By Stephanie Simon - June 1, 2012Louisiana is embarking on the nation'sboldest experiment in privatizing public education, with thestate preparing to shift tens of millions in tax dollars out ofthe public schools to pay private industry, businesses ownersand church pastors to educate children.
Starting this fall, thousands of poor and middle-class kidswill get vouchers covering the full cost of tuition at more than120 private schools across Louisiana, including small,Bible-based church schools.
The following year, students of any income will be eligiblefor mini-vouchers that they can use to pay a range ofprivate-sector vendors for classes and apprenticeships notoffered in traditional public schools. The money can go toindustry trade groups, businesses, online schools and tutors,among others.
Every time a student receives a voucher of either type, hislocal public school will lose a chunk of state funding.
"We are changing the way we deliver education," saidGovernor Bobby Jindal, a Republican who muscled the plan throughthe legislature this spring over fierce objections fromDemocrats and teachers unions. "We are letting parents decidewhat's best for their children, not government."
BIBLE-BASED MATH BOOKS
The concept of opening public schools to competition fromthe private sector has been widely promoted in recent years bywell-funded education reform groups.
Of the plans so far put forward, Louisiana's plan is by farthe broadest. This month, eligible families, including thosewith incomes nearing $60,000 a year, are submitting applicationsfor vouchers to state-approved private schools.
That list includes some of the most prestigious schools inthe state, which offer a rich menu of advanced placementcourses, college-style seminars and lush grounds. The topschools, however, have just a handful of slots open. The DunhamSchool in Baton Rouge, for instance, has said it will acceptjust four voucher students, all kindergartners. As elsewhere,they will be picked in a lottery.
Far more openings are available at smaller, less prestigiousreligious schools, including some that are just a few years oldand others that have struggled to attract tuition-payingstudents.
The school willing to accept the most voucher students --314 -- is New Living Word in Ruston, which has a top-rankedbasketball team but no library. Students spend most of the daywatching TVs in bare-bones classrooms. Each lesson consists ofan instructional DVD that intersperses Biblical verses withsubjects such chemistry or composition.
The Upperroom Bible Church Academy in New Orleans, abunker-like building with no windows or playground, also hasplenty of slots open. It seeks to bring in 214 voucher students,worth up to $1.8 million in state funding.
At Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake,pastor-turned-principal Marie Carrier hopes to secure extraspace to enroll 135 voucher students, though she now has roomfor just a few dozen. Her first- through eighth-grade studentssit in cubicles for much of the day and move at their own pacethrough Christian workbooks, such as a beginning science textthat explains "what God made" on each of the six days ofcreation. They are not exposed to the theory of evolution.
"We try to stay away from all those things that mightconfuse our children," Carrier said.
Other schools approved for state-funded vouchers use socialstudies texts warning that liberals threaten global prosperity;Bible-based math books that don't cover modern concepts such asset theory; and biology texts built around refuting evolution.
TEACHERS WEIGH LAWSUIT
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that vouchers can be usedfor religious education so long as the state is not promotingany one faith but letting parents choose where to enroll theirchildren.
In Louisiana, Superintendent of Education John White saidstate officials have at one time or another visited all 120schools in the voucher program and approved their curricula,including specific texts. He said the state plans more "duediligence" over the summer, including additional site visits toassess capacity.
In general, White said he will leave it to principals to besure their curriculum covers all subjects kids need and leave itto parents to judge the quality of each private school on thelist.
That infuriates the teachers union, which is weighing alawsuit accusing the state of improperly diverting funds frompublic schools to private programs of questionable value.
"Because it's private, it's considered to be inherentlybetter," said Steve Monaghan, president of the LouisianaFederation of Teachers. "From a consumer perspective, it's buyerbeware."
To date, private schools have not had to give their studentsstate standardized tests, so there's no straightforward way forparents to judge their performance. Starting next year, anystudent on a voucher will have to take the tests; each privateschool must report individual results to parents and aggregateresults to the state.
