The New Hampshire Superior Court ruled this week that the state’s new education tax credit program is unconstitutional, writes John DiStaso in the New Hampshire Union Leader.

In an opinion that ruled for the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the organizations that filed the lawsuits, Judge John M. Lewis said that the state constitution expressly forbids any government funding for religious education — even if it is in the form of tax credits for donations to scholarship organizations.

The law attracted a legal challenge almost as soon as it was passed by New Hampshire’s Republican legislature last year. The bill won enough support to overcome the veto of John Lynch, New Hampshire’s former Democratic governor.

His successor Maggie Hassan, also a Democrat, expressed support for the ruling, calling it a victory for public education.

During an April hearing, Alex Luchenitser, associate legal director of Americans United For Separation of Church and State, argued, “This program uses the tax system to deliver funding for the program. If there was no business profits tax, this program could not exist. The only way we can run this program is if a business owes the tax and chooses to divert some of the tax to this program.”

Richard Head of the Attorney General’s Office countered that because the tax is retained by the business and never paid to the state, it should not be considered public money.

In a statement praising the outcome, Hassan said that the tax credit program would divert millions of dollars in public education funding to institutions that would use it for religious teachings. She called it a “wrong policy” that violated New Hampshire’s commitment to the separation of church and state.

Rep. Bill O’Brien, R-Mont Vernon, championed the bill as House Speaker last year. Also an attorney, he represents seven former and current legislators who sponsored the bill and filed a brief supporting it.

O’Brien said the ruling “does not address why it is permissible for the state to allow tax breaks for religious organizations through college scholarships, but it is not permissible when it’s a tax credit of this nature.”

The program allows up to $3.4 million in tax credits to be claimed in its first year and up to $5.1 million in the second. It provides for additional increases in tax credits for subsequent years.

The argument that the decision to donate to the organizations was solely in the hands of the companies involved didn’t convince Judge Lewis that tax credits did not constitute public money. Proponents of the tax credit program are expected to appeal the decision.

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School choice is a growing movement in Wisconsin as parents increasingly take advantage of opportunities offered by the raft of recently passed laws that provide better education options for kids. In Oshkosh alone, 180 students left their local public school to either enroll in a school outside their district or take classes through one of the two virtual public charters operating in the state.

In total, more than 44,000 Wisconsin students took advantage of the state’s choice program that allows students to enroll in a public school outside their assigned home district. To school choice advocates, the numbers prove that parents have long been starved for options when it comes to choosing the best educational setting for their kids — and they’re embracing the opportunity to choose a school that fits best for their child.

But public school teachers and administrators are doing all they can to stop the choice movement from going in that direction. They say it crosses a line by mixing public dollars with private and for-profit education.

A measure in the proposed state biennial budget to expand private school vouchers, which currently only exist in the Milwaukee and Racine areas, has become one of the most controversial pieces of the bill. It would allow up to 500 lower-income students from anywhere in the state to receive tax dollars to help pay for private school tuition.

The concerns of anti-choice advocates are not new. Many fear and argue that public schools will degrade in quality if their funding is allowed to be siphoned off to other institutions via vouchers and tax breaks. In Oshkosh, members of the school board are already sounding an alarm by approving an emergency resolution in opposition to the voucher program expansion.

Yet stopping school choice in its track – especially in Wisconsin – would be like trying to get the horse back in the barn. Jim Bender, president of School Choice Wisconsin, explained that the state has been moving in this direction since it approved open enrollment policies for its public schools in 1998.

The number of families taking advantage of the program has been steadily rising every year since then.

Voucher opponents say the growing use of open enrollment doesn’t necessarily mean there’s demand for public funding to attend private schools.

State Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, said he has heard from more constituents opposed to private school vouchers than from people who support them.

“There are talks going on all over the country and world on the future of public education regarding innovation, reform, the role of technology, teacher accountability. But, no one is talking about vouchers,” he said. “What Wisconsin is doing is an ideological experiment not grounded in research or evidence. It’s grounded in politics.”

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Recent research on the effectiveness of charter schools in Massachusetts has shown that students in MA charters are several months ahead of public school peers, but a coalition of education activists are protesting the expansion of charters in Boston.

