The Choices Are Expanding

...Milton Friedman always said that a program reserved for the poor is going to be a poor program," says Lieberman...

...Then in July he vetoed "A+ savings accounts," Senator Paul Coverdell's proposal that would have allowed parents to spend tax-free savings on private education...

...Myron Lieberman doubts that the teachers' unions will ever achieve the same monopolization of religious and private schools that they have in the public schools: "They may organize the Catholic schools—as they already have in New York—but that doesn't automatically entitle them to bargaining rights...

...It gives teachers a certain amount of independence...

...We're running the school like a business," says Dikes...

...Thirtythree states now have enabling legislation...

...Instead of having public education, we're going to have public funding of education...

...In 1997, a home schooler from Brooklyn won the National Spelling Bee...

...The results so far in Milwaukee have been to deregulate the public schools rather than regulating the private schools," says Clint Bolick, director of litigation at the Institute for Justice...

...As a result, the school lost one-third of its enrollment...

...The North Carolina teachers' union is trying to close down the school because 99 percent of its pupils are black...

...Personally I think you need all three legs—denominational schools, non-profit private schools, and for-profit private schools...

...We started by walking the halls for three weeks just to teach the kids order and discipline —no hitting, no fighting, no screaming," says Williams...

...Neither would be eligible to teach under Texas's certification program...

...Charter schools are inde30 September 19 9 8 • The American Spectator pendent academies — usually founded by a parent-teacher coalition— that are funded directly by the school district or the state...

...Even Senator Joe Biden (D-Del...

...The company has reorganized as "The Tesseract Group" and is going the charter school route...

...Throughout my career, I have been an opponent of school voucher programs," wrote Arthur Levine, president of Columbia University Teachers College in the Wall Street Journal last June...

...The only question is what it's going to look like when it arrives...

...Private charities offer a troubling precedent...

...Already 25,000 children are attending private schools on grants of more than $30 million...

...Kids don't thrive in them...

...Principals have no power to hire and fire and little control over their finances...

...Thus, even after expressing these reservations, Levine used the Wall Street Journal to announce his support of "a limited school voucher program...for the poorest Americans" because urban schools "show no signs of improving...

...The district quickly transferred the principal and nine teachers, and spent $125,000 on new equipment...

...We require a foreign language every year...

...These predictions have been remarkably borne out by the charter school movement...

...Senators John Kerry (D-Mass...

...The Healthy Start Academy in Durham, North Carolina, founded by Tom Williams, a retired public school superintendent from New York City, has had a similar experience...

...I must admit it makes me squirm...

...The Marcus Garvey School, in Washington, where principal Mary A.T...

...Others are not as pessimistic...

...The president is more likely to qualify as the dumbest kid in the class...

...Studies of limited experiments...showed theseoptions were used disproportionately by relatively affluent families, raising the concern that vouchers could turn our public schools into ghettos for the poor...

...Healthy Start's 316 children are performing above the 75th percentile on national tests...

...Private, for-profit schools are gaining a foothold...

...Of course not everybody is on board...

...Even the National Education Association has gotten in on the act, co-sponsoring charter schools in Norwich (Connecticut), Colorado Springs, Phoenix, San Diego, and Hawaii...

...Almost 8o percent of the inner-city poor favor vouchers, as opposed to 59 percent of suburbanites...

...Once charities become dependent on state spending, their mission changes," says Laconte...

...Even voucher advocates do not agree on everything...

...There are hundreds of companies providing curriculum material...

...Yet the secret of successful schools, Chubb and Moe noted, has long been well known...

...Here is a measure of the progress so far: • When school opens this fall, there will be 1,200 charter schools educating 200,000 children, 70 having opened their doors this September...

...Even where radical organizations stay afloat, they are likely to temper their excesses...

...The National Labor Relations Board says labor laws cannot be extended into religious schools because that would be a government intrusion...

...Yet the chief officials of six states —Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Arizona—have now formed a rump organization, the Education Leaders' Council, which, against all odds, is promoting school vouchers, school choice, merit pay for teachers, an end to teacher tenure —all the things that the education establishment hates...

...Democrats are reactionary defenders of the mid-twentieth century order of concentrated knowledge, centralized government, and gigantic institutions...

...It also found that among black parents making less than $5o,000, support is at 86.5 percent...

...Then in the 1980's we had the Fundamentalist Christian explosion...

...We'll have public schools, quasi-public schools, denominational schools, quasi-private schools, and truly independent private schools...

