Education Reform for the Digital Era

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Eric Wearne

By Eric Wearne

Eric Wearne, Senior Fellow, Georgia Public Policy Foundation

While many books, websites, and events exist to catalog new concepts in online education, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s Education Reform for the Digital Era offers both a discussion and some practical solutions.  First, the editors, Checker Finn and Daniela Fairchild, describe three barriers to change which currently hinder online learning:

  • Interest groups that try to either “capture the potential of technology to advance their own interests or to shackle it in ways that keep it from harming those interests”;
  • The governance and financing structure of the current public school system; and,
  • Issues of organizational capacity within the current public school system.

The authors of the various chapters outline ways to address all three issues.

First, regarding vested interest groups, Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel of Public Impact ask what online learning could mean for the teaching profession.  They argue that online learning could be a potentially disruptive innovation to the teaching profession in three ways: enabling excellent teachers to reach more students, attracting and retaining more of these excellent teachers, and boosting effectiveness and job options for average teachers.

The authors provide practical policy advice on how this could be accomplished.  Ultimately, they argue, “the net effect is likely to be a smaller, but much stronger and more highly paid, teaching force coupled with new, lower-paid roles – many, with appealing, shorter hours – that support the fully accountable teachers.  This differentiated structure is similar to that which has emerged with changing roles and technology in other professions like law and medicine.”

Rick Hess, Education Analyst, American Enterprise Institute

Regarding governance, Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute offers three approaches to quality control of online education ventures, all of which have political implications, and all of which will sound familiar to supporters of school choice, or to anyone who has considered the ways in which we might address accountability for any public service.  The three methods that Hess discusses are:

  • Input and process regulation, or “prescribing what entities must do to qualify as legitimate online providers;”
  • Outcome-based accountability, or “setting performance targets that providers must meet;” and
  • Market-based quality control, or “permit[ting] the universe of users to choose their preferred providers – and the trust[ing] that market pressures will reward good providers and eventually shutter lousy ones.”

Each of these methods has drawbacks, and the first two at least have been tried in education and found wanting.  A successful market-based approach will need to take into account the potential risks of market failures, and address the need to provide the most abundant and transparent information possible to enable parents to make wise decisions.

Regarding financing structures, two chapters, attempt to identify, respectively, the actual cost of online learning, and how we might be more efficient in our allocation of the funds we spend on education.

Tamara Butler Battaglino, Matt Haldeman, and Eleanor Laurans of The Parthenon Group take a careful, detailed approach to discuss the true cost of online learning.  The authors compare costs in traditional schools, blended models, and full virtual models, examining labor, content acquisition, technology/infrastructure, school operations, and student support services in detail as cost drivers.   While they caution that more performance data are needed, and that policymakers should not seek “one simple ‘price tag’ for online learning,” their review shows that online schools could cost up to one third less than traditional schools.

Paul Hill, Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington Bothell

On financing online education, Paul Hill from the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell recommends a “backpack” approach: giving parents much more control over student funding, incorporating online learning into students’ schedules as much (or as little) as necessary.  According to Hill, a “technology-friendly funding system” system would:

  • Fund education, not institutions;
  • Move money as students move;
  • Pay for unconventional forms of instruction; and
  • Withhold funding for ineffective programs without chilling innovation.

Hill’s “backpack” of funding would be something “the student would carry along to any eligible school or instructional program in which he or she enrolls…Students and families would then be free to shop for the best combination of courses and experiences their backpack funds could cover.”

John Chubb, Hoover Institution at Stanford University

Finally, regarding organizational capacity, John Chubb from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University argues that K-12 school systems are built to resist innovation, and to illustrate his point, Chubb compares the use of online courses in higher education to their use in K-12:

“In 2007-08, the most recent year for which federal data are available, 4.3 million undergraduates took at least one online course.  That represents over 20 percent of all undergraduates at the time.  In that same year, 1.03 million K-12 students took a course online.  That represents just 2 percent of all students.”

Chubb goes on to state that though “the proliferation of technology-based instruction was not dictated by government policy,”  his main solution is for the states to take on the leadership role in promoting online learning (as opposed to local schools districts).  Current events tell us that while local entities are often not eager to promote competition with themselves (see Drew Charter School, or Cherokee Charter Academy), though states are beginning to have a somewhat better track record (for example the Florida Virtual School, or the Utah’s Electronic High School).

While government dictates have proven unnecessary to promote increased experimentation and popularity of online learning, the reality is that governments will continue to regulate markets in education.  Chubb argues that state governments are better-situated than local school systems to set up workable markets in which online learning can flourish at the K-12 level, if only for the simple fact that “entrepreneurs will not invest district by district in full-time online schools, each governed by different district standards and with enrollments of only a few hundred [or even a few thousand] students.”  Governor Nathan Deal’s recently-announced task force on digital learning has the potential to set the parameters of the Georgia market and let entrepreneurs (including school systems) work toward the best solutions, competing to serve students.