Ted Green of the Examiner writes that a group led by the Boston Teachers Union, Youth Organizers United for the Now Generation (YOUNG) and Youth On Board will gather at the Statehouse to protest lifting a cap on charters because they claim it would erode public school quality:

“We are a coalition of students, parents, teachers, community members and activists who are connected to and directly affected by public education,” said Collique Williams, one of the organizers of the rally. “We feel that the expansion of charter schools in the state of Massachusetts will diminish our public education system.”

State lawmakers are considering a bill that would eliminate the cap on charter schools that are allowed to be opened in low-performing school districts. Currently, the Massachusetts statewide limit on charter schools is 120.

Instead of opening more charter schools, the rally organizers say the answer is more funding for public schools and to develop schools that have the ability to accept and serve every student.

The protesters claim that charters siphon money from public schools and have an overall negative effect on education in both Boston and the state of Massachusetts. They also say that charters serve certain student populations poorly, such as English Language Learners and special education students.

Democrats have traditionally been allies of teachers unions, but in Massachusetts — where the state legislature is overwhelmingly Democratic — some lawmakers have sided with school choice over unions. Governor Deval Patrick, also a Democrat, is a quiet charter supporter.

Teachers and community activists are not convinced, though. As described by Mr. Green, the group’s platform rests on the following complaints:

• ~30% of Boston students are English Language Learners, but more than one-third of Boston charter schools educate few or no ELL students;

• Charter schools serve fewer special education students than public schools;

• Charter schools expel and suspend students at higher rates than public schools;

• Charter schools draw funding away from public schools at a time when they need it most.

But according to Charles Chieppo writing in the Boston Herald, the benefits of charters outweigh negative consequences. Evidence shows that Boston’s charter students outperform public school students on the state MCAS exams, the SAT and Advanced Placement exams.

He thinks a proposal to lift the cap, which is opposed by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, would be vetoed by Governor Patrick if passed by the legislature:

Rather than lifting the cap, Mayor Tom Menino asked legislators at the hearing to allow more of the “in-district” charter schools that haven’t demonstrated a fraction of the success of so-called commonwealth charters.

State Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester said he’d support raising the cap — in three years or so. It’s a clear sign that even if the legislation were to pass, Gov. Deval Patrick would veto it.

The protest commences at 4pm EST at the Statehouse in Boston.

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The battle isn’t quite over yet, but voucher supporters in Louisiana’s administration are dealing with the reality of their loss in the state Supreme Court by cutting its Course Choice scholarship program back to “pilot” status.

The decision, announced by Education Superintendent John White, means that the Department of Education will not ask lawmakers to fund the program directly, bypassing the now-closed avenue of funding vouchers from the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education money.

Danielle Dreilinger writes for The Times-Picayune that Course Choice, which was part of Governor Bobby Jindal’s 2012 education reform package, would have allowed any student from a public school rated C, D, or F to take outside classes with the cost being covered by the state. Students in well-performing schools would get more limited benefits – their courses would only be covered if not offered by their local school.

In the fall, more than 100 companies, organizations and schools signed up to offer Course Choice classes ranging from barbering to Bard Early College. The department chose 42 to participate. Each provider is limited to 250 Course Choice students. With an average course cost of $700, that would add up to a maximum of about $7 million.

The department had never given an enrollment cap or total cost because Course Choice was to be budget-neutral, shifting a portion of each student’s per-pupil allocation from the student’s public school to the Course Choice provider. But the state Supreme Court said earlier this month it was unconstitutional to transfer funds in that manner.

According to White’s announcement, the limit will now be set at 250 total enrollments per provider, which means students taking more than one course will count multiple times against a provider’s limit. Because of the change, students who already have approval to take an outside course will need to seek out a new one.

To ensure compliance, the state’s DOE will contact each student individually to make sure they’re still interested in participating.

According to NOLA.com, it’s possible that even with the cutback in the number of enrollments, the program might not hit the maximum as districts around the state are reporting a total of only 900 signups.

In fact, data released Friday by the department on the current accepted registrations suggest there is hardly any demand at all. No one was enrolled in classes from most of the 42 providers, including companies such as Sylvan Learning and the Acadiana Symphony.

Registering one student each were Accelerate@RET, Bossier Parish Schools, Connections, Edgenuity, Florida Virtual School, Lincoln National, Louisiana Public Broadcasting, Princeton Review and S.M.A.R.T. Start Ministries. Six more providers had two to six signups.

