schools.

In Massachusetts, for example, over $400 million annually comes out of local school funding and goes to charter schools. [1] At the same time, Boston is struggling with a $50 million shortfall in funding for its public schools for next year. The state provides some reimbursement to local school districts for students and funding lost to charter schools for the first few years after a student leaves, but at $80 million it doesn’t make up for the losses. [2]

Despite receiving substantial amounts of public money, charter schools’ finances typically lack the accountability and transparency of public schools. Part of the reason for this is that many facets of charter school operations are private. Most charter schools are governed by non-profit boards and many are operated by private education management organizations (EMOs). The EMO typically owns the furniture, equipment, and materials in a school and leases them back to the school. And it is common for the school’s teachers to be private employees of the EMO. A charter school’s building is often privately owned and leased or rented by the school. [3]

These contractual relationships with private entities offer multiple opportunities for private profit-making, sometimes involving governing board members or school management and, therefore, possible conflicts of interest. “A substantial share of public expenditure [for charter schools] … is being extracted inadvertently or intentionally for personal or business financial gain, creating substantial inefficiencies.” [4]

All of this adds up to a significant degree of privatization of education funding through charter schools. Some of the big players in the charter school business, “such as Imagine Schools, White Hat, and Charter Schools USA, are taking advantage of these opportunities in ways that are self-enriching and not in the public interest.” [5] These large charter school businesses, and others such as National Heritage Academies and Mosaica, are the dominant corporations in the field. However, they are not the ones that charter school advocates promote in the media, such as KIPP, Uncommon Schools, and Success Academy in New York City, which are all much smaller.

Charter schools tend to have very high administrative overhead expenses, including high salaries for heads of EMOs. In New York City, the CEO of Success Academy charter schools is paid over $475,000 annually. [6]

On the other hand, the vast majority of charter schools have low classroom instructional budgets. Teachers tend to be young and receive relatively low pay. In Pennsylvania, charter school teachers were found to have average salaries that were $18,000 lower than teachers in the local public schools.

Charter schools typically augment public funding with outside funding that may come from wealthy individuals, foundations, corporations, and even government grants. If this same outside funding were provided to public schools, they would be able to offer enhanced services that are often associated with charter schools, such as extended school days or years, tutoring and other academic supports, and enrichment activities. The outcomes of the public school students would presumably improve if these extra resources were provide to them.

A key measure for educational management, quality, and equity is spending per student. However, comparing spending per student between charter schools and public schools is difficult at best. First of all, as discussed in my previous post, students in the public schools, on average, present more challenges and therefore are more expensive to serve. Second, the costs of supportive services for charter school students, such as transportation, may be borne by the public school system. Third, the outside funding many charter schools obtain is often not clearly disclosed. Because the financial transparency of charter schools is typically much less than the complete openness of public school budgets, getting accurate data to calculate per student spending is difficult. Furthermore, because of their private nature, charter schools are often not responsive to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that would compel a public entity to release information. [7]

The bottom line is that charter school operations undermine our public schools, just as their student selection practices do. Their operations divert money, time, and attention from public schools, while their student selection practices divert the better students. Despite receiving substantial sums of public money, charter schools’ financial practices result in low instructional spending, high administrative costs, inefficiencies, and conflicts of interest. This is not an efficient strategy for improving our education system as a whole.

[1]       Office of the State Auditor, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2014, “The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s oversight of charter schools,” Published by the author (http://www.mass.gov/auditor/docs/audits/2014/201351533c.pdf)

[2]       Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, 2/5/16, “Analyzing the Governor’s FY 2017 Budget,” (http://www.massbudget.org/report_window.php?loc=Analyzing-the-Governor%27s-Budget-for-FY-2017.html)

[3]       Miron, G., Mathis, W., & Welner, K., 2015, “Review of separating fact & fiction,” National Education Policy Center (http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-separating-fact-and-fiction) Note: This document is a rebuttal of an advocacy document from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools entitled, “Separating fact & fiction: What you need to know about charter schools.” (http://www.publiccharters.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Separating-Fact-from-Fiction.pdf)

[4]       Baker, B., & Miron, G., 2015, “The business of charter schooling: Understanding the policies that charter operators use for financial benefit,” National Education Policy Center, page 3 (http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/rb_baker-miron_charter_revenue_0.pdf)

[5]       Cohen, R., 12/22/15, “The charter school business,” The American Prospect, pages 2-3 (http://prospect.org/article/charter-school-business)

[6]       Baker & Miron, 2015, see above.

