The Business Community Looks at School ChoiceFew constituencies in New Jersey have as great a stake in success of public education as the New Jersey business community. We expect the graduates of the public school system to become our employees. Taxes from businesses are a major source of funding for the state's public schools. And we bear a substantial part of the consequences when failed schools produce young people who are a social burden rather than productive employees, affluent consumers, fellow taxpayers and informed citizens.It is tragically clear that many of our public schools - particularly in urban areas - are failing their students and society in record numbers. As business people, none of us would tolerate the spectacle of high costs and low achievement that typifies such schools. In our open, competitive world, there are consequences for failure. Yet, this is not so for those who administer and teach in our urban public schools. Despite decades of declining test scores and graduation rates, coupled with rising costs, no one inside the system is ever held accountable, leaving only the students to pay the price of this failure. BUSINESS PEOPLE KNOW MONOPOLIES DON'T WORKIn New Jersey's special needs (Abbott) districts, the cost per pupil is about 25% higher than in the suburbs. Because of 25 years of State Supreme Court decisions, per pupil spending in the Abbott districts is up 250% in inflation-adjusted dollars over the same time; and with what result? Test scores are lower than 25 years ago. The dropout rate, truancy, violence and illiteracy are all higher. In fact, fewer than half of all ninth graders in these schools finish high school.Any businessperson examining these failed systems will immediately recognize the problem. Public education is a "monopoly." When any provider of goods or services is the sole source, it doesn't have to please its customers. In poor urban areas, the consumer (a parent) does not have the money to either move to a better district or send his/her child to a private school. It's a public school or no school. Those who run this monopoly know this. For the 20% of our population who cannot afford any alternative, the current state of public education is a path to dead-end jobs and worse. WHY COMPETITION IS SO IMPORTANTSchool Choice is a concept asserting that parents and children are the consumers of education and are, therefore, the best judges of its quality. School Choice advocates believe that, when a public school fails its consumers, those people have the right to go elsewhere; and the public funds allocated to each individual child should follow him/her elsewhere as well. As a businessperson, you will recognize what's happening here: it's competition at work. And it does work, almost everywhere else in our society. When a provider has to choose between pleasing a customer or losing that customer, quality and innovation go up and costs go down. Suburban public schools function reasonably well because most suburban families have real choice (i.e. money). If they are unhappy with their local school, they can move to a better district or enroll their child in a private school. Parents with resources to go elsewhere are the omnipresent 800 lb. gorilla that keeps suburban schools on their toes.WHAT IS SCHOOL CHOICE?Advocates of School Choice support any alternative that empowers parents to reward or punish their local public schools. Most people think the concept is all about school vouchers, but School Choice encompasses significantly more than this. Choice is exercised when parents choose public charter schools, religious or nonsectarian private schools, inter-district public schools, magnet schools, or home schooling. What these options all have in common is that parents control where their children go to school and the public dollars that fund that child's education go with them. Incidentally, these funds can come from almost anywhere, including public tax dollars, tax credits for parents, and private scholarship funds.LOOK AT THE LONGEST-RUNNING PUBLICLY- FUNDED SCHOOL CHOICE PROGRAM IN AMERICAMilwaukee, Wisconsin, has offered its low-income families publicly funded vouchers for almost 12 years. The Milwaukee model looks like this:
DID SCHOOL CHOICE DESTROY PUBLIC EDUCATION IN MILWAUKEE?The big story out of Milwaukee is not whether the 20% of students who went to voucher schools, charter schools, and out-of-district schools did better or worse.While they did, for the most part, do better, what's really important is that the 80% who stayed in the traditional public schools are also doing much better. Contrary to dire warnings that School Choice would depopulate, defund and demoralize the public schools, the opposite has happened. Faced with real competition, the public schools rose to the occasion. They instituted dramatic changes and got dramatic results. Today, 12 years after the dreaded "V" word came to Milwaukee, the public schools have more students and more teachers; higher budgets, higher test scores and higher graduation rates. To permit public schools to compete effectively, the Milwaukee school board gave each school the right to select its principal, choose its new teachers, and control its budget. Ineffective teachers were removed faster, teacher assignments by seniority were dropped, principal's management prerogatives were expanded, etc. It turned out to be a win-win situation. WHAT NOW FOR NEW JERSEY?Here in New Jersey, School Choice advocates are gathered behind Excellent Education for Everyone, a coalition of civil rights activists, education reformers, elected officials, religious and nonsectarian private school advocates and business leaders. The movement is bi-partisan and multi-racial - as diverse as New Jersey itself. In very broad strokes, this coalition agrees that a Milwaukee-like system would fit our unique needs. Beyond the Milwaukee model, we would propose for New Jersey the following:
IT IS TIME FOR THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY TO GET INVOLVEDA wise man once said: "war was too important to leave to the generals." The same may well be said of education. It is far too important to the civic and economic life of America to leave its control so extensively in the hands of educators and unions with a vested political and economic interest in the status quo.Yes, School Choice is controversial. And most businesspeople would prefer to avoid controversy and focus on their organization's bottom line. But the truth is that education is all about our bottom line as a society. And School Choice is all about an operating principle - competition - that we in the business community all swear by. At the risk of making a pun, we have no choice but to seek choice for parents who have no choice. There are times in history when playing it safe is the most dangerous course of action we can take. We must be involved in the matter of Choice. We must install a system we know works, and reap the benefits for ourselves, our employees, our region, and our nation. We can no longer wait for reform to happen on its own. It's time for the business community to take action. |