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Late Sunday the Texas House and Senate approved a bill to cut back on the amount of standardized tests that students are required to pass in order to graduate in the state. They also voted to increase the number of charter schools that are allowed to operate from 215 to 309 by September 2019.

WFFA’s Will Weissert reports that the Senate passed the bill without dissenters in a 31-0 vote. Even so, there are some skeptics who believe it might be misguided to “water down” high academic standards, and worry that it might leave students at a disadvantage when trying to find jobs.

Critics, including many higher education leaders, say the proposals will essentially lower the bar for many students by enabling them to graduate without really challenging themselves. They point to studies that show a correlation between being able to pass Algebra II and succeeding in college and beyond — and say that as many young people as possible should take it.

Previously, students were expected to pass 15 state-mandated tests. Students will now only have to complete one third of the previous requirement including Algebra I, Biology, US History, and English I and II. Reading and writing, which used to be separate tests, will now be combined. Algebra II and English III will eventually be produced, but will be optional and will not count towards the state accountability scale.

The proposal will replaced a 2007 law that required students meet curriculum standards that included four years of math, science, english and social studies. There will now be two different types of diplomas available for students to earn. The “foundation” diploma requires fewer core classes and allows students to incorporate more career-training electives into their curriculum.

The other is a “distinguished” diploma for students that complete Algebra II and other upper level math and science courses. Students who receive this diploma are qualified for automatic admission to any Texas state university. Those who do not complete the distinguished degree are not granted automatic admission.

All students must start out on the path to a distinguished diploma, but after the first two years are able to switch to a foundation diploma with parental permission.

The new curriculum is designed to give more flexibility to students who would like to better prepare for high-paying jobs that do not require a college degree.

“What we set out to do in January was to reform public education in this state,” said Sen. Dan Patrick, a tea party Republican from Houston who chairs the Senate Education Committee. “We are maintaining rigor and accountability.”

One of Patrick’s goals was to completely erase the charter cap and to create a board to approve the flood of charter applications that would be expected to come in at that point. The final bill doesn’t hit that goal, but instead allows for gradual growth. It will allow for parents and students to have more school choice, which is in high demand in Texas.

Sunday’s approvals free up extra space, something advocates say is vital since around 100,000 students from across the state are on waitlists for charters that don’t have the space to accommodate them. The charter bill passed easily in the Senate but met more opposition in the House, which voted to approve it 105-41.

The post Texas Relaxes Graduation Testing Requirements, Boosts Charter Schools appeared first on Education News.

The foundation of the school choice movement is a desire to empower parents with the ability to send their children to a high-quality school regardless of where the family lives. School choice advocates frequently charge that one’s zip code shouldn’t determine the quality of one’s education — as wealthy neighborhoods tend to have good schools and poorer neighborhoods do not — and that opening up great schools to all is democratic, egalitarian and will help drive education reform.

But critics of school choice argue that this leaves poorer and predominantly minority students left back in traditional public schools as families who put a premium on education flee using choice — and that those families who take their children out of public schools move them into less diverse schools.

Matthew Chingos of the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy has concluded that data shows it is unlikely that a relationship exists between school choice and segregation.

By comparing changes in charter enrollment with changes in minority students’ exposure to non-minority students using information from the Common Core of Data, Chingos found that there’s no significant relationship. He didn’t stop there:

I also used an alternative measure of segregation called a “dissimilarity index” and obtained similar findings: no consistent relationship between changes in charter enrollment and changes in segregation. Finally, I conducted a more sophisticated panel data analysis that uses all nine years of data to estimate the relationship between charter enrollment and segregation using only the changes within counties over time^. Once again, using both the exposure and dissimilarity indices, the results consistently indicated no meaningful relationship between choice and segregation.

Critics may not be completely satisfied, and Chingos recognizes that it’s still possible that school choice and segregation are related — but that it’s very unlikely:

The lack of any consistent relationship between charter enrollment and segregation does not eliminate the possibility that such a relationship exists, but suggests that it is unlikely. For there to be a relationship, it would have to be the case that counties where charter enrollment increased experienced an increase in segregation as a result but then adopted policies (or experienced other changes) that counteracted the increase in segregation. In my view, that is not a very plausible explanation for these results.