[7]       Miron, G., Mathis, W., & Welner, K., 2015, see above.

PROBLEMS WITH STUDENTS AND STUDENT OUTCOMES IN CHARTER SCHOOLS

SUMMARY: Having looked at problems in our public schools, let’s take a look at problems in charter schools. One problem has to do with claims of improved student outcomes that are confounded by issues with student selection and retention.

  • Student outcomes at charter schools are no better than those of public schools when similar students are compared.
  • There are multiple concerns about the selection and retention of students at charter schools:
    • Fewer special education, English as a second language, and low income students than in public schools;
    • Students are recruited and retained who face fewer challenges than those in public schools; and
    • Weak and difficult students who enroll in charter schools are frequently pushed out.
  • Charter schools have no accountability for the outcomes of students they fail to retain.

These strategies for “creaming the crop” leave the weaker and more challenged (and more costly) students and families to be served by the public schools. Furthermore, the funding public school systems desperately need to serve their students is diverted to charter schools. As a result, charter schools undermine the ability of some school districts to provide an education that allows students to realize their potential.

FULL POST: Having looked at problems in our public schools, let’s take a look at problems in charter schools. One problem has to do with claims of improved student outcomes that are confounded by issues with student selection and retention.

Some charter schools do produce excellent student outcomes, but so do some public schools. Some charter schools have lousy outcomes, as do some public schools. Overall, the outcomes of charter schools do not appear to be significantly different than those of public schools. The most rigorous study comparing students in charter schools to similar students in public schools (they were on the waiting lists for the charter schools but did not get in) found no better outcomes overall for students in charter schools. [1]

Similarly, in Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner studied all the students who had applied to be in charter schools in Chicago when a lottery was held because more students applied than there was capacity to serve. Charter school advocates compared the outcomes of students in those charter schools to the outcomes of all Chicago Public Schools students and found that the charter school students did better. Levitt and Dubner compared the charter school students with the Chicago Public School students who had applied to the charter schools but had lost out in the lottery. They found that there were no significant differences between the outcomes of those two groups. [2]

The reason for this is that parents who are organized and motivated to apply to charter schools are typically more capable, engaged parents than those who don’t apply. Their children are going to have better outcomes than the average student whether they get into a charter school or not.

This makes it very difficult to accurately compare the performance of charter schools to public schools because it’s very difficult to determine if they are serving similar students. [3] The findings that claim that charter schools have much better outcomes than public schools are often comparing the charter schools to public schools that are serving a much more challenging population of students.

One of the problems with charter schools is that many of them “cream the crop.” In other words, they recruit and retain students and families who are more capable and engaged, or in other words, face fewer challenges, than those in the public schools. Compared to public schools, most charter schools have lower portions of students who are special education students, have English as a second language, or are from low income families. [4] [5] One large national study found that 4.4% of charter school students were English Language Learners compared to 11% of all students. Apart from the roughly 60 charter schools that specifically focus on serving students with disabilities, less than 7% of charter school students have a disability and most of them have mild disabilities. Nationally, 13% of students have disabilities and almost all of those with moderate to severe disabilities are served by public schools. [6]

Another reason that charter schools have better students than the typical public school is that charter schools often weed out the less capable students that initially enroll. For example, they can expel students and never have to worry about them again. The public schools, on the other hand, are required to provide services to all students. Some charter schools have much higher discipline rates than public schools and some of the disciplined students will leave and not return. For example, in Massachusetts, the Holyoke Public Schools had the highest discipline rate of any public school district, suspending 21.5% of its students. At least five other urban districts had suspension rates above 10%. However, two charter schools in Boston had suspension rates of roughly 60%. [7] Overall in Massachusetts, charter schools serve 3% of students but account for 6% of all suspensions and expulsions. [8] These disciplinary practices tend to weed out and send back to the public schools students with behavioral issues.