...The amendment was overturned 424-to-1...

...Studies in Milwaukee by Paul Peterson, director of Harvard's Program in Education Policy and Governance, found that after three years children in private schools do strikingly better than comparable children who remain in public schools...

...Initiated in Indianapolis in 1991 by the Golden Rule Insurance Company, the effort has spread to San Antonio, Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Hartford...

...They want protection from drugs, teenage sexuality—and guns...

...In recent years, organizations such as Catholic Charities and Volunteers of America have become heavily dependent on federal funding...

...There's a gradual secularization...

...have jumped ship...

...Teachers' unions now seem reluctant to appeal to the U.S...

...At long last, the GOP has emerged as a champion of the poor, the ambitious, the upwardly striving...

...It's very depressing...

...We're also starting to get competitors at the local level, which we welcome...

...President Bill Clinton and his allies at the teachers' unions will still be sitting there scratching their heads at the last "pencils down...

...Last June, the Wisconsin Supreme Court approved the program, arguing that the money is being spent only for education, not for religious purposes...

...Chubb and Moe noted that public schools are top-down bureaucracies where neither parents nor teachers have much input...

...The unions would have to treat each school as a separate bargaining unit," he says...

...But the outcome of school choice will be to reduce bureaucracy and increase independence...

...Home schooling is becoming a huge market," says Richard Shipe, media director of the Home School Legal Defense Association, in Purcellville, Virginia...

...Joe Laconte, an editor at the Heritage Foundation's Policy Review, reported similar effects among Massachusetts non-profit and religious charities in his book, Seducing the Samaritan...

...In addition, most of The American Spectator • September 1 9 9 8 the top-line private schools aren't going to accept vouchers...

...Floyd Flake, of New York, Pennsylvania state representative Dwight Evans—they've all switched to supporting school choice...

...In the end, Chubb and Moe predicted, teachers themselves were likely to be the most enthusiastic supporters of school choice because it would give them the opportunity to educate...

...In 1989, John Chubb and Terry Moe, two scholars at the Brookings Institution, published Politics, Markets, and American Schools, which still stands as the most comprehensive argument for school choice...

...Most important, many observers believe that—given autonomy and the opportunity to teach in a constructive setting—the appeal of the teachers' unions will fade...

...Limiting reform to the poor may lose the top-down route of innovation that is the hallmark of our society...

...Last June Clinton quietly vetoed vouchers for poor children in the District of Columbia—a move that would have shocked the country if the press had bothered to analyze it...

...Typical is the North Hills School in Dallas, founded by a group of concerned parents and administered by Catherine Dikes, 31 a high school teacher and administrator with thirteen years of experience...

...Beyond these strategic divisions, however, there is the much more serious question of whether private and parochial schools should accept government money at all...

...The wave is about to crest," echoes Dennis Doyle, who co-authored Winning the Brain Race (1988), a book on educational reforms, with David Kerns, former chairman of Xerox...

...They tailor their efforts toward getting government grants...

...Critics have charged that charter schools and voucher programs would be elitist, draining the public schools of their best students...

...There are requirements on how many hours you have to teach certain subjects—and the government sends people around to check...

...We are in business —the business of education...

...It is, in a word, autonomy...

...Says Mike Farris, president of the Home Education Legal Defense Association: "There are two—and only two—keys to educational success: hard work and parental involvement...

...State education commissioners, for instance, are the WILLIAM TUCKER is The American Spectator's New York correspondent and a New York Press columnist...

...Religious charities will muffle their own religious content...

...Performance shows almost no relation to the parents' level of education...

...Every day it becomes more obvious that the Democrats are not the party of the poor but the party of public employees...

...Approximately 1.2 million children are being taught at home by their parents—more than two percent of the nation's student population...

...Supporters of school choice certainly don't like to think about it...

...When Moe recently surveyed 4,70o parents about the issue, he found support had shifted dramatically...

...Philanthropists all over the country have begun seeding the voucher program by giving grants that allow low-income children to attend private schools...

...Where schools have a sense of mission—and freedom to pursue that mission—children invariably learn...

...We really don't have much room for teaching social justice," says Helaine Doran, director of schools at ACORN, the radical community organizing group that is running charter schools in Brooklyn, Chicago, and St...

...The result will be a much more vibrant system...

...In addition to these very visible efforts, perhaps the largest defection from the public school system is to home schooling...