The growth of charter schools and school choice has been consistent over the last 15 years, with ~1% of students enrolled in charters in 2000 and more than 3% by 2010. Arizona — and cities such as Washington, DC and New Orleans — has been aggressive in promoting school choice, with Florida, Ohio, Georgia, Illinois and others making up a total of 17 states with school choice programs.

The post Does School Choice Increase Segregation? No, Says Brookings appeared first on Education News.

Student demographics at private schools and traditional public schools are different, but after controlling for variables — income, race, gender, parent involvement — William Jeynes found that private school students performed 7 months ahead of public students.

Ron Matus of redefinED points out that this research could have a tremendous impact on how the growing school choice movement views itself. By focusing on charter schools, which are funded like public schools but have autonomy over their management, curriculum and overall operation, Jeynes says that school choice advocates could be ignoring an effective model:

“It really seems in terms of school choice that this nation has decided to throw all kinds of resources at developing charter schools but has really overlooked the broader approach to school choice,” Jeynes said in a phone interview. “We really ought to include private schools.”

The reasons for private school success seem to derive from the schools’ culture. First, a belief in seriousness of purpose and self-worth seem to drive private school students in a unique way — as Jeynes puts it, they think that “God doesn’t make junk.”

“You can’t say, “God doesn’t make junk” in a public school,” he said. “There’s something about that. It’s not just saying, ‘You can do it.’ It’s that ‘Hey, you have a creator who made you, and he made you well, so you can do this.’”

And there is a marked difference in a sense of belonging and caring in a private school, which Jeynes cautiously summarizes as “love.” In short, private school students tend to believe that teachers and the school care about their lives and academic outcomes. That bears fruit on academic performance, as students thrive in such a welcoming, comfortable atmosphere compared to a less-personal traditional public school model.

The research doesn’t condemn public schools as soulless factories of pain and disinterest, but it does identify and contrast two general models that can be very different.

Some charter and public schools have adopted bits of the culture and environment that have proved effective in private, faith-based schools, but there continues to be resistance to learn from religious institutions. Jeynes thinks this is a shame:

“If there is a certain group of schools that is reaching inner city kids and doing a better job at it, we should rejoice at it, no matter our religious affiliation,” he said.

The post Study: Private, Faith-Based School Students a Year Ahead appeared first on Education News.

The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that the funding formula used for the state’s school voucher program is unconstitutional. The program, which was shepherded through the Legislature by the state’s Governor Bobby Jindal last year, was voided by a 6-1 decision because the Louisiana Constitution prohibits the use of public money to fund private schools in certain circumstances.

The issue appears to be that the voucher program is funded out of the state’s Minimum Foundation Program. The majority opinion said that the state constitution prohibits diverting money from MFP towards private schools once it has been allocated.

In addition, the court ruled that the MFP formula didn’t get the needed support from lawmakers, passing with only 51 votes when 53 were required.

The Jindal administration has pushed on with the voucher program despite the earlier court ruling. Roughly 8,000 students have been approved for vouchers in the coming school year. It remains unclear how the program will be funded now that use of MFP money has been struck down. State Education Superintendent John White was not immediately available for comment.

Jindal pledged to continue the program, with an add-on through the regular annual budget process. He’ll need backing from lawmakers to do so.

The Associated Press quotes a statement from Jindal expressing disappointment at the decision but promising to find a way to fund the program through an alternative budget process. Jindal said that making sure that parents have a choice when it comes to their kids’ education is important because they can’t afford the children’s “one shot” at a good education to be wasted.

The opinion, written by Justice John Weimer, goes to some lengths to emphasize that the judges were not taking a position on the effectiveness of the voucher program or its value. The decision was reached, according to Weimer, on strictly constitutional grounds.

The majority included Chief Justice Bernette Johnson and Justices Jeffrey Victory, Jeanette Knoll, Marcus Clark and Jefferson Hughes.

Justice Greg Guidry was the only dissenter.

“The majority overlooks the fact that, once a student leaves a district, the district is no longer entitled to the state’s share of the MFP for that student, and thus the district’s share of the MFP is removed from the MFP allocation to that district,” Guidry wrote.

It isn’t clear what the decision means for the voucher program in the immediate future. As of March, the program – called the Louisiana Scholarship Program – continued to draw a growing number of applicants all looking to take part. On March 29th, the Louisiana Department of Education reported that more than 7,000 new applications were received from families who were hoping to receive a check from the state to leave low-performing schools in their districts and enroll in a private school instead.