Charter schools also tend to push out students with poor test scores, sometimes by telling them they will have to repeat a grade if they stay at the school. Many charter schools have declining numbers in their student cohorts as they progress through the grades due to the attrition of weaker students. Therefore, when the cohort gets to graduation or test results in the later grades, the results look quite good.

There have been a series of articles in the New York Times about the Success Academy charter school network in New York City. It is the city’s largest charter school network with 34 schools and plans to grow significantly. The articles highlight the ways Success Academy weeds out weak or difficult students, such as using harsh discipline (its schools suspended 4% to 23% of their students compared to 3% for the public schools) and making parents’ lives so difficult that they withdraw their children. [9]

Charter schools are almost never held accountable for students they enroll but who later leave prior to graduation or completion of the highest grade the school offers. Charter schools also tell some students who are applying but have weak academic skills that they will have to repeat a grade if they enroll. This discourages weak students from even enrolling.

These charter school strategies for creaming the crop leave the public schools with the weakest and most challenging students. Therefore, when comparing student outcomes, the charter schools look good. However, this drives up per student costs in the public schools. If charter schools continue to expand and are allowed to continue creaming the crop, the public schools will be left with students that are ever more challenging, but with less money to serve them due to funding diverted to charter schools.

Therefore, charter schools present real costs to our public school systems where the great majority of students are served. As a result, charter schools undermine the ability of some school districts to provide an education that allows students to realize their potential, most notably large, urban districts with high portions of students facing significant challenges.

Future posts will discuss other problems with charter schools.

[1]       Miron, G., Mathis, W., & Welner, K., 2015, “Review of separating fact & fiction,” National Education Policy Center (http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-separating-fact-and-fiction) Note: This document is a rebuttal of an advocacy document from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools entitled, “Separating fact & fiction: What you need to know about charter schools.” (http://www.publiccharters.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Separating-Fact-from-Fiction.pdf)

[2]       Levitt, S.D., & Dubner, S.J., 2005, “Freakonomics: A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything,” NY: William Morrow

[3]       Office of the State Auditor, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2014, “The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s oversight of charter schools,” Published by the author (http://www.mass.gov/auditor/docs/audits/2014/201351533c.pdf)

[4]       Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy, 2014, “At what cost? The charter school model and the human right to education,” Northeastern Law School (http://www.northeastern.edu/law/pdfs/academics/phrge/charter-paper-2014.pdf)

[5]       Office of the State Auditor, 2014, see above.

[6]       Miron, Mathis, & Welner, 2015, see above.

[7]       Taylor, J., Cregor, M., & Lane, P., 2015, “Not measuring up: The state of school discipline in Massachusetts,” Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice (http://lawyerscom.org/not-measuring-up/)

[8]       Miron, Mathis, & Welner, 2015, see above.

[9]       Taylor, K., 10/29/15, 1/4/16, 1/21/16, 1/23/16, 2/13/16, & 2/16/16, The New York Times (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/kate_taylor/index.html?action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region&module=Byline&region=Header&pgtype=article

THE MASSACHUSETTS EFFORT TO PROVIDE EQUITABLE FUNDING FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

My previous post described the need for additional funding for schools with high numbers of at-risk children. Current school funding is inequitable because these students require greater resources to be successful than their better-off peers, but the low income communities they tend to live in typically are not able to provide those resources.