“Education Reform for the Digital Era” is a helpful work that offers practical policy advice in a variety of areas related to the future of online learning.  Georgia’s digital learning task force should take note.

(Eric Wearne is a Public Policy Foundation Senior Fellow and Assistant Professor at the Georgia Gwinnett College School of Education.  Previously he was Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement.)

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License to Kill Business

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Mike Klein

By Benita Dodd

Benita Dodd, Vice President, Georgia Public Policy Foundation

From a historic building on the banks of the Etowah River in Rome, Ga., Ed Watters and his co-workers design elaborate gardens and manage a successful landscape company with a staff of more than 60. Behind the serene décor of the Outdoor Living Studio, however, lurk onerous regulatory hoops that the company must jump through to do business.

One of those hurdles is licensing. The Institute for Justice reports that Georgia is one of just 10 states that require landscape workers – known as landscape architects – to have an occupational license to work in Georgia. According to the Secretary of State’s Web site, applicants must pass both a national and state examination. According to the Institute for Justice, Georgia is one of just two states that mandate two exams for landscape workers. The state exam is offered only in Tifton, Atlanta and Macon. Certified landscape workers must also have 12 hours of continuing education credits every two years. Watters’ company also must have vegetation pesticide handler licenses for his landscape crew supervisors, which also requires two exams and is handled by the Georgia Agriculture Department. (All states license pesticide handlers.)

“The whole process gets very expensive, and it takes away from productivity,” says Watters, whose company pays for the certification and licenses. A $300 certification can cost the company up to $1,000. The employee is paid for the day of work he misses, and there are travel expenses to the license/testing site plus hotel expenses.

To Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s credit, his office is working on streamlining the process. More occupational license applications and renewals can be accessed online. He has also proposed streamlining the administrative process to expedite licensing.

Still, when it comes to occupational licensing, Georgia has the 18th most burdensome requirements in the nation, according to a new report by the Institute for Justice. The report, “License to Work: A National Study of Burdens from Occupational Licensing,” found that Georgia requires licenses for 33 out of the 102 moderate-income occupations the institute studied nationwide. On average, the licensing costs Georgians $167 in fees and 324 days in training and require them to pass two exams.

The licensing fees range from $15 for a weigher to $700 for an auctioneer. The occupations include taxidermists, taxi drivers and truck drivers, barbers and bus drivers, athletic trainers, animal control officers and emergency medical technicians, earth drillers, milk samplers and mobile home installers.

In ranking the states, the Institute for Justice considered how many occupations are licensed and how onerous the requirements are. Georgia ranks 18th most burdensome but 37th when the extent and burden of the licensing requirements are considered. Louisiana required the most licenses – 71 – but Hawaii had the highest hurdles.

In the 1950s, only one in 20 people needed a license to work, according to the Institute. Today, it’s one in three. These licensing requirements raise costs for consumers, because companies and business owners must incorporate them in what they charge. They limit opportunities for low- and moderate-income workers because of lengthy – and costly – training requirements that, viewed across the nation, show little rhyme or reason.

For example, licensed manicurists in Georgia require 123 days of training, while in Iowa they need nine days and in Alaska, three days. To obtain a license in Georgia, an HVAC contractor requires more than four years of experience compared to a national average of about two-and-a-half years. A veterinary technician must have more than two years of education, yet the EMT who has his life in your hands requires 31 days of education and experience, according to the report. Thirty-eight other states don’t require occupational licenses for taxi drivers and 33 require no license for animal control officers.

Do Georgia’s tougher requirements produce better workers? Are consumers less safe in states with fewer or no requirements, such as Alaska’s three days of training for manicurists?

At the end of the day, Georgia’s companies wrap the costs of burdensome training and licensing into the customer’s bill. And low- and moderate-income workers must jump hurdles to qualify for jobs that they could stroll into in other states. In an economic climate where job creation is crucial, perhaps it’s time for legislators to go from streamlining to sunsetting.

Still wondering what’s a weigher? That would be “a person who shall weigh, measure or record the indications or readings of weighing or measuring and declare the weight, measure, reading or recording to be in true weight, measure, reading or recording of any commodity, article or product.”

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Medicaid Dominated when Deal Advisors Took Questions

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Mike Klein

By Mike Klein

Mike Klein, Editor, Georgia Public Policy Foundation

Medicaid is a beast.  About one-in-five Georgians receives Medicaid health care.  That is 1.7 million people.  Fifty-nine percent of statewide births are Medicaid babies.  Another couple hundred thousand children are enrolled in PeachCare, the state children’s health insurance program.   Medicaid could grow by hundreds of thousands more if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the federal health care reform law in its decision expected next month.

Not at all surprisingly, Medicaid redesign questions were abundant when three of Governor Nathan Deal’s advisors met with Georgia Children’s Advocacy Network members at the Freight Depot in Atlanta.  The advisors made no presentations and took questions for almost 90 minutes.

