Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Will More Money Fix Our Schools?

CER Newswire Vol. 11, No. 7 February 17, 2009: POLITICS
Published by The Center for Education Reform (CER) Making Schools Work Better for All Children

"JOBS vs EDUCATION. The economic stimulus has sparked serious discussion in newsrooms and at policy think tanks everywhere about whether the new federal spending bill is likely to have any impact on making schools work. Nicholas Kristof's weekend New York Times article praises the spending, but reminds us that "The implication is that throwing money at a broken system won't fix it, but that resources are necessary as part of a package that involves scrapping certification, measuring better through testing which teachers are effective, and then paying them significantly more - with special bonuses to those who teach in 'bad' schools."

Others remind us of the bureaucratic paths that all money takes before actually (ever?) having an impact. Checker Finn and Mike Petrilli call attention to this, saying "Especially challenging will be your innovation fund. Details are sketchy.... Doing this quickly - and without the appearance of cronyism - will be a whopping challenge. The rest of the education stimulus package will be tricky, too. If the short-run economic goal is to save 600,000 teacher jobs, as you have stated, then districts need to be able to use this flood of federal funds to 'supplant' state and local dollars that are otherwise on the chopping block. At minimum, that's going to take much written guidance to the field, for it overturns decades of ESEA practice. It might take new regulations, too. And how can you make sure that, in the rush to get money to communities to save jobs, some of that money doesn't get skimmed off or used inappropriately? (Someone will inevitably try to use the funds to buy football uniforms; what are you going to do about it? If you don't do anything, what will the GAO and Inspector General say later?)"

But what is the point unless the money stimulates reform at the same time it stimulates jobs? After all, even Arne Duncan admits that bad schools make him sick:

"Without getting into too many details, I am extraordinarily concerned about the poor quality of education, quite frankly, the children of Detroit are receiving. I lose sleep over that one. And I think the dropout rate there is devastating."

ARTIFICIAL DISTINCTIONS. Though private school students will continue to be eligible for non-secular, publicly supported programs for disadvantaged students, they lose out on any school facilities funds. Likewise, charter schools - though much anticipating precious "innovation" funds from the new Secretary's new $5 billion play fund - do not quality for any construction funds. If jobs and education are the point of the stimulus, why distinguish by school type? If the federal government can make an unprecedented expansion in federal support for schools, where is the rationale behind limiting it to just traditional district-based education?

ANSWERS. The answers to how best to spend funds are apparent. Award-winning veteran journalist Jay Mathews offers 7 cheap-as-free suggestions on how best to improve the nation's schools. Number 2? Unleash charter schools. Jay argues that "...they often attract creative principals and teachers who do more with less. School finance experts don't all agree, but I am convinced that charters are a bargain. So let's have more." Great minds think alike. Check out Mandate for Change for more along these lines. "

To see the rest of CER's Newswire, please click on link above.

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