Massachusetts responded to the inequitable funding of its public schools in low income communities (highlighted by a court decision in the McDuffy case) by changing its formula for providing state funding to local school districts. The new (and quite complicated) formula, implemented in 1993, provides special funding for districts with high numbers of at-risk students. However, this special funding is inadequate. A 2011 study found, among other things, that the state’s formula underestimates the costs of educating students with special needs by about $1 billion. [1]

The state’s funding formula targets additional resources to meet the needs of low income students by 1) providing funding for 3 extra teachers for every 100 such students, and 2) allocating an extra $380 per low income student to help schools expand instructional time and provide tutoring. However, the 2011 study found little evidence that low income students are receiving these additional instructional supports. The Massachusetts funding formula also provides special funding for students who are English language learners.

Above and beyond this special funding, it was recommended that the funding formula include 1) free, half-day pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten for low income students, and 2) increased pay for teachers in predominantly low income schools. However, funding for these enhancements has never been provided. (In New Jersey, increased funding for pre-kindergarten programs is part of the court-ordered response in a similar case.)

The Massachusetts funding formula estimates that it costs $10,500 to provide an appropriate education for each student in the one-fifth of communities with the lowest income families. The 2011 study found that these low income communities spend almost exactly the state’s estimate of necessary per student spending, using a combination of state and local funding. The state’s estimate for the cost of an appropriate education for each student in higher income communities ranges from $8,500 to $9,500. However, many of the wealthier communities raise additional local revenue and fund their schools at levels significantly above the state’s estimate. The wealthiest one-fifth of school districts spend 39% above the state’s estimate of necessary per student spending.

Therefore, despite the state’s effort to provide a level playing field for all its public schools, high income communities are providing greater levels of resources than low income communities – and dramatically so when adjusted for students’ needs. Furthermore, because of underestimated costs for special education and employees’ health benefits, low income communities actually spend 32% less on regular classroom teachers (not including special education teachers) than the state formula’s target. On the other hand, high income districts spend significantly above targeted levels. This implies that low income school districts must have larger class sizes, less planning and meeting time for teachers during the school day, and/or fewer specialist teachers such as tutors, literacy specialists, language teachers, art teachers, etc. This is the opposite of what the funding formula intended to provide.

A similar pattern is evident in spending on professional development for teachers. The one-fifth of districts with the lowest incomes are only able to spend about half of what the state formula targets for professional development, while the one-fifth highest income districts spend about one-third more than the state target.

The Massachusetts example highlights the difficulty of achieving equitable funding for public schools among high income and low income communities. It is a politically difficult challenge because parents in high income communities have the financial means as well as the time and skills to support and effectively advocate for their children’s schools. They know how to make their voices heard, including through communication with and campaign contributions to elected officials.

If we truly want all our children to succeed in school, we need to find a way to overcome the political challenges of providing equitable funding to schools in low income communities.

[1]     Schuster, L., 2011, “ Cutting Class: Underfunding the Foundation Budget’s Core Education Program,” Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (http://www.massbudget.org/report_window.php?loc=Cutting_Class.html)

EQUITABLE FUNDING FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL SUCCESS

Schools need the resources to provide the supports and services students need to succeed. However, our public schools are largely locally funded. Therefore, schools in poor communities often lack the necessary resources to meet their students’ needs. These communities typically have many parents with low incomes and low levels of education, i.e., low socio-economic status (SES). Therefore, children in these communities often have the highest levels of need, but their schools typically have the lowest levels of financial resources. Conversely, students in high SES communities generally have the lowest levels of need, but their schools tend to have the highest levels of resources. As a result, our public school systems vary tremendously in their abilities to meet students’ needs.

Many states (and to a small degree the federal government) do attempt to address this inequity in funding for public schools. To varying degrees, they provide special funding to public school systems with high numbers of children likely to struggle in school. They typically focus on children from low income families, from families where English is not the primary language, and students with disabilities. However, this targeted funding is rarely sufficient to provide the level of supports and services at-risk children need to match the performance of their better-off peers.

States provide 46% of the funding for kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12) public schools with local communities providing the bulk of the rest. However, since the Great Recession of 2008, most state governments have cut their funding for public schools, despite growing numbers of students (an increase of about 800,000 from 2008 to 2014) and growing demands to improve student performance. At least 31 states were providing less funding per student in 2014 than they had in 2008.