Health policy advisor Katie Rogers named telehealth reimbursement policies, portable electronic records, better outcomes for vulnerable children, physician shortages in some specialties, how to manage health care in counties that are medically under served, more financial support for physician and nurses training programs, and treatment options for chronic childhood illnesses as part of the wide-ranging Medicaid redesign conversation.

Next month the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on a constitutionality challenge filed against the 2010 federal health care reform law.  If upheld, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provisions often known as ObamaCare could eventually add 620,000 new Medicaid patients to the state program.  Rogers predicted, “People who haven’t had access to services are going to seek services probably very quickly.”

Georgia Medicaid cost $7.78 billion in fiscal year 2010, according to Kaiser State Health Facts.  Federal funds pay 66% and the state is responsible for the rest, about $2.7 billion.  Georgia Medicaid program redesign is being managed by the Department of Community Health with private partner assistance from Navigant.  The project is described in a comprehensive design strategy report available on the DCH Medicaid website.

This project is so important to Georgia’s health care community that it is being closely monitored by many organizations outside government.  Cindy Zeldin is executive director at Georgians for a Healthy Future which advocates for improved statewide access to quality health care.

“The three buckets when we look at improving Medicaid would be one, just coverage, getting kids who are eligible but who are not enrolled today into the program so they at least have that front door access,” Zeldin told the Public Policy Foundation this week.

“Second, improving access to care, just making sure there is a mechanism to make sure that being in Medicaid means you can see a provider if you need to,” Zeldin said.  For instance, the state has no OB-GYN practitioners in 39 counties, which is an impediment to women’s health.

“Third would be improving outcomes and accountability, what you are asking managed care companies to report on and making sure you are measuring outcomes that ensure quality care.”

The Supreme Court opinion expected next month will also decide whether Georgia must create a health insurance exchange.  Last December a state report to Governor Deal said a private or quasi-governmental exchange would be preferable to one imposed by the federal government, but Georgia would prefer that it is not required to create any exchange.  Georgia opposes the federal health care reform law and it joined the suit that challenges the constitutionality.

“If the law is upheld as it stands now we will work very quickly to implement a state exchange,” Rogers said.  “If the law is not upheld the discussion will begin again on whether or not to move forward with a state exchange.  Part of the concern is without the individual mandate would people want to buy insurance through the exchange?”

Education and Public Safety Issues

Education and several public safety issues were also discussed during the open forum.

Education policy advisor Kristin Bernhard said several early childhood education programs lead the priority list heading into next year’s General Assembly.  Do not expect support for private school vouchers or increasing the age for compulsory school attendance from 16 to 18.

“The voucher conversation isn’t on the table for us,” Bernhard said.  “We’re more interested in increasing the quality of public education for all students everywhere.”  On compulsory school attendance she said, “The evidence is not necessarily compelling that raising the age of mandatory school attendance automatically results in an increased graduation rate.”

Education headlines over the next year will include incorporating the state’s version of new national core curriculum coursework, monitoring dual enrollment for middle school students taking high school courses or high school students taking college courses, tenth grade college readiness testing, and preparation to expand career pathways education now scheduled for fall 2013.

Also, Georgia admits that it has too many high school graduates who require remedial courses when they enter college.  “We know that students are graduating from high school not ready for college,” Bernhard told 100 Georgia Children’s Advocacy Network members.  Part of this discussion is how those students can be assisted by resources inside the state technical college system.

This week the Illinois Senate President proposed that his state quickly enact internet gaming legislation to get in front of a potential federal law that would grandfather existing state programs but prevent other states from creating new ones.  Do not expect anything like that in Georgia.

It is well documented that the lottery-funded HOPE scholarship, grant and pre-K programs can no longer afford to fully fund their commitments.  Governor Deal opposes a proposed casino-style project and Bernhard says, “What we’re looking at is what we can do to boost the existing revenue streams.”

Several folks applauded when public safety advisor Thomas Worthy said, “I have no doubt that we will probably see and definitely sign a juvenile code rewrite next year.”  HB 641 in this year’s legislature was a substantial effort to rewrite piecemeal juvenile laws that are decades old.  It passed the House but then was stopped before Senate consideration so more work could be done on cost.

“Everybody is in agreement on the policy side of things,” Worthy said.  “We are there.  The stakeholders are there.  Agencies are now there.  Now what we are tasked with doing is figuring out a way to not only pay for implementation but actually ascertain savings that will come under the bill.”  Worthy said consultation has begun with the Pew Center on the States; Pew assisted with criminal justice reform legislation that Governor Deal signed this month.

Worthy also acknowledged, “Not only do we have a horrible child trafficking problem within our state, (Interstate) 75 is used to move folks going to other states.”  This year HR 1151 in the General Assembly created a commission to study child trafficking and make recommendations.

