The Orleans Parish School Board should deny a request from its current and former staff to turn the city’s last five district-run schools into independent charters, a consultant’s report said.
The district released Thibodeaux & Walden’s report on the Exceed Network’s application for Ben Franklin Elementary, Mary Bethune Elementary, Mahalia Jackson Elementary, McDonogh No. 35 College Prep and Eleanor McMain Secondary on Friday (April 7).
The recommendation, if followed by the School Board, would prevent New Orleans from becoming the nation’s first all-charter school district until at least July 2018.
The consultant’s conclusion came as a surprise. The Exceed Network essentially lifted the five current principals, and the small central district office that runs them, into a separate organization. Superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr. encouraged the principals to charter, though he has not formally endorsed the application.
If the last five schools were chartered, the everyday experience at the five schools probably would not change much for students and parents — especially if the current principals stayed in place, as the Exceed Network proposed.
But the decision would send a strong message nationally. The charter experiment and the other big changes that followed Hurricane Katrina have put a national spotlight on New Orleans schools.
There was no longer any competition for the elementary schools; Better Choice Foundation withdrew its application March 9. InspireNOLA has applied to run one high school.
Although the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was hailed on both sides of the aisle for restoring balance to the state-federal relationship in K-12 education — loosening unworkable, prescriptive mandates under No Child Left Behind and providing states and districts with more autonomy to craft tailored solutions to their unique needs — that bipartisan consensus now seems to have disintegrated.
From the contentious, partisan confirmation hearing of Secretary Betsy DeVos to a party-line repeal of final accountability, reporting, and school improvement regulations, to a bitter fight over the previous administration’s proposed rules for ESSA’s supplement-not-supplant provisions, it’s easy to assume the days of common edu-ground are gone.
One thing these fights have in common, however, is that they center on accountability — the stick, not the carrot — and whether the federal government or states should wield that stick. Yes, accountability is incredibly important and proven to be effective. But it’s not the only opportunity in ESSA to improve student outcomes, nor the sole piece of the law worth paying attention to.
Any lingering questions over how aggressively the Trump administration was going to pursue school privatization were answered on March 16 with the release of its FY2018-19 budget proposal. If approved by Congress, federal education programs will be slashed across the board, all to pay for an initial down payment of $1.4 billion this fiscal year on a national expansion of private school voucher programs. The eventual price tag for the program will be $20 billion annually.
It doesn’t matter how their proponents try to disguise them – education savings accounts, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships – vouchers are destructive and misguided schemes that use taxpayer dollars to “experiment with our children’s education without any evidence of real, lasting positive results,” says NEA President Lily Eskelsen García,
That was also the consensus of a panel of experts who convened recently at the Center for American Progress (CAP), a progressive think tank based in Washington D.C, to explore the implications of the Trump-DeVos privatization agenda. The discussion focused on three ways school vouchers pose a danger to the nation’s most vulnerable students, which were identified by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) in a memo to her Senate colleagues and summarized in her keynote remarks.
Vouchers Help Private Schools Skirt Accountability and Transparency
Strong accountability measures help prevent students from falling through the cracks. “We fly blind without the information we need to make sure our students are succeeding,” said Murray. “We strive to make accountability as effective as possible. ‘Unfortunately that system breaks down completely when it comes to public money going to private schools.”
Unlike public schools, private schools have almost complete autonomy with regard to how they operate: who they teach, what they teach, how they teach, how — if at all — they measure student achievement, how they manage their finances, and what they are required to disclose to parents and the public.
In addition to the financial fraud and abuse that some voucher programs have generated, students in these programs often end up doing worse academically. “We’ve seen real negative impacts on achievement,” said Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach of the Brookings Institution. Recent evaluations of voucher programs in Indiana, Louisiana and Ohio found that students attending private schools on a voucher scored worse than their public school counterparts on reading and math assessments.
Vouchers Fund Discrimination
Anna Caudill, a parent of a special needs child in Tennessee, told the CAP audience that vouchers do give students a choice: “You can trade your child’s federally-protected civil rights under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for a one-time monetary amount to pay for private school tuition.”
After her son fell too far behind academically in public school, Caudill looked for another option. Her family was offered an “Individualized Education Account,” the state’s version of a voucher. The Caudills would have received $6,300 – as long as their son waived his rights under IDEA. They also would have had to re-enroll annually with no guarantees they would receive the same amount. And even with the voucher, Caudill’s family still wouldn’t have been able to afford full-time private school instruction.
The best solution is for Congress to fully fund IDEA. Caudill said. “I believe in public schools. I believe that general and special education teachers with support from their districts and their states are the best equipped professionals to address the unique learning needs of students with disabilities.”
Neena Chaudhry, Director of Education and Senior Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center pointed out that vouchers use taxpayer dollars to discriminate against many other vulnerable groups. “We see this regarding LGBT students and students of color especially,” Chaudhry said.
Some voucher-funded, private religious schools in the South, for example, have explicitly anti-gay policies. And a recent study from the Century Foundation found that voucher programs actually increase racial segregation. Some states have expanded eligibility to include more higher-income families, who are more likely to be able to take advantage of the voucher. “Vouchers can be used as tools of white flight,” Chaudhry explained.
