School Choice Ohio Blog

Parents leave a lasting impression on children.  Everything that we do leaves a mark on their little minds and their little souls. They know that we love them in great and small ways; with spoken and unspoken words.  Children know that as parents we will go out of our way to protect them from all harm and that protection assumes various forms. 

Those parents that rallied in D.C. yesterday to save the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program have left a lasting impression upon their children about how far they are willing to go to ensure that their children receive the best education available. What is amazing is how the Obama administration continues to completely ignore these parents, that by all accounts he continually asks to become “actively engaged” in their child’s education.  They have, they are and their decisions should be honored.  The program should be reauthorized.

The D.C. public school system has long been an embattled system of underperforming and failing schools.  Since 2004, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program has provided 3,300 low income students the ability to attend the private school of their parents’ choice and as far as parents are concerned the program has helped their children to succeed academically.  Furthermore, a report released by the U.S. Department of Education confirmed parents’ beliefs of academic gain.

Why then would the government actively seek to end a program that does not leave children behind and helps to bridge the ever widening achievement gap?  Why ignore parents who are actively involved in their child’s education?  Why put the educational future of these children at risk?

If we are to actually put children first, then all avenues that lead to academic achievement must be made available.  Why is it that the discussion of where a child is educated becomes less about the child and more about maintaining the status quo?  The idea that only one system can educate a child is a false one.  Parents know this and this is why they rallied by the thousands yesterday. Parents want, need and should have school choice.

Tisha P. Brady

Crayons, pencils (endless supply), notebooks (spiral, perforated, wide rule, single subject, five subject…the variations are endless as well as the want of each individual teacher), ink pens, tissues, etc.  This is the supply list that many parents are familiar with and when you add on to that school clothes, shoes, socks and other school necessities, even with good back to school shopping deals, somehow you still seem to be out the same amount of money if not more than last year.

Going back to school is fraught with anticipation and anxiety alike for both parents and students.  We want our children to excel and in most cases children want to excel also, but can quickly succumb to learning handicaps from which they may never recover.

As we pack lunches and ensure that every labeled item is in that spanking new backpack, parents and students alike harbor an unspoken hope for the year:  that students will enjoy learning. This not only means the ability to place your child in an environment that is safe and conducive to learning, it also means arming your child with the knowledge of why he or she is learning.  A learner’s bill of rights, if you will.

Curious as to whether someone was inspired to create such a bill of right’s for learners, I came across two that speak to the nature of learning and also why school choice is important. If children are to exercise these rights, the ability is often found in a parent’s ability to choose the best school that fits the individual needs of their child.

John Harris Loflin who is with the Democratic Education Consortium in Indiana has creatively combined a learner’s bill of rights with the music “Get Up, Stand Up” on YouTube.  He describes the ideal school as a place where children want to be and he believes that these rights are inalienable and fundamental human rights.

Very similar in nature to Loflin’s but more succinct and tangible are the bill of rights penned by Kirsten Olson in her newest book Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture.  Olson states:

1.       Every learner has the right to know why they are learning something, why it is important now, or may be important to them someday.

2.       Every learner has the right to engage in questioning or interrogating the idea of “importance” above.

3.       Every learner has the right to be confused and to express his confusion openly, honestly, and without shame.

4.       Every learner has the right to multiple paths to understanding a concept, an idea, a set of facts, or a series of constructs.

5.       Every learner has the right to understand his or her own mind, brain, wiring, and intellectual inclinations as completely as possible.

6.       Every learner has the right to interrogate and question the means through which his or her learning is assessed.

7.       Every learner is entitled to some privacy in their imagination and thoughts.

8.       Every learner has the right to take their own imagination and thinking seriously.

So, let us add on to our list of back to school supplies a learner’s bill of rights. After all, all the supplies in the world are just meaningless instruments if children do not understand what they are learning and why they are learning.

 — Tisha Brady

Most people can imagine that the parents of kids who have special needs lead busy lives. Between appointments with specialists, doctor’s visits, making sure siblings aren’t lost in the mix, and keeping up with daily life, these families have added challenges (and joys).

With all of these added dimensions in their lives, families have enough on their plate without having to fight for their child to receive an appropriate education.

But many do spend valuable hours, days, and years fighting to convince skeptical schools that their kids with dyslexia can learn, they just need to be taught differently. Fighting to secure services they know will jumpstart their kids’ learning. Fighting to ensure that their kids with developmental delays have a chance to live independently.

Parents of students with autism have a way out of the fighting. It’s the Ohio Autism Scholarship, the first of its kind in the nation.

This tax-funded scholarship is a form of follow-the-student funding touted by education reformers nationwide. Parents can direct $20,000 (a fraction of the roughly $30,000 designated for these students in public schools) to the private education services they prefer. They can combine early intervention services, private schools, and cutting edge therapies – in other words, parents are empowered with options.

What difference has it made? Public schools step up their game, kids aren’t stuck in a holding pattern, and innovative ways of teaching kids with autism are expanded. Ohio is becoming known as an “autism-friendly state,” and parents are free to focus their energy more on helping their kids and less on fighting to get the services their child needs.

Shouldn’t this same opportunity be available to students with other learning differences and special needs?

Want to help this solution become a reality? Read up on the proposed special education scholarship legislation we mentioned last week, share your story with us, and tell your state legislator about it. Let’s all be a part of the solution.

- Sarah Pechan

One of the underpinnings of the school choice movement has always been our belief in accountability.  Without a doubt, voucher programs have always had market accountability. If parents are unhappy with the education a private school is providing to their children then they simply leave. A private school failing to meet the educational needs of its students is destined to struggle or fail.

Many people, friend and foe alike, have also suggested additional accountability (or perhaps more accurately, transparency) for school choice programs. They want to know if students using the programs are performing better academically than their cohorts in public schools.

At SCO, we agree that the measurement of academic performance is important. To that end, we have repeatedly pushed to have longitudinal analysis conducted on voucher student test data. After all, all students using an EdChoice Scholarship in Ohio take the state assessment test. Despite high profile studies in Florida, Washington, DC, and Milwaukee, we have not been able to get a similar study done in Ohio. That is soon going to change.

The recently passed state budget included language that will increase public transparency of the scholarship programs and give parents additional information to help them make informed decisions about their children’s education. The new language will require the Ohio Department of Education to:

§         Compile and organize test scores of voucher students on a statewide, school district, and private school basis

§         Post voucher student performance to the website each year (without identifying individual students)

§         Notify all eligible parents how voucher students are performing on the state assessment

§         Provide data on their child’s performance annually to the parents of all voucher students and compare the performance to that of similar students who attend the public school that the child would have been assigned

In this case, a change of language in the budget is a good thing.  Given that parents are the primary consumer when making decisions about their children’s education, it is important that they know how their children are faring.

In addition, we welcome the chance to show policy makers and naysayers what we hear from so many parents….the program works.

– Chad Aldis