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Checking Up on Health

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Mike Klein

Benita Dodd, Vice President, Georgia Public Policy Foundation

Health Policy Briefs: Posted May 15

Compiled by Benita Dodd

Water, water everywhere, but …: According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 780 million people still lacked safe drinking water in 2010. On Monday, May 21, more than 400 attendees are expected to attend, “Sustaining American Leadership in Global Health and Water,” described as “a major conference on how the United States, even in the midst of fiscal austerity and political division, can best advance the world’s health.” Hosted by three Atlanta-based groups – the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, CARE USA and the Center for Strategic and International Studies – the daylong event at the Ritz-Carlton in Buckhead will include discussions on the special place of water and sanitation and achieving health goals. The keynote speech will be given by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia.

“We are very excited and honored to be one of the organizers, not only highlighting the important connection of water and health but highlighting the effective cluster of expertise that resides in Atlanta on this subject,” said Dr. Wayne Lord, president of the World Affairs Council.  To find out more, e-mail info@wacatlanta.org.

What you see is not always what you get: According to the World Health Organization, some poor quality drugs are deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity or source while others can have incorrect quantities of active ingredient as a result of manufacturing error or poor storage. A study using 1,437 samples of Ciprofloxacin from 18 low-to-middle-income countries found find nearly 10 percent of samples are poor quality and 41.5 percent of the failures are counterfeits, according to a paper published this month by the American Enterprise Institute. It also found registered products are more likely to be targeted by counterfeiters. Furthermore, substandard drugs are priced much lower than comparable generics in the same city but counterfeits offer almost no discount from the targeted genuine version.  Read the study here: http://www.aei.org/files/2012/05/14/-counterfeit-or-substandard-the-role-of-regulation-and-distribution-channel-in-drug-safety_083912891234.pdf

Nanny government seeks social engineer: America is too slow in overcoming its obesity epidemic, according to a report by the National Institute of Health. The report, which was released last week at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Weight of the Nation” conference, suggested specific strategies, and include requiring at least 60 minutes per day of physical education and activity in schools, industrywide guidelines on which foods and beverages can be marketed to children and how, expansion of workplace wellness programs, taking full advantage of physicians’ roles to advocate for obesity prevention with patients and in the community, and increasing the availability of lower-calorie, healthier children’s meals in restaurants. It also suggested that “Fiscal policies could help increase access to healthy foods and activity … For example, flexible financing or tax credits could be used to encourage developers to build sidewalks near new housing and locate supermarkets in communities without them.”

Ongoing innovation: The states may be holding their breath as they await a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, but innovation isn’t standing still, reports Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute. She writes in Forbes magazine that the Galen Institute held a conference adjacent to Capitol Hill last week “in which speakers from more than a dozen companies described the investments they are making in better health, better health care services, and more efficient care delivery.”

“They demonstrated that the best solutions to the problems in our health sector come not from remote Washington bureaucrats trying futilely to re-engineer our health sector through costly, cumbersome, and confusing rules and regulations, but from innovators who are listening to doctors, patients, and consumers.” Click on this link to read more.

Quote of Note: When government gets in the business of deciding which risks are acceptable and which aren’t, nasty things happen. This includes government’s attempt to improve life by regulating gambling and the use of medicine, banning recreational drugs and mandating safety devices in cars. In what sense are we free if we can’t decide such things for ourselves? … In a free country, it should be up to adult individuals to make their own choices about risk. Patrick Henry didn’t say, ‘Give me safety, or give me death.’ Liberty is what America is supposed to be about. Let’s start treating people as though their bodies belong to them, not to a controlling and ‘protective’ government.” – John Stossel

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Does School Choice Financially Impact School Districts?

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Mike Klein

By Mike Klein

Mike Klein, Editor, Georgia Public Policy Foundation

This summer and fall you will repeatedly hear that approving a charter schools constitutional amendment would steal resources from traditional Georgia public schools.  The idea is that when any money follows a student to a charter school the students left behind somehow suffer.

This argument seems to apply only when students move to charter schools.  You never hear public school systems, their superintendents or school board members complain when students move from one public school system to another.  Apparently financial harm is a one-way street.

The premise that students moving to charter schools will cause financial quakes in traditional school systems also suggests we should accept another premise that public school systems are so inflexible they cannot adjust their fixed and variable costs and still produce quality learning.

For instance, is teacher employment a fixed or variable cost?  It is a fixed cost if you believe the school district cannot or will not adjust how many instructors it needs based on enrollment.  It is a variable cost if you believe teachers should increase or decrease based on enrollment.

A new report released nationally by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice challenges the concept that public school costs are so fixed that they cannot be adjusted up or down.  “The Fiscal Effects of School Choice Programs on Public School Districts” breaks down fixed and variable costs for an average public school system in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Ben Friedman, Education Fellow, Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice

“If it is true that virtually all costs are fixed then when public schools add students they shouldn’t get extra money because their costs are fixed,” said author Benjamin Scafidi, who is director of the Economics of Education Policy Center at Georgia College & State University.

“I’ve never heard a public school leader say that their costs don’t go up when they add students so they can’t have it both ways, logically.  Before this report they did have it both ways.”

Scafidi used 2008-09 federal data from every state to analyze short-run fixed and variable costs. The report lists capital expenditures, interest, administration, operations, maintenance and transportation among short-run fixed costs.   Instruction, instructional support, other student support, enterprise operations and food service were placed in the variable cost category.

