Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Car Pushed Into Anacostia River By Train
Morning Roundup: Black Friday Edition
Devendra Banhart @ 9:30 Club
Saturday Thanks Don't End At Thanksgiving Photo: November 28, 2009
Federal officials using the District as a testing ground on which to push their preferred domestic programs is nothing new, particularly when it comes to the city’s public schools (ahem, Sen. Landrieu). True to form, nestled deep within President Bush’s 2009 budget proposal is a $5 million increase for a school voucher initiative called the DC Opportunity Scholarship program (OSP). Currently, around 1,900 low-income students receive scholarships up to $7,500 to attend area private schools under the program, the creation of which was authorized through federal legislation in 2003.
A 2007 Department of Education report found no evidence of a statistically significant difference in test scores between students who were offered an OSP scholarship and students who were not offered a scholarship, and that students who were offered OSP scholarships did not report being more satisfied with school or feeling safer in school than those without. However, the program did have a generally positive impact on parent satisfaction and their perceptions of school safety.
School vouchers are a touchy subject for many educators and policy makers, and it’s worth noting that they tend to be a fairly partisan issue, with Dems and teachers unions on one side, the GOP and free-market types on the other, and the District caught in the middle. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton opposes the program and recommends its discontinuation, yet OSP was started in the first place with vocal support from then-mayor Anthony Williams.
We at DCist tend to look a little warily at vouchers, which seem to us more of a band-aid than a long-term solution for the city’s schools. But as the federal money for OSP comes tucked into a $32 million increase for D.C. public schools as a whole, Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee can’t really help but welcome the increased funding. As for long-term solutions? Try Sam Seaborn.
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I don't see why people are opposed to vouchers - especially when it comes via federal funding sources. If vouchers were such a bad thing, why is there such a demand for them? If I had a choice between sending my kid to a failing DCPS or to a private school via a voucher program, would I hesitate for a fraction of a second in making that decision?
That study was based on a whole whopping two years of the program. I suspect that as the program continues, you will start to see separation between kids in the program and those not. Besides, nobody's forcing these parents to take the vouchers and no money is coming out of the DCPS budget (in fact, quite the contrary. And besides, a quick glance at the history of DCPS will tell you that its problems do not stem from a lack of allocated funds). It's just as if these kids had a beneficent Uncle Sam who decided to get them the hell out of an awful school. A choice every one of you would make.
I make too much to apply for this program.
I make to little to send the kiddies to private school.
So I guess its off to Fairfax!
I don't see why people are opposed to vouchers
Well this year's scholarship is for $7500. Capitol Hill Day School tuition is $22K plus "fees" that could easily add up to another $5-6K. It's not like this is a chance to swap a decaying public school for the Dead Poet's Society.
I understand feelings on both sides of the issue, but I'm rolling with public schools (for now) while I'm in DC.
I'm open minded about studying which systems are more effective and why, but sending some kids to private schools in order to ostensibly give them a better education doesn't seem to address the issues for children left behind at public schools. Is there a more comprehensive philosophy that provides a level playing-field for all students in which vouchers play a role or is this a stand-alone band-aid approach?
Repeat after me: vouchers don't help kids learn. There's not a scrap of evidence from a non-ideological source that says otherwise.
The push for vouchers has never been about helping kids. If it was, then the proponents would have given up long ago in the face of mountains of evidence.
Vouchers are about an ideological push to privatize schools. Even in the "Reforming Education" article linked to in this post, note the line: "Coulson lamented the funding increases for the traditional public school system." Because why in the world would we ever want more money to go to public schools?
This has always been a push to strip money away from public schools and towards a Norquist-ian dystopia where every child gets the education his or her parents can pay for and nothing more.
This is like the global warming denialists. They've made a career of fermenting doubt where none ought to exist. Don't give their ruse undue credit.
Hillrat, it is my understanding that the schools that are participating in the program are allowing the students to enroll with the voucher price alone (see footnote four of that report). You could argue that this means that the schools are basically getting a subsidy on the scholarships that they would otherwise give (i.e. they would've waived the whole tuition for the kid regardless), but I tend to believe that the school has a relatively fixed amount of tuition that it will waive in a given year and the vouchers help spread that fixed amount to more deserving kids.
As for your own little rodents, I suspect that the school you settle on won't be one that would even qualify your kids for the voucher.
Thanks for your even-handed analysis Drew. I guess that settles that issue!
:-P
@ Drew: Again, if vouchers are such a failure, why is there such a demand for them in DC? Are the parents who would rather their kids get out of DCPS delusional? Are they ideologues? Are they Cato Institution-loving libertarians?
I think none of the above. They don't want to send their kids to DCPS b/c of its long history of misery. And they jump at the chance of sending their kids to a private school with vouchers so their kid has a much better chance of getting an actual education.