Although some local communities were able to make up for reduced state funding, typically they did not. Nationwide, total public school funding by local communities also declined from 2008 to 2014. As a result, public school systems had about 300,000 fewer employees, primarily teachers, in 2014 than in 2008, despite the increase in the number of students. [1]

Research shows that school funding does affect student outcomes, particularly for poor children. Children who attended better funded schools are more likely to graduate from high school and to have higher earnings and lower poverty rates as adults. [2]

About 30 states have had court cases over school funding and its implications for educational equity and adequacy. [3] For example, Massachusetts and New Jersey have had successful class action lawsuits on behalf of public school students from low income communities. The courts found in both cases that inequitable funding for public schools in low income communities violated students’ rights to a free and appropriate public education as specified by their state’s constitution. (I’ll describe Massachusetts’s efforts to address this inequity in some detail in a subsequent post.)

If we truly want all our children to succeed in school, additional funding is needed from state and federal governments that targets low income and other at-risk children. Not only must we provide greater funding for public schools in low income communities, we must increase funding for the early childhood and family support programs that ensure that children arrive at school ready to learn and succeed. As my previous post described, at-risk children are not getting the supports and services they, their families, their early care and education providers, or their schools and teachers need.

[1]       Leachman, M., Albares, N., Masterson, K., & Wallace, M., 12/10/15, “Most states have cut school funding, and some continue cutting,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

[2]       Jackson, C.K., Johnson, R.C., & Persico, C., 2015, “The effects of school spending on educational and economic outcomes: Evidence from school finance reforms,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper No. 20847

[3]       Schneider, R.E., 9/27/07, “The state mandate for education: The McDuffy and Hancock decisions,” Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Retrieved from the Internet on 1/24/16 at http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/litigation/mcduffy_hancock.html.

IMPROVING STUDENT SUCCESS IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

ABSTRACT: Students who are struggling in our public schools are ones who for a variety of reasons are experiencing barriers to learning and to succeeding in the classroom. They should be identified as early as possible, starting at birth, and effective intervention should be provided. For families who have issues that put children’s school success at risk, our public policies and programs need to do a better job of supporting these parents.

Our public school systems need to enhance their kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs, and also to work with private providers of early care and education (ECE), to ensure that every child arrives in first grade ready to learn and succeed in school.

The primary goal of testing of children, in school and before they get to school, should be to identify issues in development and learning so that interventions can be provided. High stakes testing only serves to punish students, teachers, and schools. It does nothing to solve the problems and challenges that students, their teachers, and their schools are struggling to overcome.

Student success requires quality public schools, as well as quality early care and education programs. It also requires families that have the economic security, supports, and services necessary to nurture their children. Appropriate assessment and effective intervention, for children and families, are essential to ensuring that every child receives the developmental and educational experiences necessary for consistent progress and success at home and in school, from birth to high school graduation.

FULL POST: Students who are struggling in our public schools are ones who for a variety of reasons are experiencing barriers to learning and to succeeding in the classroom. These students need to be identified and they – and in many cases their families – need to be provided with the additional supports and services necessary to get them back on track. They should be identified as early as possible (i.e., starting at birth) and effective intervention should be provided because the costs to our education system, and to the children and families themselves, are much less if intervention occurs early on.

The research on early childhood development is clear: the school readiness of children born to parents with low income and low levels of education is at risk from the day they are born. In addition, school readiness is at risk for a child in any family with significant parental issues such as mental illness (particularly maternal depression), substance abuse, domestic violence, or incarceration. The children of first-time parents, as well as young parents, those with multiple young children, and those who are not fluent in English, are also at higher risk for not being ready when they reach school. Finally, some children have physical, cognitive, or health issues that put their school success at risk.