“The proper way to think about this issue is not whether public school districts have in the past reduced costs when students in large numbers left the district for any reason,” the report says.  “The issue is whether they are able to do so.”  Any reason is not limited to school choice.  It can include economic downturns, such as a major employer moving away from the region.

Scafidi concluded almost two-thirds of public school expense is variable that districts should be able to adjust based on enrollment.  In Georgia, he found $11,468 average per pupil cost is almost two-thirds variable ($7,507) and the remainder is fixed ($3,961).

The report asks, “If a significant number of students left a public school district for any reason from one year to the next, is it feasible for the district to reduce the costs of these items commensurate with the decrease in its student population?”  Scafidi concluded the answer is, yes, for large and small school districts.  He used four Georgia school systems to illustrate.

Atlanta Public Schools reduced teaching staff 6.84% between 2004 and 2010 when the student population declined a similar percentage from 51,315 to 47,944 students.  The report notes that the number of administrators increased 19.7% from 395 to 471.  This example shows that a large district over time can adjust the variable cost associated with employing teachers.

But can the same be said for a small school district?  Wheeler County experienced a 12.1% student population decline between 2004 and 2010 and was able to reduce its teacher staff by 15.6%.  Hancock County enrollment dropped 5.3% from 2009 to 2010; the district was flexible enough that it was able to reduce the number of teachers 8.8% and administrators by 18.8%.

“In the first few years of a school choice program in Georgia I think you want to keep the amount of money that follows the child below $7,507 because it is difficult for public schools to reduce their costs more than that when a student leaves,” Scafidi said.  “That is the main takeaway.”

The report focuses almost entirely on financial analysis but it does offer this teaching point:

“As public schools lose students via school choice or for any other reason, they have a tremendous opportunity to improve the quality of their schools.  When students leave, schools can lay off the least effective teachers.  The students who remain would be reallocated to more effective teachers and their academic achievement would increase significantly.”

(The author Benjamin Scafidi is also former chair of the Georgia Charter Schools Commission and he is a Senior Fellow for Education Policy at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.)

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Math Results Prove Charter Schools’ Effectiveness

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Mike Klein

By Jay P. Greene

Jay P. Greene, Department Head and 21st Century Chair in Education Reform, University of Arkansas

According to the Global Report Card, more than a third of the 30 school districts with the highest math achievement in the United States are actually charter schools. This is particularly impressive considering that charters constitute about 5 percent of all schools and about 3 percent of all public school students. And it is even more amazing considering that some of the highest performing charter schools, like Roxbury Prep in Boston or KIPP Infinity in New York City, serve very disadvantaged students.

As impressive and amazing as these results by charter schools may be, it would be wrong to conclude from this that charter schools improve student achievement. The only way to know with confidence whether charters cause better outcomes is to look at randomized control trials (RCTs) in which students are assigned by lottery to attending a charter school or a traditional public school.

RCTs are like medical experiments where some subjects by chance get the treatment and others by chance do not. Since the two groups are on average identical, any difference observed in later outcomes can be attributed to the “treatment,” and not to some pre-existing and uncontrolled difference. We demand this type of evidence before we approve any drug, but the evidence used to justify how our children are educated is usually nowhere near as rigorous.

Happily, we have four RCTs on the effects of charter schools that allow us to know something about the effects of charter schools with high confidence. Here is what we know: Students in urban areas do significantly better in school if they attend a charter schools than if they attend a traditional public school. These academic benefits of urban charter schools are quite large.

In Boston, a team of researchers conducted an RCT and found: “The charter school effects reported here are therefore large enough to reduce the black-white reading gap in middle school by two-thirds.”

A RCT of charter schools in New York City by a Stanford researcher found an even larger effect: “On average, a student who attended a charter school for all of grades kindergarten through eight would close about 86 percent of the ‘Scarsdale-Harlem achievement gap’ in math and 66 percent of the achievement gap in English.”

The same Stanford researcher conducted a RCT in Chicago and found “students in charter schools outperformed a comparable group of lotteried-out students who remained in regular Chicago public schools by 5 to 6 percentile points in math and about 5 percentile points in reading. … To put the gains in perspective, it may help to know that 5 to 6 percentile points is just under half of the gap between the average disadvantaged, minority student in Chicago public schools and the average middle-income, nonminority student in a suburban district.”

The last RCT was a national study conducted by researchers at Mathematica for the U.S. Department of Education. It found significant gains for disadvantaged students in charter schools but the opposite for wealthy suburban students in charter schools. They could not determine why the benefits of charters were found only in urban, disadvantaged settings, but their findings are consistent with the three other RCTs that found significant achievement gains for charter students in Boston, Chicago and New York City.

When you have four studies meeting the gold standard of research design and all four agree that charters are of enormous benefit to urban students, you would think everyone would agree that charters should be expanded and supported, at least in urban areas. If we found the equivalent of halving the black-white test score gap from RCTs from a new cancer drug, everyone would be jumping for joy – even if the benefits were found only for certain types of cancer.