It's sort of the same thing with the popularity of charter schools in DC. Parents are so distrustful of DCPS that they would rather send their kids to a brand-new charter school. Neither set of parents is waiting around to debate the merits of vouchers or charter schools vs. traditional public education. They don't think their kids' futures should be placed on hold or jeopardized while such a debate occurs.
Repeat after me: vouchers don't help kids learn. There's not a scrap of evidence from a non-ideological source that says otherwise.
Is there any evidence from a non-ideological source (ie. not teachers unions, the NEA, the AFT – the people with jobs to protect) that the students do worse with a voucher?
If not, why not let the parents decide? I hear the elected elite in DC saying ‘we’ don’t want vouchers. Seems many parents do want them. There would be no clearer message to the Whitehouse that vouchers are not wanted than seeing the money unclaimed each year.
@Reid
As for your own little rodents, I suspect that the school you settle on won't be one that would even qualify your kids for the voucher.
Let's hope not.
Rachel:
Jesus. Will you quit riding Senator Landrieu?
Yes, she got funds for a reading program that was something DC hadn't used before.
But it was a fucking gift. FREE money. DC was NOT obligated to use it. They could either use it or not, and their regular budget remained the same either way.
So why the hate for Landrieu? Maybe because she's got a swank mansion on East Capitol Street. Probably a lot more than you'll ever have.
But jealousy isn't a valid reason for mischaracterizing what she did with this FREE appropriation to DC.
The Post has reported there have been difficulties recruiting DC parents for these vouchers. It may be they aren't sufficent monetarily as hillrat notes, but the non-NEA study apparently hasn't shown a big boost from these programs so far.
I'll also agree with Hillman that it's no drain on DC's budget so I'm not too upset, being a DC resident, with Landrieu for shoveling some pork our way.
Hillman:
I missed that rant by Sommer last Decemeber re: Landrieu. Wow. Here's the money quote:
"More broadly, the story demonstrates with shocking clarity the role the U.S. Congress has played in condemning D.C.'s public schools to failure by making them a testing ground for pet projects that have created an unworkable hodgepodge of curricula."
I recommend to Sommer to read up on the history of DCPS degradation. There are perhaps some Congressional fingerprints on it; but the vast blame rests squarely on local pols. Marion Barry won hundreds and thousands of votes claiming that Reagan was short-changing the DCPS, while each year the city had to return money it didn't spend due to its own incompetence and corruption. If anything, Congress was too willing to hand over control of DCPS to the local government. For political reasons it wanted the schools off its (white) hands and into local (black) hands, and didn't care how badly it fell apart. The same goes for the MPD.
And besides, the claim that DC is unique in the country for having a school system that has to deal with a distant authority figure thundering-down whims from on-high completely ignores the fact that DC is the sole school system that doesn't have to deal with a state government doing the exact same thing. The only difference is that all the other school systems have a nominal say via representation; but the fact that, say, Kansas City, Kansas has a few state delegates didn't prevent it from having intelligent design stuffed down its throat.
I agree that Congress is indirectly at fault to the extent that a lack of local control throughout the majority of the 20th century produced a city without a healthy political culture. But the direct cause was, and remains to be, the DC government itself.
Hey...why do people always need the feel to refer to Jesus in such an insulting way; taking the Lord's name in vain? After all, what did he do to deserve such ill-treatment?
Vouchers? Sure thing. If the public schools are not cutting it, parents should have the chance to send their child to a place where they will flourish. Children only have one chance at being children. We should not, in good faith to the children, let adult foolishness stand in the way.
Plesko:
I'll tell you what. I'll stop using the word "Jesus" when you and your ilk stop making life hell for me and my friends simply because we fall in love with someone you don't like.
Deal?
Until then, shut the fuck up.
Reid:
You raise some very good points.
The ire aimed at Landrieu was particularly misplaced because by nearly all accounts Landrieu has been an ally to the city, moreso than the vast majority of her counterparts.
We can blame a lot in DC on Congress, but the condition of our schools is not Congress' fault.
For anyone thinking I'm being too mean to Plesko.....
In a previous discussion Plesko compared my 20 year relationship with my partner(yes, hard to believe anyone could put up with my hubris for 20 years) to incest, pedophilia, and marriage to a dog.
Once someone pulls that crap, I feel no need to be polite.
As hateful and arrogant as Plesko is, he does have a point.
I will try to quit using "Jesus" in a way that decent Christians (I hear there are some out there, I just have trouble finding them since their hateful brethren are the ones hogging the Hate Spotlight in Jesus' name) may find offensive.
The American mandatory public education system evolved from the Prussian Volksschule model established in the 1800s (where the underlying purpose is not to foster independent thought but to indoctrinate a population to learn to obey orders). And yet even at that, DCPS fails. All kids learn today in school is the increasingly simple art of seduction.
