The GI Bill and school choice
Author Vicki E. Murray, a senior fellow in education studies at the Pacific Research Institute, had this to say last week on humanevents.com about the Montgomery GI Bill and school choice: “A recent study from McKinsey & Co. … found that ’lagging achievement in the United States is not merely an issue for poor children attending schools in poor neighborhoods; instead, it affects most children in most schools.’ Moreover, the report calls chronic K-12 achievement gaps between American students and their international peers, along with achievement gaps among low-income, Hispanic and African-American students, ’the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession.’ The study estimates the cost to U.S. GDP of not closing those gaps ranges from $310 billion up to $2.3 trillion, about $7,500 per American.
“So why not model K-12 reforms after successful higher education programs such as the G.I. Bill that fund students directly through grants and scholarships? One such reform is the five-year-old D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which awards private school scholarships to 1,700 low-income D.C. public school children each year — for less than half the cost of keeping them in the public system, $12 million compared to about $27 million annually based on the latest Department of Education figures. According to the official government evaluation, students using Opportunity Scholarships for three years now perform a half grade ahead of their public-school counterparts in reading. Students using them longer perform more than two grades ahead in reading.”
Dress-code alert
Sagging pants. Halter tops. Belly buttons. You may see them this summer, but by the next school year they should be out of the picture.
D.C. Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has enacted a dress code that takes effect next school year. It authorizes principals to develop and implement detailed dress-code policies. The policies will be gender-neutral — no midriffs and no buttock exposure, for example. It also directs principals to have clothes on hand for students who fail to comply because their families are poor.
Other significant changes direct principals against expelling or turning away students who are improperly dressed.
Racing to the top
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced last week that the department will pledge up to $350 million of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund to help states create assessments attached to the internationally benchmarked common standards currently being made for public K-12 education.
Mr. Duncan spoke at the Governors Education Symposium in Cary, N.C., commending the 46 states and three territories that already agreed to develop common standards to help American students remain competitive in the global marketplace.
“Perhaps for the first time, we have enough money to really make a difference. We have proven strategies for success in schools all across America. This is where reform will play out. It will filter up from classrooms and schools, districts and localities, but then it will arrive on your desks,” Mr. Duncan told the governors. “And when it does, I urge you to remember that the truest measure of a societys worth is whether it offers all of our children the opportunity to go where they want to go, do what they want to do, and fulfill their dreams. This is the promise of education. This is my promise. This is your promise. This is the American promise.”
Currently, each state currently sets its own academic standards.
The Department of Education will hold a national competition among states to improve education quality and results statewide for $4 billion of the fund. The grants will focus on four main reform goals: using data to drive instruction; raising standards; turning around historically low-performing schools; and improving teacher and principal quality, as explained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Grants will be awarded in two rounds. The department also released a timeline for the grantmaking process.
• By late July, the Department will publish a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register, inviting public comment for 30 days on the proposed grant application and the criteria for evaluating them;
• In October, the notice inviting applications will be published in the Federal Register.
• In December, Phase 1 applications will be due.
• In March, Phase 1 grants are awarded and winners announced.
• In June, Phase 2 applications will be due.
• In September, Phase 2 grants are awarded and winners announced.
Mr. Duncan is scheduled to speak about school reform again Monday at the National Charter School Conference in Washington.
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