Unfortunately, many people’s views on charter schools are heavily influenced by their political and financial interests. They don’t want to believe the findings of the four RCTs, so they simply ignore them or cite studies with inferior research designs in which we should have much less confidence.

Progress will be made in our application of research to charter school policies by encouraging everyone to focus on the most rigorous studies, of which we have several. To do that, supporters of charter schools also have to refrain from citing weaker evidence, which only serves to legitimize the use of inferior studies by charter opponents.

As exciting as the outstanding performance of charter schools is in my own Global Report Card research, that evidence shouldn’t be used to endorse charter schools. Supporters don’t need to rely on the Global Report Card to make the case for charter schools because they have four gold-standard RCTs on their side. Opponents of charter schools have no equally rigorous evidence on their side. And that’s the point we should all be making.

(Jay P. Greene is department head and 21st Century Chair in Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and he is a fellow at the George W. Bush Institute.  Greene writes frequently and posts videos on his own education blog.)

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Fulton Science Academy M.S. Will Try Private School Path

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Mike Klein

By Mike Klein

Mike Klein, Editor, Georgia Public Policy Foundation

Fulton Science Academy’s middle school will try to remain open this fall in Alpharetta even after the state board of education denied its state charter application on Thursday.  The Academy was already rejected by Fulton County last December so it does not have another public school option.

“Our only viable option right now is to go to a tuition-based private school model which is not our first choice because then it won’t be open to everybody in the public,” board member Angela Lassetter said in a hallway interview just outside the state board meeting room.

Moments earlier Lassetter and two other Fulton Science Academy parents asked board members to wait another month before voting to approve or reject the school’s petition. “Thirty more days isn’t going to change a thing,” said state board member Brian Burdette.  Several board members described their concerns about school finances and its governance model.  The vote was 10-0 to deny the petition with one abstention.

“We will go forward if there is any possibility as a private institution,” Lassetter said.  Parent Nadira Merchant said, “The end?  This cannot be the end.  The governance of our school, if it needs to be changed (then) change it.  You cannot close it down.  You cannot deny our children.”  Parent James Webb said, “All we’re asking for is fairness and due process.”

Fulton Science Academy Middle School operates in partnership with two sister schools – Fulton Sunshine Academy for elementary pupils and Fulton Science Academy High School.  Last year the middle school received a U.S. Department of Education national blue ribbon for academic excellence on standardized tests.  So, charter denials by Fulton County and the state board are headlines of note.

Fulton Science Academy applied for a state charter in January just a few weeks after Fulton County denied the school’s petition for a new ten-year charter.  Fulton County offered three years but the school insisted on the longer term, a condition that Fulton County board members refused to meet because they wanted more direct oversight over the school’s finances.

Several issues are involved here.  First, Fulton Science Academy secured a $19 million bond package and then began to build a school even though it did not have an approved charter beyond June 30, 2012.  Second, the Academy began to build its new school without obtaining proper construction site approvals.  Third, the Academy did not comply with the Fulton County audit process so the county advised the state that the school was out of compliance with its contract.

State Department of Education staff have worked with Fulton Science Academy personnel on these and other questions since January, but some of the state’s questions were not adequately answered.  For instance, records indicate the Academy did not account for what happened with almost $6 million of the $19 million in bond revenue when the state requested that information.

In documents that recommended a denial vote, the state noted, “The governing board has limited autonomy and appears to have little ability to make autonomous and independent decisions.”  Fulton County previously noted that Fulton Science Academy personnel served on the boards of other organizations that were doing business with the school.

Thursday morning state board member Mike Royal said Fulton Science Academy financial stability and governance issues “are clearly debatable.”  Board member Dan Israel said granting a state charter to Fulton Science could make the state liable for the $19 million bond package.  “What is going to be the precedent that we set?” Israel asked.   Board member Linda Zechmann noted, “We found no evidence that Fulton County schools did anything improper.”

Fulton Sunshine Academy for elementary students and the high school still have Fulton County local charters for next year but the future for 510 middle school students is hazy.  State board members encouraged Fulton Science to address the outstanding issues and submit a new proposal next year.

“To say that it’s okay to close down for a year and (then) rise from the ashes, what are our parents and students supposed to do for that year?” asked Lassetter. “That hasn’t been addressed.  It’s unfortunate that’s not been taken into consideration.”

The state board voted on several other charter schools agenda items.  Charters were renewed for the Museum School of Avondale Estates and  the Northwest Georgia College and Career Academy.  Ivy Prep Academy received a new two-year state charter after it was rejected by the Gwinnett County Board of Education.  Charter system conversion petitions were approved for the Fulton County and Madison County school systems.

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Task Force Should Focus on Digital Learning Ideas Marketplace

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Eric Wearne

By Eric Wearne

Eric Wearne, Senior Fellow, Georgia Public Policy Foundation

Recently Governor Nathan Deal announced a task force to “recommend ways to improve student achievement through the creation of robust digital learning environments, which may include the transition to digital textbooks and the effective use of wireless mobile devices.”

