News
Civil Rights
Feb. 20, 2002
School-Choice Programs Give All Children an Equal Chance
Forum Column - By Matt Cox - Educators, legislators and parents alike are speculating on how the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on Cleveland's school-choice plan. Oral arguments before the court will be held today. Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 001751, 001777, 001779. The decision is of grave consequence to America's children, especially the countless number of African-American children, who continue to be failed by the government's public-school system.
Forum Column
By Matt Cox
Educators, legislators and parents alike are speculating on how the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on Cleveland's school-choice plan. Oral arguments before the court will be held today. Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 001751, 001777, 001779. The decision is of grave consequence to America's children, especially the countless number of African-American children, who continue to be failed by the government's public-school system.
A recent study by Jay Greene of the Manhattan Institute revealed that, nationwide, only 56 percent of eligible African-Americans graduated from high school in 1998, compared with 78 percent of white students. Wisconsin graduated only 40 percent of African-American students that year, and seven states graduated fewer than half. Of the country's 50 largest school districts, 15 failed to graduate even 50 percent of African-American students.
Cleveland deserves special mention as the worst big district in the country. Only 29 percent of the city's African-American students graduate. Other studies of the beleaguered city show that out of the few who do get diplomas, only about one in 15 goes on to pass all of the state's competency tests.
These results should not be surprising considering the heartbreaking scores reported by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide test often called the "nation's report card."
The test results in 2000 showed that more than 60 percent of the country's African-American fourth-graders fail to read at the basic level. It is a travesty that nearly two-thirds of these children lack this fundamental skill.
But help might be on the way. Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on Cleveland's school-choice plan, one that empowers 4,000 mostly low-income parents to make the personal and critical decision of where their children will go to school.
Contrary to anti-choice rhetoric, the public schools in Cleveland and the handful of other cities with real choice have not disappeared, done worse or been drained of funds. They have risen to meet the new challenges with universally positive results for students and their parents.
In Milwaukee, per-pupil spending has risen, not dwindled, in the public schools during the course of the city's choice program.
Harvard economist Carolyn Hoxby, evaluating Milwaukee's groundbreaking program, concluded that "public schools have a strong, positive response from vouchers."
Florida's A+ plan gives students the right to seek out a better education if their public school gets an "F" grade for two out of any four years.
An Urban League-sponsored study of the state's choice program noted that it "instilled in the public schools a sense of urgency and zeal for reform not seen ... when a school's failure was rewarded only with more money."
After the first year of A+, more than 70 schools were in danger of reaching the two-year failure limit. Only two eventually failed. Internal documents overwhelmingly cited the threat of vouchers as the impetus for the change and improvement. Choice equals accountability.
Privately financed scholarship plans in Dayton, Ohio, New York and Washington, D.C., have provided African-American students with gains that, after only two years, raised their national percentage rankings more than 6 percent and considerably closed the test-score gap between white and African-American students.
Not surprisingly, young African-American parents support choice programs everywhere. They have spearheaded the successful movements in Cleveland and Milwaukee, and polling data suggest that they are ready to do so across the country. They will have some strange enemies.
Traditional civil rights groups, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, still fighting 30-year-old battles and saying that "vouchers don't educate, they segregate," are so out of touch that they have signed on to an amicus brief trying to block vouchers in Cleveland.
Vouchers don't segregate, but massive educational failure certainly does. A lack of adequate preparation now will lead to fewer job opportunities and lower earnings in the future. To avoid that outcome, children need help now.
The most important education case since Brown v. Board of Education comes before the court during Black History Month, an opportune time for the court to make it clear that school choice is nothing less than a civil rights issue. Until all parents have the right to vote with their feet and take their kids out of schools that fail them, millions of children will be left behind.
Matt Cox is a public policy fellow for the Center for School Reform at the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute.
By Matt Cox
Educators, legislators and parents alike are speculating on how the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on Cleveland's school-choice plan. Oral arguments before the court will be held today. Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 001751, 001777, 001779. The decision is of grave consequence to America's children, especially the countless number of African-American children, who continue to be failed by the government's public-school system.
A recent study by Jay Greene of the Manhattan Institute revealed that, nationwide, only 56 percent of eligible African-Americans graduated from high school in 1998, compared with 78 percent of white students. Wisconsin graduated only 40 percent of African-American students that year, and seven states graduated fewer than half. Of the country's 50 largest school districts, 15 failed to graduate even 50 percent of African-American students.
Cleveland deserves special mention as the worst big district in the country. Only 29 percent of the city's African-American students graduate. Other studies of the beleaguered city show that out of the few who do get diplomas, only about one in 15 goes on to pass all of the state's competency tests.
These results should not be surprising considering the heartbreaking scores reported by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide test often called the "nation's report card."
The test results in 2000 showed that more than 60 percent of the country's African-American fourth-graders fail to read at the basic level. It is a travesty that nearly two-thirds of these children lack this fundamental skill.
But help might be on the way. Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on Cleveland's school-choice plan, one that empowers 4,000 mostly low-income parents to make the personal and critical decision of where their children will go to school.
Contrary to anti-choice rhetoric, the public schools in Cleveland and the handful of other cities with real choice have not disappeared, done worse or been drained of funds. They have risen to meet the new challenges with universally positive results for students and their parents.
In Milwaukee, per-pupil spending has risen, not dwindled, in the public schools during the course of the city's choice program.
Harvard economist Carolyn Hoxby, evaluating Milwaukee's groundbreaking program, concluded that "public schools have a strong, positive response from vouchers."
Florida's A+ plan gives students the right to seek out a better education if their public school gets an "F" grade for two out of any four years.
An Urban League-sponsored study of the state's choice program noted that it "instilled in the public schools a sense of urgency and zeal for reform not seen ... when a school's failure was rewarded only with more money."
After the first year of A+, more than 70 schools were in danger of reaching the two-year failure limit. Only two eventually failed. Internal documents overwhelmingly cited the threat of vouchers as the impetus for the change and improvement. Choice equals accountability.
Privately financed scholarship plans in Dayton, Ohio, New York and Washington, D.C., have provided African-American students with gains that, after only two years, raised their national percentage rankings more than 6 percent and considerably closed the test-score gap between white and African-American students.
Not surprisingly, young African-American parents support choice programs everywhere. They have spearheaded the successful movements in Cleveland and Milwaukee, and polling data suggest that they are ready to do so across the country. They will have some strange enemies.
Traditional civil rights groups, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, still fighting 30-year-old battles and saying that "vouchers don't educate, they segregate," are so out of touch that they have signed on to an amicus brief trying to block vouchers in Cleveland.
Vouchers don't segregate, but massive educational failure certainly does. A lack of adequate preparation now will lead to fewer job opportunities and lower earnings in the future. To avoid that outcome, children need help now.
The most important education case since Brown v. Board of Education comes before the court during Black History Month, an opportune time for the court to make it clear that school choice is nothing less than a civil rights issue. Until all parents have the right to vote with their feet and take their kids out of schools that fail them, millions of children will be left behind.
Matt Cox is a public policy fellow for the Center for School Reform at the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute.
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