AP or Dual Credit: Which Approach is Best for High Schoolers?
For high school students facing up to the financial toll a college education can take on a family,... Read More
Report: School Choice Doesn’t Harm Public Education
A new report has revealed that giving parents school choice does not, as critics maintain, have a detrimental effect on public education.
A new report by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice has revealed that American public schools are not damaged by school choice programs, citing that their costs are flexible and can change with student enrollment.
The report – The Fiscal Effects of School Choice Programs on Public School Districts – found that 36 percent of public school expenses are “fixed” costs while 64 percent are “variable” costs over a one year period.
Ben Scafidi, a senior fellow with the Friedman Foundation and author of the report, said:
“This means when public schools lose students to a school that better meets their needs, there is no fiscal harm.
“They actually have more money when students leave because there are fewer to educate, and they get to keep some of the allotted funds to educate them.”
The report explained that if district officials are able to retain 36 percent of the funds to educate each student when children leave, then they will be able to fund costs like maintenance and capital investments that remain with school systems.
The report estimates that the average spending per child across the United States was $12,450 during the 2008-09 academic year, says a press release.
Robert Enlow, President and CEO of the Friedman Foundation, said:
“If districts have school choice programs and lose a few hundred children, they really are benefitting financially because they keep many of the dollars spent on each child.
“In no other business in America do you still get paid for not having a customer to serve.”
Scafidi added that “variable” costs which cover instruction and learning can easily be reduced when a student departs because there are fewer students to teach – especially from one year to the next.
Scafidi said:
“It’s like when children go off to college; families usually reduce household spending.
“So too is it possible for public schools to reduce spending.”
There currently are 34 school choice programs in 19 states and other jurisdictions including voucher, tax credit and education savings account programs to offer parents the opportunity to utilize their own tax dollars to transfer to the school of their choice.
Tuesday
March 6th, 2012
Filed Under
Recent News
New York City High School Admissions Policy Biased, Lawsuit Claims
In a lawsuit filed in federal court, New York City parents and activists are arguing that the high... Read More
Professor Snarks: Should Coursera Offer a Course on Itself?
A massive online open course about one of the biggest providers of massive online open courses?... Read More
Popular News
Number of Homeschoolers Growing Nationwide 50
Researchers are expecting a surge in the number of students educated at home by their parents over... Read More
James Shuls: Why We Need School Choice 26
The Pedagogical Agenda of Common Core Math Standards 23
Career Index
Plan your career as an educator using our free online datacase of useful information.
- Select a City Subject
- Interior Design Schools in Bloomington
- Interior Design Schools in Columbus
- Interior Design Schools in Evansville
- Interior Design Schools in Indianapolis
- Interior Design Schools in Marion
- Interior Design Schools in South Bend
- Sports Management Schools in Aston
- Sports Management Schools in Bradford
- Sports Management Schools in Bryn Mawr
- Sports Management Schools in Butler
- Sports Management Schools in California
- Sports Management Schools in Chambersburg
- Sports Management Schools in Dallas
- Sports Management Schools in Grantham
- Sports Management Schools in La Plume
- Sports Management Schools in Millersville
- Sports Management Schools in Philadelphia
- Sports Management Schools in Schnecksville
Comments
what a simplistic and uneducated look at numbers.
how about this, the students left behind tend to be a higher % of special education, and behavior problems, requiring a different assortment of staff, which forces funding away from traditional staff and resources which in turn reduces the educational quality for everyone as a whole.
or how about the idea that there is a threshold problem, losing numbers outside of certian thresholds means that you can’t build classes of appropriate sizes, which means you must either string together large classes or eliminate elective subjects to focus your funding on “only the essentials”
meanwhile these charter schools send back all the “bad” kids they can’t or don’t want to handle, and don’t return money if a kid moves out of state or leaves the country.
it is a bunch of BS, show me this data from someone not biased in favor or ruining public education so they can flee from the element they don’t like.
I am sure it is entirely a coincidence that the only good news about charter schools and voucher programs comes from organizations with a vested interest in continuing those programs. Entirely a coincidence.
Not a coincidence, obviously. Since these organizations seem to be the only ones interested in doing the research.
perhaps that is because the experts on education, who don’t have ulterior motives know not to waste their time.
That’s a little dismissive. We can’t know the effectiveness of something until we study it in a rigorous, unbiased manner and present the results to be scrutinized and peer-reviewed. I’m not going to pretend that education is not being used as political football right now, but I hope if we ever get back to actually worrying about educating kids and not scoring points off each other, there will be data out there to guide us in the right direction. Studying school choice will definitely not be the most “time-wasting” research scientists have ever done, right? Apparently someone just found out that women hate beards!
Yes… those millions of parents lining up for charter school lotteries every year are obviously imbeciles.
They should instead simply go home, and dedicate themselves to supporting the only reform we need: more money shoveled into the existing establishment.
Indeed, this whole choice thing is a scam. It’s okay for every other aspect of American life, of course, but not for schools — parents should just accept being given one option and having no voice.
After all, American public schools are excellent. And highly paid union bosses, not uninformed parents, should decide whether public schools need competition.
interestingly enough, based upon using the concept of statistical significance when vieiwng the data from international rankings, american schools are excellent
and all of those parents who line up tend to fall into groups who either believe the lies and fear mongering they are fed constantly, are fleeing the schools filled with “bad kids” so their child doesn’t have to deal with it, or have a personal beef with how their public school handled some problem.
American schools are excellent thanks. Brookings Institute report removed all statistical differences in the scores of nations and the U.S. came in with Germany, Finland, and some others in 5th. Second off lets really look who is making the choice. Parents with good students send them to charter school why? Because the charter school doesn’t have to accept every student like a public school. So I don’t say its a bad choice, but make them take every student and see what happens. No difference. So you didn’t fix education you just avoided the problem, while probably a good personal move your hate of public education and teachers won’t go away, because the problem will still be there and it will still be unavoidable when those in the public school are no longer in school.
except real honest rigorous research has shown one major salient point
Charter schools are no better then public schools, in fact 1/3 of them are worse.
so why do we keep haling this experiment as a success? and the solution to all of our problems?
even the charter schools that work best do so because they have programs that address the challenges of poverty outside of the classroom, like harlem’s children Zone.
and their success is because they deal with poverty, not because they are a charter.
the reality here is it is easier to focus blame on education and teachers and unions, so you can convince the public that they are the problem and push them to ineffective charter schools that cost less.
the bottom line is that no one wants to spend the money or the time to truly address our major poverty issue so they pull a sleight of hand trick and turn everyone’s attention to a problem that doesn’t exist.
That is so true. The real problem with education is outside the classroom, but those problems are just too hard and expensive to tackle, so let’s just blame teachers how about that?
[...] Full Article- follow the link below Report: School Choice Doesn't Harm Public Education | Education … h116(); #family movie -THE LAMP- one family's loss shows them how to turn to Faith instead of magic [...]
[...] school choice does not, as critics maintain, have a detrimental effect on public education.”(more) Comments (0) Go to main news [...]
[...] choice programs, citing that their costs are flexible and can change with student enrollment.”(more) Comments (0) Go to main news [...]
[...] There currently are 34 school election programs in 19 states and other jurisdictions including voucher, assessment credit and education savings account programs to immolate parents the opportunity to utilize their allow tax dollars to transfer to the govern of their choice.Source [...]