In his remarks, the Governor stated that, “Students need to develop technical literacy in order to attain 21st century skills and become competitive in the global marketplace, and our state will invest in that education. We must increase the quality and quantity of our digital learning opportunities to ensure that our students are college or career ready.”

Leaving aside the fact that a great many of the students in school today probably already have better “technical literacy” than their teachers or parents, here are just three specific suggestions regarding how the task force might best approach its work in order to fulfill the Governor’s charge to “improve student achievement through the creation of robust digital learning environments.”

• Allow students to enroll in any virtual education program in the state, full time or part time – to limit these choices based on whether a school is run by the state, a charter provider, or another school district has no educational purpose;

• Fund online education equally with brick and mortar education, and on a per student basis – let schools and parents decide on the right combination of virtual and face to face instruction to suit their needs (and let the parents control how the funding attached to their students is spent);

• Exempt online and blended course from class size requirements – if the state sees growing access to the best teachers and lessons as a goal, especially for rural areas, then it must enable those teachers to be available to as many students as possible (and compensate them for their higher value);

Moving to digital textbooks may save money. And most elementary schools (and parents of elementary schoolers) are well aware of educational programs and apps like BrainPOP. But these are examples of digital activities that are likely to grow no matter what the task force does – they already have some momentum.

In their efforts to successfully create “robust digital learning environments,” the goal of the Governor’s task force should not be to try to predict which technologies are likely to be the next big thing, and then recommend funding for those, to flow through the school systems or the state Department of Education. That would be choosing winners and losers, in an area where we are still very unsure what the best pedagogical strategies are. It’s a 21st century version of the “One Best System” approach.

The task force’s goal should be to set up an environment in which a market for online learning ideas can be created, between some guardrails to ensure quality. The market for online learning in K-12 will call for real changes in the way we conceptualize, as education scholars David Tyack and Larry Cuban have put it, the “grammar of schooling.”

Existing school systems, state virtual schools, many colleges and universities, and private businesses are both experimenting with and implementing blended and fully online learning formats effectively. There are certainly many more variations yet to be explored, which could prove even more effective in providing the most opportunities for the widest number of students.

How should the market look, and which types of providers should be encouraged to operate in it to improve student achievement? No one can say they know for sure. The task force should recognize this, and recommend the parameters for a market to grow “robust digital learning environments,” rather than a specific pedagogical or technological approach.

(Eric Wearne is a Georgia Public Policy Foundation Senior Fellow and Assistant Professor at the Georgia Gwinnett College School of Education. Previously he served the Georgia Governor’s Office as deputy director at the Office of Student Achievement.)

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States Still Don’t Get the Message About Broken Budgets

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Mike Klein

By Bob Williams

Bob Williams, President, State Budget Solutions

Last month, the Government Accountability Office released its annual report on the fiscal condition of our states. The report’s title — “State Fiscal Gap Seen Worsening” – says it all. Every state is facing record deficits, and the GAO predicts the budget gaps for state and local governments will steadily worsen through 2060 absent any policy changes.

The GAO calculated that closing the fiscal gap with an immediate action would require an annual 12.7 percent reduction in state and local government expenditures, or tax increases of a similar magnitude.

The downward spiral that state budgets are experiencing are the result of accounting gimmicks, reckless spending, and a failure of state legislatures and governors over the years to make the tough decisions to reset state spending to a level that taxpayers can afford.

In October, we at State Budget Solutions released a report that showed total state debt exceeds $4 trillion. The states with the largest total deficits are California, New York, Texas, New Jersey and Illinois, respectively. California hit the bottom of the list, with a deficit of more than $612 billion. Even the states with the lowest deficits are still in the red by $5 billion to $10 billion.

So what can each state do to fix this? The answer can be found in pension reforms and a change in budgeting strategy.

First, legislatures and governors must do a strategic analysis and identify core functions of their government.  This will help them begin implementation of Reality-Based Budgeting, also known as outcome performance-based budgeting.  This budgeting strategy forces all legislators to start by asking, “What must the state accomplish?” and to set clear measurements for programs’ efficacy and efficiency.  Upon determining how much money the state actually has, government officials must establish what is the most effective and efficient way to deliver essential services within those limits.

Reality-Based Budgeting eliminates budget gimmicks and accounting games. It provides state legislatures the opportunity to examine how much funding is truly needed for each government service or program. It eradicates redundancies while allowing transparency to shine through government spending.

Next, governments must tackle fundamental pension reform. Despite recent reform efforts, public defined-benefit pension plans are ultimately doomed unless we pump trillions more dollars into them. And even then, pensions are still endangered by reckless, shortsighted policies of politicians and fund managers.

Unfunded pension liabilities are the dark cloud on the horizon of state budgets; a cloud totaling trillions of dollars. Though they represent unavoidable fiscal debt, pension liabilities often slip under the radar when states tally up their spending, thanks to their status as “future payments” and the accounting games that states use to mask the pension problem.