For families who have issues that put children’s school success at risk, our public policies and programs need to do a better job of supporting these parents. This should start with paid family leave for new parents, along with home visiting, parenting education, and other supports. It should include affordable, accessible, quality early care and education (ECE) – both so parents can work and so children receive nurturing care that supports their development and early learning. Parents need jobs that pay a living wage, provide a predictable and manageable work schedule, and offer benefits and economic security. And parents and children need specialized services to be available when they are necessary to meet crises or special needs.

Our public school systems need to enhance their kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs, and also to work with private providers of ECE, to ensure that every child arrives in first grade ready to learn and succeed in school.

The primary goal of testing of children, in school and before they get to school, should be to identify issues in development and learning so that interventions can be provided. For those focused on improving school success for all children, this was the whole point of the requirements for testing in the No Child Left Behind federal education law of 2001. However, this goal got undermined and perverted in multiple ways. First, the resources to provide interventions for children who were struggling – that were promised as part of the law – never materialized. Second, the purpose for testing students got perverted from identifying issues and needed interventions to a focus on high stakes, judgmental testing. For students, the testing determined whether they got a high school diploma or not, or in some cases whether they advanced to the next grade or were held back. These high stakes outcomes were implemented despite the fact that the resources to help struggling students never arrived.

For schools, the high stakes judgements were whether they were declared “under-performing” and therefore subject to receivership and possible closure. For teachers, the results were mass firings when schools were declared under-performing or were closed. In some cases teachers’ pay was determined by student test scores. This is clearly unfair given that a teacher typically has taught a group of children for only one year out of their whole time in school. In many cases, failing students have been failing to achieve grade level norms throughout their whole school careers.

High stakes testing only serves to punish students, teachers, and schools. It does nothing to solve the problems and challenges that students, their teachers, and their schools are struggling to overcome.

The solution for the problem of children arriving at school not ready to learn and succeed is, first, to provide appropriate screenings and assessments starting early on – in the pediatrician’s office and in early care and education programs. And second, to ensure that when issues are identified the necessary supports and services are provided to the child and his or her family. Once children enter school, appropriate testing and needed interventions must continue in order to keep them on a successful trajectory.

Student success requires quality public schools, as well as quality early care and education programs. It also requires families that have the economic security, supports, and services necessary to nurture their children. Appropriate assessment and effective intervention, for children and families, are essential to ensuring that every child receives the developmental and educational experiences necessary for consistent progress and success at home and in school, from birth to high school graduation.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

SUMMARY: Every child should receive high quality educational experiences that lead to a trajectory of progress and success throughout his or her years in school, as well as in life beyond school. Many children who are educated in public schools in the US are very successful. There are, however, two problems that face US public school systems overall:

  • Our public school systems vary tremendously in their quality and funding.
  • Students arrive at school with significant variation in their school readiness.

These two problems negatively reinforce each other. As a result, many of our public schools in low socio-economic status (SES) communities are failing to adequately serve children from low SES families. Our society, not just our schools, is failing these low SES families; we frequently do not provide them with the support and services parents need to be able to nurture and support their children. As a result, their children often are not ready to learn and succeed when they enter school.

It is not the teachers who are to blame for the failure of these children. Teachers in schools and early care and education (ECE) care tremendously about their students, work extremely hard, and do everything in their power to help their students succeed. To overcome the disadvantages and learning delays many children from low SES families have, not only would they need to be great teachers, they would also need the resources and supports any professional requires to do his or her job successfully in a challenging environment. Unfortunately, many of the schools and ECE programs they work in are in low SES communities and lack the good physical facilities and learning environment that are required.

The forces pushing charter schools say that US public schools are failing and it’s because teachers are performing poorly. Neither assertion is true.

FULL POST: Every child should receive high quality educational experiences that lead to a trajectory of progress and success throughout his or her years in school, as well as in life beyond school. We all know that this does not occur for every child in our public schools. So what’s the problem?

Many children who are educated in public schools in the US are very successful. They graduate from high school and go on to selective and rigorous higher education and then to highly successful lives and careers. This is true for most children who attend public schools in communities where parents are well educated, have good jobs, and good incomes. In other words, children in communities and families with high socio-economic status (SES) are well served by our public education system. They do well in comparisons with students from around the world.