...The school choice movement is really divided into two parts, those who like the market model and those who are interested in the religious aspect," says Myron Lieberman, once a colleague of Albert Shanker at the American Federation of Teachers and now an outspoken union critic...

...It's a closed shop...

...Except in Indianapolis, the vast majority of students targeted by private vouchers are also minorities...

...The American Spectator • September 1998 high priests of the school-board/teachers-union/college-of-education triumvirate that runs public education...

...Whenever a state draws up legislation, one side or the other usually gets the upper hand...

...It's certainly a nerve-wracking argument," says education reform scholar Dennis Doyle...

...There's no question we're 29 going to get school choice...

...Teachers are subject to constant mandates about what to do in the classroom...

...Even professional educators are jumping on the bandwagon...

...Milton Friedman first proposed the idea of school choice in Capitalism and Freedom (1962...

...Usually they are exempted from union contracts and teacher-certification requirements...

...Located in 12,000 square feet of leased space in a warehouse-office complex near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, North Hills has 250 students, grades 5 through 8. 'We have the kids wear uniforms," says Dikes...

...Republicans may appear awkward in their new role as champions of the poor—particularly since the middle class is not embracing school choice with the same enthusiasm shown by urban minorities...

...Now other concerns are emerging...

...In the early days, it was hippies and flower children — people who wanted to remain apart from society," says Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute...

...The question is whether the three factions can work together...

...The momentum is with us," says Gary Huggins, executive director of the Council...

...Lieberman believes that private schools will be equally resistant to unionization...

...Home schooling—once a preserve of sectarian enthusiasts—is also entering the mainstream...

...In Arizona, which has one-third of the nation's charter schools, the Mesa Unified School District, largest in the state, has lost 5,000 students to charter schools over the past five years...

...I was looking for the chance to create something really unique...

...Clinton and the teachers' unions will argue that they are the only ones who care about children—while hying to shovel still more and more billions into the coffers of the educational establishment...

...Long-standing progressive systems such as the Montessori and Waldorf schools are now entering the mainstream through the charter system...

...But the school had lost more than half its enrollment when it closed for financial reasons this June...

...In June, financier Ted Forstmann and Wal-Mart heir John Walton announced the Children's Scholarship Fund, which will provide $loo million in school scholarships for poor children in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, and Jersey City...

...Some people see charter schools as an end in themselves...

...You have to remember this is an evolutionary process...

...Others believe that competition will drive change in the opposite direction...

...Parents are very demanding that their children be prepared for college...

...Schools do indeed perform better to the extent that...they have such general qualities as clear goals, an ambitious academic program, strong educational leadership, and high levels of teacher professionalism," they wrote...

...Will this "privatization" really enable people to move outside the public school monopoly...

...But educators are also hog-tied by the bureaucracy...

...In Albany, philanthropist Virginia Gilder has given scholarships to 458 children at the Griffin Elementary School, one of the city's worst...

...It will take prodigious strength from these institutions to resist these kinds of incursions!' Donald Erickson, professor emeritus at UCLA, studied private and religious schools receiving government funding in British Columbia and found that they had become virtually indistinguishable from public schools: "All the teachers are required to join the unions...

...The "concerned Democrats/indifferent Republicans" scenario cannot last long...

...It's good for education and good for America...

...The unions' main attraction has been protection from the bureaucracy," says Doyle...

...Almost all the children receiving public vouchers in Milwaukee and Cleveland are black...

...They want close family interactions...

...Every effort to reform the system simply adds another layer of bureaucracy...

...Recently, they have begun to worry about personal safety...

...Anigbo assaulted Washington Times reporter Susan Ferrechio, was a District of Columbia charter school that taught a black nationalist curriculum...

...Then we started learning...

...Charters offer the promise of public schools that free innovative teachers from bureaucracy and red tape," says NEA President Bob Chase...

...We're ahead of our growth projections," says Benno Schmidt, the former president of Yale, now chairman of Edison...

...Friedman argued that public schools were deteriorating precisely because consumers had no choice...

...Children of high school dropouts do about as well as children of Ph.Ds...

...They only do well when they can bargain industry-wide...

...Yet a wave of experimentation is sweeping the country...

...Other surveys have found Hispanics favoring school choice by nearly 85 percent...

...04 32 September 1998 The American Spectator...

...You've got prominent Democrats everywhere at the state and local level who are breaking ranks with the establishment and putting the needs of children first...

...Supreme Court, fearing they will lose the case...

...Some want vouchers reserved for the poor while others argue they should be universal...