The 47-page bill setting up the voucher program does notoutline any consequences for private schools that get poor testscores. Instead, it requires the superintendent of schools tocome up with an "accountability system" by Aug. 1. Once he does,the system cannot be altered except by legislative vote.
White would not say whether he is prepared to pull vouchersfrom private schools that do poorly on tests.
He pointed out that many kids applying for vouchers are nowenrolled in dismal public schools where two-thirds of thestudents can't read or do math at grade level and half will dropout before they graduate high school. Given that track record,he argues it's worth sending a portion of the roughly $3.5billion a year the state spends on education to private schoolsthat may have developed different ways to reach kids.
"To me, it's a moral outrage that the government would say,'We know what's best for your child,'" White said. "Who are weto tell parents we know better?"
That message resonates with Terrica Dotson, whose12-year-old son, Tyler, attends public school in Baton Rouge. Hemakes the honor roll, but his mom says he isn't challenged inmath and science. This week she was out visiting privateschools. "I want him to have the education he needs," she said.
The state has run a pilot voucher program for several yearsin New Orleans and is pleased with the results. The proportionof kids scoring at or above grade level jumped 7 percentagepoints among voucher students this year, far outpacing thecitywide rise of 3 percentage points, state officials said.
Studies of other voucher programs in the U.S. have shownmixed results.
In Louisiana the vouchers are available to any low- tomiddle-income student who now attends a public school where atleast 25 percent of students test below grade level.
Households qualify with annual income up to 250 percent ofthe poverty line, or $57,625 for a family of four.
Statewide, 380,000 kids, more than half the total studentpopulation of 700,000, are eligible for vouchers. There are onlyabout 5,000 slots open in private schools for the coming year,but state officials expect that to ramp up quickly.
NO FISCAL ANALYSIS
Officials have not estimated the price tag of these programsbut expect the state will save money in the long run, becausethey believe the private sector can educate kids more cheaplythan public schools.
Whether those savings will materialize is unclear.
By law, the value of each voucher can't exceed the sum thestate would spend educating that child in public school -- onaverage, $8,800 a year. Small private schools often charge aslittle as $3,000 to $5,000 a year.
Yet at some private schools with low tuition, administratorscontacted by Reuters said they would also ask the state to coveradditional, unspecified fees, which would bring the cost totaxpayers close to the $8,800 cap. The law requires the state tocover both tuition and fees.
In the separate mini-voucher program due to launch in 2013,students across Louisiana, regardless of income, will be able totap the state treasury to pay for classes that are offered byprivate vendors and not available in their regular publicschools.
White said the state hopes to spur private industry to offervocational programs and apprenticeships in exchange for vouchersworth up to $1,300 per student per class. Students can also usethe mini-vouchers to design their own curriculum, tapping statefunds to pay for online classes or private tutors if they're notsatisfied with their public school's offerings.
State officials will review every private-sector classbefore approving it. They are still working out how to assessrigor and effectiveness.
The state has not done a formal fiscal analysis, but publicschool advocates say subtracting the costs of vouchers fromtheir budgets is unfair because they have the same fixed costs-- from utilities to custodial services -- whether a child is inthe building four hours a day or six. White responds that thestate is not in the business of funding buildings; it's fundingeducation.
While public schools fear fiscal disaster, many privateschool administrators see the voucher program as an economiclifeboat.
Valeria Thompson runs the Louisiana New School Academy inBaton Rouge, which prides itself on getting troubled studentsthrough middle and high school. Families have struggled to paytuition, she said, and enrollment is down to about 60 kids.
"We're a good school," Thompson said, "but we've beenstruggling fiscally."
The vouchers have brought in a flood of new applicants andthe promise of steady income from taxpayers. Thompson enrolled17 new students in two days last month and hopes to bring in asmany as 130. "I'm so grateful," she said. "You can't imagine howgrateful."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/us-education-vouchers-idUSL1E8H10AG20120601
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