There are, however, two problems that face US public school systems overall:

  • Our public school systems vary tremendously in their quality and funding. Because they are locally based and largely locally funded, schools in high SES communities tend to have much better quality and resources than schools in low SES communities.
  • Students arrive at school with significant variation in their school readiness. Children from low SES communities and families are typically significantly behind their better-off peers.

These two problems negatively reinforce each other because children who arrive at school behind in their school readiness, often arrive at schools that are low in quality and resources. As a result, many of these children never catch up to their better-off peers. And when the US public schools are viewed as a whole, these children drag down the US averages so that our public education system appears to generate mediocre results when international comparisons are done.

Many of our public schools in low SES communities are failing to adequately serve children from low SES families. Moreover, our society, not just our schools, is failing these low SES families. We frequently do not provide them with the support and services parents need to be able to nurture and support their children. As a result, their children are often not ready to learn and succeed when they enter school; they do not have appropriate cognitive skills in early literacy and numeracy nor the social-emotional skills for working in groups and controlling emotions, and the often have health issues (e.g., asthma, obesity) or nutritional issues (e.g., they are hungry, undernourished, or have unhealthy diets). As a result, they are unable to succeed when they enter school and that failure typically continues throughout their school years.

It is not the teachers who are to blame for the failure of these children. The great, great majority of teachers, including those in low quality schools in low SES communities, care tremendously about their students, work extremely hard, and do everything in their power to help their students succeed. (In the interests of full disclosure, I attended high quality public schools in high SES communities from kindergarten through high school and taught in private schools for three years in the 1970s when I was just out of undergraduate school. My wife recently taught for ten years in the Boston Public School system.)

The same can be said for the teachers in our early care and education (ECE) system that serves children from birth until school entry. They work hard and often make heroic efforts to nurture children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, whether they are in private ECE centers or home-based child care programs, or in Head Start programs (which are for children from families living in poverty), or in public school pre-kindergarten programs. And these early childhood teachers are poorly paid – often making under $25,000 per year – and typically with few if any benefits (e.g., health insurance, paid sick time, vacation time, retirement plan).

To overcome the disadvantages and learning delays many children from low SES families have, teachers in schools and early care and education would not only need to be great teachers, they would also need the resources and supports any professional requires to do his or her job successfully in a challenging environment. Unfortunately, many of the schools and ECE programs they work in are in low SES communities and lack the good physical facilities and learning environment that are required – and that schools and programs in high SES communities typically have.

These teachers also need the support of colleagues to help them respond to the challenges and stress they experience, and to maintain high morale. My guess is that an average teacher with great morale is a more effective teacher than a great teacher with low morale because the stress and challenges can be overwhelming in the absence of a supportive, highly qualified supervisor, supportive peers, and a positive working environment.

The forces pushing charter schools say that US public schools are failing and it’s because teachers are performing poorly. Neither assertion true. Most of the failure in our public schools is because the schools are attempting to educate students who arrive at school not ready to learn. And neither the schools nor the children’s families have the special resources needed to make up this deficit. The proof that our public schools and teachers aren’t the problem is the fact that the charter advocates aren’t pushing charter schools in high SES communities and there isn’t much demand for them from parents in these communities either. Our schools and teachers are doing fine with these students.

In my next post on our education system, I will discuss real solutions to these problem.

WHO IS BEHIND THE PUSH FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS?

There are multiple, powerful forces behind the push for charter schools. Some of them like to avoid the spotlight. In no particular order, the four major forces behind the charter school movement are the following:

Those who are looking to make a profit by tapping into the funding for public education, which is a good chunk of money, approximately $600 billion annually in local, state, and federal spending. There are profit opportunities in developing, administering, and grading tests; developing and selling curriculum materials and textbooks; and ultimately in the privatization of schools themselves, i.e., charter schools.

Those who, for ideological reasons, want to shrink government and the public sector, including public education. Privatization is a core strategy for them. So private charter schools that receive public funding are the goal.