...In Milwaukee and Cleveland, more than 4,500 low-income students are now attending private and religious schools on public vouchers...

...They backed school choice from the start and stand to gain considerable stature...

...in upholding Clinton's veto of D.C...

...Yet the course is not without its pitfalls and strategy problems...

...As far as the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers are concerned, Clinton remains their star pupil...

...George Miller added an amendment to an education bill requiring all teachers—including home schoolers— to have teaching certificates, Congress was deluged with phone calls and faxes...

...That may change if the schools start receiving state funding, but it will be a long process...

...Another problem is a split between those who favor charter schools and those who favor vouchers...

...The old order is passing...

...Republicans represent the new paradigm—distributed knowledge, decentralized effort, and local initiative...

...The most important prerequisite for the emergence of effective school characteristics is school autonomy...

...You're not going to see people using a $3,000 government voucher to pay the $18,000 tuition at Exeter...

...Educational Alternatives, a Minnesota company, once ran entire schools on contract in Miami, Baltimore, and Hartford, but suffered a setback when it was stiffed by the Hartford school board...

...Republicans are the clear winners in this turnabout...

...Four years ago, when California Democratic Rep...

...Yet experience has proved the opposite...

...vouchers, said this was the last time he would support the president on the issue...

...CEO America, a private organization in Bentonville, Arkansas, has been founded to coordinate some of these efforts...

...Started in a church basement, the school has become the embodiment of Williams's educational philosophy...

...Their Washington lobby, the Council of Chief State School Officials, is staunchly anti-choice...

...Paul...

...A national survey by the Joint Center of Political and Economic Studies found 57 percent of blacks support vouchers as compared to only 47 percent of whites...

...In fact, low-income parents have become the nation's strongest supporters of school choice...

...I felt somewhat limited in traditional public schools," says Dikes...

...Having everybody on board," instead of the factionalism between unions and administrations, smoothes the path...

...Groups of parents and educators all over the country have begun liberating themselves from the bureaucracy...

...Edison just received a $25 million grant from a foundation established by Donald and Doris Fischer, owners of The Gap clothing stores...

...In addition, there remain nagging divisions in the ranks...

...In turn, they have become reliable advocates of greater congressional spending...

...and Bob Kerrey (D-Neb...

...With polls indicating education to be the public's number-one concern in this year's congressional elections, the issue will probably rise to the top of the agenda this fall...

...Parents, of course, can do little except send their kids to private schools— if they can afford it...

...Meanwhile, Chris Whittle's Edison Project will be educating 13,000 children in 25 cities by September...

...They want proper social interaction for their children...

...From a single idea planted thirty years ago by Milton Friedman, an era of vast experimentation has bloomed...

...Parents want strong academics...

...North Hills has hired a Spanish teacher from Madrid and a math teacher from a local university...

...Charter schools are being sponsored by institutions as diverse as Central Michigan University (46 schools) and Detroit's Second Ebenezer Baptist Church (one school...

...In Michigan, one percent of the state's student population is being educated in charter schools...

...The United Federation of Teachers has also proposed taking over a failing junior-high school in the Bronx...

...In his recent study, Strengths ofTheir Own: Home Schooling in America, Ray found home-schooled children performing in the 8oth to 87th percentile on standardized tests...

...So what happens if the Ku Klux Klan or other separatist cults want to start schools...

...Or—perversely—will it end up subsuming private and parochial schools into that monopoly...

...Parents themselves won't send their kids," responds Terry Moe, now at Stanford...

...Meanwhile, the Democrats are stuck supporting the teachers' unions, often called the soul of the Democratic Party...

...They are still vulnerable to the charge that they want to "destroy the public schools," even though the worst public schools have pretty much destroyed themselves...

...In San Antonio's Edge-wood district, where philanthropist James Leininger has donated $45 million in scholarships to 14,000 children, 92 percent of the students are Hispanic...

...Senator Joseph Lieberman, of Connecticut, [former] Rep...

...Might private and religious schools end up following the same route...

...In a desperate attempt to reverse the trend, the district has revamped its curriculum and taken out television and newspaper advertisements to win students back to the system...

...Phi Delta Kappa, the professional education association, found that 72 percent of blacks favor vouchers as opposed to only 48 percent of whites...

...Remarkably, Friedman's evaluations were made just before the unionization of schools in the 196o's and 197o's, which accelerated the downhill trend...

...Others see them as a halfway house to vouchers—which simply give tax money to parents and let them choose their own schools, public or private...