Accountability is critical because “allowing private schools to operate in the dark will only exacerbate these problems.” Even under a new national voucher program, states can find ways to skirt federal civil rights protections. In fact, Chaudhry warned, members of Congress may design the legislation to make that easier.
Vouchers Leave Communities and Students Behind
In many remote areas of the country, private schools are simply not an option. An expansion of vouchers nationwide, Senator Murray said, could “devastate rural schools.” She cited the example of the tiny community of Plevna, Montana, where the closest non-boarding private achool is 240 miles away. “If funding is diverted to private schools, not only would the school in Plevna sever, its students wouldn’t even be able to access the private school that are receiving public funds,” Murray explained.
A new CAP analysis on vouchers found that there 9,000 “sparse” school districts (five or fewer schools) that would be decimated by a national voucher program. The ability of an additional 2200 “average” districts (5-8 schools) to serve all its students would be seriously undermined. Together, “sparse” and “average” districts constitute roughly 85% of the nation’s regular school districts.
Cassia County School District in south central Idaho has 17 schools but is still located in a remote area. “Our biggest challenge is funding,” said Superintendent Gaylen Smyer, “We have a hard time finding qualified teachers. and bringing in new opportunities for students so they can compete after they graduate. Vouchers are not going to help. If anything, I think they would just undermine our public schools.”
Is there a demand for vouchers in Idaho? “I’m not seeing it,” Smyer said. “Geographic distances pose a challenge for private schools to be set up and parents aren’t willing to transport their children a long way to a private school. So there’s no demand for vouchers in south central Idaho. Our focus is on improving all schools for all our students.”
Senator Murray calls the Trump-DeVos privatization agenda a “false choice,” because it leaves out the best option for students: strong, well-funded public schools in their own neighborhood. “Public schools by definition are open and inclusionary and many students thrive in their neighborhood schools,” Murray said.
But the federal government must make the proper investments and “ensure that the states are creating strong accountability and improvement mechanisms so that groups of students previously denied access to an equitable education do not fall through the cracks once again.”
WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told urban school superintendents on Monday (March 13) that her agency intends to support their work and that “great public schools” should be among the education options available to families.
“I trust parents, I trust teachers, and I trust school leaders to do what is right for the students they serve,” she said, emphasizing her push to shrink the federal government’s role in local schools. “When Washington gets out of your way, you should be able to unleash new and creative thinking to set children up for success.”
It was a conciliatory message from an education secretary who has spent nearly three decades promoting vouchers, charter schools and other alternatives to traditional public schools. But it did not quell all the skepticism in the room at the annual legislative conference of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of 68 big-city school systems.
“I think we heard the kind of philosophical statements that everyone can support,” said Allegra “Happy” Haynes, a Denver school board member. “They were a little short on details…”
WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association (NGA) today released a statement following the release of the revised state plan template under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA):
“Governors’ review of ESSA state plans reflects necessary checks and balances at the state level to ensure educational equity and local control of education. Today the U.S. Department of Education ultimately:
Reaffirmed the role of governors in ESSA;
Included governors and NGA in the process to marry existing state plans with the revised template;
Guaranteed governors’ continued participation throughout the peer and secretarial review process; and
Ensured governors have ample time to review each state plan and make certain it is a reflection of the state’s vision for education.
Governors are concerned that the Department’s revised template fails to prioritize proper stakeholder engagement, even though it is a core requirement within the law. NGA has led national efforts to encourage significant input from classroom teachers, parents, superintendents, principals and school boards. We will not waver as a result of this development.
Across the country, governors like Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards will continue to provide a forum for stakeholders’ voices so states can sufficiently develop their plans and determine the future of the collective education system.”
The Senate voted 59 to 40 on Wednesday to overturn Obama administration regulations meant to ensure new K-12 public school teacher readiness. > Read the full story here…
![[ESSA] State Plan Versions That Have Been Released So Far](https://nnpa.org/essa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/essa-posts-featured_0060_iStock-460421987-1-1080x600.png)
Any lingering questions over how aggressively the Trump administration was going to pursue school privatization were answered on March 16 with the release of its FY2018-19 budget proposal. If approved by Congress, federal education programs will be slashed across the board, all to pay for an initial down payment of $1.4 billion this fiscal year on a national expansion of private school voucher programs. The eventual price tag for the program will be $20 billion annually.
Strong accountability measures help prevent students from falling through the cracks. “We fly blind without the information we need to make sure our students are succeeding,” said Murray. “We strive to make accountability as effective as possible. ‘Unfortunately that system breaks down completely when it comes to public money going to private schools.”
Anna Caudill, a parent of a special needs child in Tennessee, told the CAP audience that vouchers do give students a choice: “You can trade your child’s federally-protected civil rights under the 
In many remote areas of the country, private schools are simply not an option. An expansion of vouchers nationwide, Senator Murray said, could “devastate rural schools.” She cited the example of the tiny community of Plevna, Montana, where the closest non-boarding private achool is 240 miles away. “If funding is diverted to private schools, not only would the school in Plevna sever, its students wouldn’t even be able to access the private school that are receiving public funds,” Murray explained.
WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association (NGA) today released a statement following the release of the revised state plan template under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA):