States need aggressive pension reforms, including a move from defined-benefit plans to defined-contribution plans, which are similar to the 401(k) plans offered in the private sector. Defined-benefit plans guarantee specific levels of service regardless of cost, whereas defined contribution plans establish a fixed payment toward services. Instituting defined-contribution plans would end the endless cost escalations of nonsalary compensation. A move to defined-contribution plans would reduce the risk to taxpayers, provide lawmakers with a reliable cost estimate for budgeting, and give state workers control over their retirement funding. Example: Utah’s transition to a hybrid defined-contribution plan was a reform that cut the state’s $6.5 billion pension debt in half.

Now is the time for state governments to work together and create reform that will ease their deficit.  Delay and avoidance only make deficits worse.  There is no spell to cast to make the effects of decades of mismanagement magically disappear.  The day of reckoning is here.

(Bob Williams, President of State Budget Solutions, is a former Washington state legislator, gubernatorial candidate and auditor with the Government Accountability Office.  Williams is Founder and Senior Fellow at the Freedom Foundation, a public policy organization in Olympia, Washington.)

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Reed: What We Need is More STEAM in Our Classrooms

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Mike Klein

By Mike Klein

Mike Klein, Editor, Georgia Public Policy Foundation

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed thinks our classrooms need more hot air.  “We actually need STEAM – science, technology, engineering, arts and math,” Reed told an “Education Nation” audience Monday morning at the Georgia Aquarium.  Later he added, “America cannot continue to be what it has been if we continue to have the kind of educational system that we have.”

“Education Nation” is a two-year-old NBC News project to create solutions-based conversations about learning in America.  Atlanta is one of five cities being toured this year.  Reed was joined onstage by Senator Johnny Isakson and Governor Nathan Deal in a discussion moderated by Meet the Press host David Gregory.  WXIA 11Alive is NBC’s “Education Nation” local partner.

Reed visited China in March.  “China is rising because of the size of its market.” Reed said.  “In a terrific book by Thomas Friedman he talks about the fact that in America if we appropriately educate black people, Latinos and rural kids it is worth about $400 billion a year in expanded economic productivity.  We do not have the ability to leave anybody on the side of the road.”

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed

Reed said China is “able to execute faster because they don’t have the robust debate that occurs in the U.S.   We also can’t forget in focusing on the success of the Chinese that at the end of the day the creative component we have can’t be lost in our move to make sure we are strong in STEM.  We actually need STEAM – science, technology, engineering, arts and math.”

Reed, Isakson and Deal have formed partnerships that were not always possible between the state’s highest elected officials and the mayor of its largest city.  Reed has used his Washington connections to lobby hard for approval and federal funds to improve the Savannah ports.  He is a frequent visitor to the State Capitol and especially during General Assembly months.

Atlanta is the third city on this year’s “Education Nation” tour that opened in Denver last month and visited San Francisco last week. The final stops are Miami later this month and Aspen, Colorado at the end of June.

Governor Nathan Deal

Senator Johnny Isakson

The conference events are customized to local audiences.  NBC’s Gregory noted Georgia has a 9% unemployment rate, employers are seeking specific kinds of workers and there are widespread vacancies because of a skilled workforce shortage.

Governor Deal focused early and often on technology.  Last week he visited Westside Middle School in Barrow County.  Westside is a Governor’s Innovation Fund grant recipient.  Deal saw the collaboration between Westside and Georgia Tech’s Direct to Discovery program.

“A professor at Georgia Tech was teaching them things that I would never have comprehended that a middle school student would be exposed to,” Deal said.  “We are making significant progress to widen the opportunities through technology that are being afforded to our students.  I think people are embracing that because they recognize that truly is where the future lies.”

Governor Deal worked the state’s new Go Build Georgia initiative that is based on Go Build Alabama into the conversation early.  Georgia has a federal grant to help with start-up marketing but there is no direct funding in the 2013 state budget so ongoing costs to run this project will have to be absorbed by the private sector.

Go Build Georgia is as an awareness initiative.  Once students understand there are many kinds of career options, the education they need is available from many sources, especially the Technical College System of Georgia and programs inside four-year universities such as the Kennesaw State University nursing school.

“The idea is to educate young people and their parents to the fact that if they have a craft, a skill that is going to be employable, they will earn a wage 27 percent higher than the average Georgian currently earns,” the Governor said.

“Education is the solution to the prison system,” Senator Isakson told the audience sprinkled with public education and private sector corporate leaders.  “It’s the solution to saving Social Security.  It’s the solution to a balanced budget.  It’s the solution to more revenue coming into the government.  When people are trained and educated and working they’re making money, they’re paying taxes and they’re growing.”

“Thought leaders are beginning to catch up and deal with this problem,” Reed said.  “Whoever has the best idea should flat out prevail but we can’t get away from the fact that 84 percent of the kids in the United States of America are educated in public schools … We’re losing a awful lot of kids who are on the sidelines.”

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