Those who want to weaken the bargaining power of workers and unions in our economy. They also want to weaken the political power of workers and that power is most effectively exercised through unions. They want to shift power to employers, especially large corporations. They have been quite successful in doing this in the private sector and have now set their sights on weakening public sector unions, and teachers’ unions are some of the strongest and most vocal of the public sector unions. Therefore, criticizing teachers and teachers’ unions, while advocating for non-union charter schools, is aligned with their goals.

Those who sincerely want to improve education and student outcomes. They are a small force among those that are truly driving the charter school movement. Many members of the staffs of charter schools and parents who support charter schools do have this as their goal, but they tend to be blind to the larger forces and interests at work behind the scenes.

The forces behind the charter school push have been pitching a narrative forcefully and effectively for 30 years or so now that states that US public schools are failing and that teachers and teachers’ unions are to blame. And that the solution is charter schools, preferably private, non-union ones, but that are funded with public tax dollars. Some charter schools are for-profit and many of them have links to for-profit corporations.

The first three of the four forces listed above have coalesced into a powerful, unified voice pushing this narrative and the implementation of their solution. They use the rationale of innovation to improve education and student outcomes to hide their real motives. They very effectively persuade the public and parents that not only do they have altruistic motives but that parents and the public should support their charter school movement.

Everyone believes that every child should receive high quality educational experiences that lead to success in school and a trajectory of progress and success throughout his or her years in school, as well as in life beyond school. However, those who believe public schools are the best vehicle to realize this vision, have not developed, let alone promoted, an alternative narrative to that of the charter school proponents. They have not mounted an effective, coherent rebuttal of the charter advocates’ statement of the problem or their solution. Without a counter narrative, public school supporters are confused and torn about whether to oppose or support charter schools – and even about how to talk about them.

My next post on our education system will identify the real problems with our public schools. A subsequent post will present some solutions.

EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

We need to reinvent our education system, much of which was designed to train students for an assembly line economy that is no longer with us. Early childhood care and education, K-12 schools, and higher education need to be improved. This is the fifth of the Ten Big Ideas to Save the Economy, presented by Robert Reich and MoveOn.org. [1] We need to build students’ critical thinking and other 21st century skills, while stimulating their passion for learning and reducing the dropout rate.

Six steps need to be taken:

  • Stop high stakes testing. Preparing students for today’s economy requires developing their creativity and curiosity, problem solving and teamwork skills, not honing their test-taking skills. Testing and test preparation (for multiple tests) take a significant amount of time away from important instruction and learning. Testing also enriches the for-profit corporations that sell the tests and related material, diverting funding that is sorely needed for educational purposes.
  • Reduce class sizes to 20 students so teachers can teach and students can learn appropriate skills and knowledge.
  • Increase funding, particularly federal funding, for early childhood care and education and K-12 schools. High quality early education is essential to prepare all children, especially those from families facing challenges, for success in school and life. K-12 schools need to better support students and their families by providing activities for the full work day and access to the full range of services and supports children and families need.
  • Strengthen technical training through vocational programs during the high school years and at two-year community colleges. Our economy needs skilled technicians; not every job requires a four-year college degree.
  • Make public higher education free. A high school education isn’t enough for many jobs in today’s economy; higher education is a public good that should be publicly funded. This will provide a better workforce for our economy and better informed citizens for our democracy. Saddling students in higher education with crushing debt shrinks their work options and their ability to fully participate in our economy.
  • Improve teacher pay so our best and brightest want to become our great teachers. We pay Wall Street financiers handsomely to develop our economic capital; we should pay our teachers equitably to develop our human capital. We want highly-skilled, highly-motivated teachers who love teaching and bring their full creativity, knowledge, and skills to bear, not ones who simply fulfill bureaucratic requirements and oversee testing.

By reinventing our education system with these six, sensible steps, we will all gain, today and in the future.

[1]       You can watch the 3 minute video at: https://www.facebook.com/moveon/videos/10152760137015493/.