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

Accountability, standardized testing, measures, scores, education reform, “Race to the Top”…  ask a child what these mean and you’ll probably get the same blank stare and confused “What?” that my son gave me. 

Often in educational discourse, we talk incessantly about the student, around the student, and at the student.  We talk to the teachers, to the school boards, to the community, to the parent sometimes, but it is a rare moment when someone speaks directly to the children.

Amidst much fuel and fury, President Obama delivered what actually turned out to be a not so controversial back to school speech.  He spoke of the need for studying hard, setting goals, accepting personal responsibility, and getting “serious this year”.   Back to school themes that many students are familiar with and yet this time it was different.   It was personal.

As much as the conversation was about a child’s personal responsibility to obtain an education, it was far more.  It was a conversation that sought to nurture the soul of children.  It was a conversation of hope, self belief and the ever eternal quest of self-realization. 

He talked to them about finding and developing their talent and overcoming overwhelming obstacles. Unlike many previous presidents, he has firsthand knowledge of poverty, single parenting, lack of focus in school, working hard and grabbing at second and third chances to turn your life around.

Although he stated, “Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future,” unfortunately for many students where they are right now will determine where they end up. Their futures have already been predetermined by virtue of living in areas where the schools are failing, are often in economically depressed areas and the access to opportunities are near nigh impossible.

These children are in desperate need of options now.  Although the president’s “Race to the Top” is headed in the right direction, by encouraging innovative schools, quality charter schools and the promotion of merit pay, it does not go far enough.  For these children all options must be made available and that means vouchers have to be a part of the solution.  To deny a child a scholarship that will help to nurture his abilities, is to deny that child his future.  For these children no stone should be unturned and no opportunity should be denied.

In order for President Obama to call upon students to “… set your own goals for your education — and do everything you can to meet them,” he must provide children every and all opportunities to do so. If we are to nurture and encourage children to find their dreams through education, they must first have access to all educational opportunities.  Only then can they become a great writer or the next inventor or the next politician.  Only then will they be able to fulfill their goals.

Tisha Brady

On Wednesday, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute hosted a simulcast panel discussion on the future of charter schools and vouchers. The panel featured national experts including Ohio’s own Dr. Susan Zelman, namesake of the famous Zelman v Simmons-Harris US Supreme Court case based on the Cleveland Scholarship.

Much of the discussion landed on questions of accountability for schools outside the local public school district. Those same questions have routinely been raised in Ohio.

Accountability can take lots of forms, but the greatest attention is given to academic accountability (testing). Charter schools take all the same state tests as district schools and face closure if they don’t show student achievement. And private schools are both accountable to paying customers (parents who are free to leave the school if they feel it fails to educate their child) and required to administer state tests to students who receive vouchers.

Still, the question has been raised: When a school accepts state vouchers, how much information should the public have about student achievement?

At School Choice Ohio, we believe the student achievement of a student using a voucher matters and these students’ test scores should be among the information made public.

That’s why we supported landmark legislation in the latest budget that requires the Ohio Department of Education to report test scores of the students who use the EdChoice Scholarship and the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program.

These recent changes to Ohio law will put our state on the forefront of voucher accountability nationwide. Parents will have more information about how their children are doing and the public will have information about the investment they’re making in scholarship programs with tax dollars.

- Sarah Pechan

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