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Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has announced that nearly 8,000 students have been matched with voucher seats for the 2013-14 school year in the first round of applications, which represents an increase of 3,000 students over the program’s first year. Danielle Dreilinger, writing for NOLA.com, reports that there will also be a second round of applications running from May 6 to 24.

The state received almost 12,000 applications, counting the 4,700 students currently enrolled. Matches were made in 128 of the 134 participating schools, representing 32 parishes. The Department of Education has not finalized which schools will participate in the second round.

Jindal said that evidence from New Orleans, where the program was piloted in 2008, suggests that it works, with third grade proficiency levels rising in both math and English — 23 and 12 percentage points respectively. Performance scores for the program statewide will be released later this month, and Jindal cited high levels of parental satisfaction as justification for keeping the program, in addition to its increasing public popularity level.

“It’s no surprise that interest in the scholarship program is growing,” he said. Academic achievement in these schools has grown more than the state average and students are “doing better than they were at the schools they left.”

Superintendent John White is also a fan of the program, citing lower dropout rates for children in the voucher program compared to those students in public schools.

The scholarship program is about helping students improve, and White said he was “frankly baffled as to why someone would stand in the way of that.”

Parent Valerie Evans, whose son Gabriel is in 7th grade at Resurrection, said the program had been an answer to her prayers. “My son was able to leave a failing school and enter a great school,” she said.

Louisiana’s voucher program is funded through the government per-pupil allotment, with scholarships coming out at $3,000 less than that amount. Proponents of the program state this as an additional benefit with every student who takes advantage of the program directly saving the taxpayer $3,000.

Jindal noted that this saving will total $18m this year alone.

Not everyone is on board with the program, however, and there has been recent legislative resistance. A Baton Rouge district judge ruled at the end of last year that the program was unconstitutional on the grounds that it diverted public school funds to private schools. That decision is currently pending appeal in the state Supreme Court with Jindal confident that the ruling will go his way.

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Indiana is expanding its voucher program while at the same time pausing its adoption of the Common Core Standards, according to the measure passed by both the Senate and the House late last week. House Bill 1427 is now just short a signature from Governor Mike Pence from becoming law.

The bill, which is the revised version of earlier House Bill 1003, was one piece on a slate of new legislation passed by lawmakers late Friday as they rushed to finish up business before the legislative session finishes. The expanded voucher program extends voucher eligibility to students with siblings in the voucher program, those living in a local area of a school rated D or F and special needs students. The current program requires prior enrollment in a public school for at least two semesters after kindergarten before a student becomes eligible.

The author of the bill, Representative Robert Behning, predicts that nearly 200,000 extra students around the state will now become eligible for vouchers thanks to the newly adopted rules.

Under current law, families of four making $42,000 or less can receive up to 90 percent of the state aid set aside for their child’s public school education to pay tuition. State aid generally ranges between $5,000 and $8,000 per student depending on what school district the student lives in. Families making up to $62,000 can receive half of the state aid amount for private school tuition.

Critics of the bill have said the fast-growing program could quickly become a burdensome cost for the state. But advocates argue that it provides opportunity for children stuck in low performing schools or who fit better in private schools.

The support for the measure broke down predictably along party lines. Even as the final vote came closer on Friday night, Democratic lawmakers in both houses continued to voice objections. Representative Vernon Smith of Gary said that the public school system will not be able to easily absorb the shock of funds lost due to students taking advantage of vouchers. He called the program absurd and said that the state should take a second look at it instead of expanding it further.

Along with the voucher expansion, lawmakers also approved a measure that would halt the adoption the Common Core Standards in the state as of May 15th.

Common Core is a set of academic standards that Indiana and 45 other states have pledged to follow. Critics say Common Core standards fall short of Indiana’s well-regarded prior standards in some areas and take decision-making about what kids learn out of the hands of state policymakers and local communities.

But supporters argue Indiana could fall behind by backing out. Textbook publishers and standardized test makers, including those who make college entrance exams, are moving quickly to adapt to the new standards.

The bill requires public input meetings and a new vote on whether to continue implementing the Common Core by the end of 2014 by the State Board of Education, which originally approved common Core in 2010.

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