And I think people tend to take the Lord's name in vain as they're secretly angry at His dad's somewhat sloppy workmanship when it comes to His malevolent cosmos. I mean, what kind of deity creates light on the First Day and the Sun on the Third? WTF is up with that s**t?
Man, oh, man. Well, I guess forgiveness is not in your vocabulary. I feel sorry for you. Hateful and arrogant? No. I don't think so. Oh, no...no hate here...fallen into arrogance at times, yes, I admit, but I am working on that personally. But to constantly use such language that I read in these blogs is really inappropriate and unnecessary. I really don't see the need for it, people.
Besides, keeping to the point of this blog, school vouchers are certainly needed. Parents need to have the right to be able to school their children effectively. This is a vital necessity for the future of our society and children.
Well, let's see now.
You compared my relationship with my life partner to pedophilia, bestiality, incest, and marrying a dog.
And you support your church's position on denying health care, hospital visitation,and old age benefits to elderly couples that I care about and love.
What exactly wasn't hateful about that?
So, yes, you are a hateful, arrogant, selfish person, doing what you can to tarnish the name of the very God you claim to serve.
Do I really have to say more?
"Besides, keeping to the point of this blog, school vouchers are certainly needed. Parents need to have the right to be able to school their children effectively. This is a vital necessity for the future of our society and children."
Would this include the children of gay couples?
Or would you still insist that those children suffer by starkly limiting the financial resources and stability of marriage available to the gay parents?
It sucks when your 'it's all about the precious children' argument gets in the way of your hate, doesn't it?
Can you guys get a room already? It's like dcist is suddenly channeling The Battling Bickersons, except with homos and jeebus people. Don Ameche and Frances Langford are probably rolling over in their graves in Hell.
We'll get a room only if you and Hillrat agree to watch through the filth-stained bedroom window.....
We'll get a room only if you and Hillrat agree to watch through the filth-stained bedroom window.....
Done. Who's bringing the Carlo Rossi and pineapple flavored blunts?
Hillman:
Your issues with healthcare go far beyond whatever church position you are referring to. I truly wish more and more people would have better health care, regardless of personal issues. Health care for all is still a great need in this world.
Sinful behavior for all of us is still...sinful behavior. The truth is the truth is the truth.
All children are precious. Period. The prevailing distortion of truth about sexuality in this world has fogged many people's ability to see that there is hardly an ounce of hatred in me at all. I truly do have compassion, love, and sincerity in my heart. While blogs are great ways for people to communicate, the inability to convey a person's vocal inflections that reveal a person intentions is not communicated at all.
hillman: you're not going to change pleskowicz's mind.
pleskowicz: you're not going to win any converts here.
give it all a rest. one of you is a troll and one is being trolled. i'll leave it to everyone else to figure that out.
Pineapple blunts are soooo 1985.
The true homoerotic thug smokes bubblegum blunts while peering through the glory hole and sipping his white port and lime.
And if kids are so precious, why did mine tell me, "I poop on your HEAD fart! HA! HA! HA!"
Pineapple blunts are soooo 1985.
I'm trying to be retro and ironic.
Best wishes to you all.
"Sinful behavior for all of us is still...sinful behavior. The truth is the truth is the truth."
Jesus f-ing Christ on a Popsicle stick...
Even I'm tired of this one, and that takes a lot...
But, please, can I be the troll? It's long been my ambition... that, and licking lint from Obama's bellybutton, at least back when he had at least a bit of skin on his bones.... what's up with him withering up and becoming tiny?
pleskowicz:
Yes, all children are definitely precious...but they sure do have wills and minds of their own, just ask monkey.
Oh, and nice point about the truth being the truth. That really made me think a little bit. I guess you really can't change something that is definitively true. But who or what defines truth is probably the real question.
1985, what a great year it was. Ahh......
Oh, and nice point about the truth being the truth.
I was really rather offended by the way you (intentionally?) elided plesko's words to undermine the suppleness of his argument.
His contention was that "the truth is the truth is the truth." [emph. mine].
Because tautologies are so much more compelling when they're recursive...
ibc:
so you agree with plesko?
I thought he had a good point...how is truth defined?
how is truth defined?
Depends on "how" you "define" "truth."
Or "quotes" for that "matter."
monkey:
funny...LOL
seriously, thought, what do you mean by how and define?
By "how" I mean "where" and by "define" I mean "apply Astroglide and repeatedly insert."
Sorry about that, but caffeine withdrawal and semiotics don't really mix. Get back to me after lunch.
hillman:
I think he's been on the campaign trail quite a bit and withering away. He has some good ideas, even with school vouchers and education, but I'm not convinced he has everything it takes to be president. also, on a side, I can see why you'd be pretty ticked off with plesko...wow...my advice would be to try to cool down and take the good and throw out the bad. He seems to have some, I stress some, interesting angles in which to look at things.
Monkey:
hope you are enjoying the caffeine... LOL
IBC:
tautologies...great word. and recursive, too.
:-)