Vouchers Are Dead. Are Our Schools Any Better?
I stopped actively participating in the voucher debate quite a while before the election. I just hated the idea of arguing for the status quo when it clearly isn’t that much better than the flawed laws our legislators gave us in the forms of HB148 and HB172.
Truth be told I really don’t have a great answer for what needs to be done to improve our education system if vouchers aren’t the answer. Utah has a history of providing a public education that is better than what is provided in most other states but is that good enough? I mentioned earlier that I don’t like being associated with UEA because I agree with many on the right that the union doesn’t put my kids’ best interests ahead of its own agenda. We need new solutions like merit pay for teachers, year-round school, more charter schools, and greater flexibility for parents in regards who which public schools they can send their kids to. The huge herd of kids headed for Utah’s schools over the next decade won’t be well served by refusal of the education establishment to budge from the status quo.
It is Wednesday now. The election is over and the voucher plan is dead. We’ve worked so hard fighting (righteously I think) against one proposed solution to our system’s problems. What solutions do we have to offer for the problems that our state faces in educating our kids over the next couple decades? I don’t know but I think it is important that the conversation continue and that we consider real changes from business as usual.
UPDATE: 11/07/2007 8:51 AM
My biggest fear, post election, is that people will treat this vote as a mandate for the status quo. That would be a tragic defeat for children.
–Randy Smith of DavisParents.org
AMEN to that!
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Jeremy, I agree with you that the dialog must continue. I believe that most people on both sides of the issue have the same goal but didn’t agree on how to get there. My biggest fear, post election, is that people will treat this vote as a mandate for the status quo. That would be a tragic defeat for children.
Comment by Randy Smith — November 7, 2007 @ 3:30 am
I asked that question before the vote and couldn’t get an answer. I was pretty sure vouchers would fail, so it wasn’t a desperate attempt on my part to paint vouchers in a better light. I think those who won the debate have to concede that the voucher program was really designed to help kids; meaning the legislature that passed it, and the Governor who signed it ought to be open to other ideas.
Hopefully, people will start thinking about it because if the status quo is okay now, it won’t be in five years.
Comment by Tyler Farrer — November 7, 2007 @ 8:26 am
So long as school administrators and teachers unions continue to look out for number one instead of the groups they represent/manage, I’m somewhat cynical that the required changes can be affected. The question is how to put teachers back in the drivers seat. That requires an upheaval of a culture change, no small undertaking.
Comment by Jesse Harris — November 7, 2007 @ 10:11 am
Is Utah’s public school education good enough? I can’t emphasize how strongly the answer is No! The sad truth is that Utah’s schools are mediocre. Here’s what the WSJ wrote recently:
I can’t vouch for the Utah Foundation’s analysis, but just from looking at the numbers from NAEP, Utah schools are at or near the average in all academic areas. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/ And being average means that, at best, 1/3 of students are proficient at their grade level in math, reading, science, and writing.
Utah schools aren’t good enough. They aren’t in the ballpark of good enough. The incentives for teachers and for school administrators have to change. That was the point of the voucher program. So far vouchers were the only realistic plan that would have given teacher’s merit pay (in private schools), and greater flexibility for where parents could send their children to school. Reasonable people can disagree about the financing of vouchers, but the entire point of vouchers is to change the incentives for teachers and school administrators.
I’m eagerly waiting for another plan that will create positive incentives for improvements in schools.
Comment by Daniel — November 7, 2007 @ 10:47 am
Dan,
I saw the Utah Foundation report a month or so ago and it was pretty devestating to my arguments that Utah’s schools are doing fantastic. Its release provided much of my motivation to back off of the voucher debate.
I still think the plan we soundly rejected yesterday was a bad deal for my kids and Utah’s taxpayers but that doesn’t mean I don’t think we need to make changes in the way we educate kids in our state.
There need to be changes and if we’re going to be practical about getting them to happen we need to begin working within the public school system to get those changes.
Comment by Jeremy Manning — November 7, 2007 @ 12:17 pm
Jeremy,
I had no idea you’d wavered on your premise that Utah schools are ‘ok’. I’ve been willing to concede that they may be fine now, but not in five years. I just don’t see how we can maintain what good results we have now into the immediate future?
Comment by Tyler Farrer — November 7, 2007 @ 2:29 pm
Tyler,
Make sure to check out the National Assessment of Educational Progress data from the Department of Education: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/ It is tough to look at it and say that schools are fine. The best news in the report is that 39% of Utah’s 4th graders are grade-level proficient in Math. That’s sad.
I agree with your concerns 5 years down the road, but things don’t look good today.
Comment by Daniel — November 7, 2007 @ 3:04 pm
[…] Say’s Vouchers Suck! Now What? Fellow Democratic Blogger Jeremy Manning Explain’s this More in Depth and you all Know Based on My Last Post How I Feel About Voucher’s. “I Voted Against […]
Pingback by Utah Say’s Vouchers Suck! Now What? « the Utah Conservitive Democrat Blog — November 7, 2007 @ 3:26 pm
There are few things that make me really angry and frustrated.
The UEA is one of those things. (or I should say, groups of people). They seriously need to be taken down, or at least, changed so that they don’t have so much power over the money earmarked for various aspects of education. Money just seems to dissappear in their swollen, red tape infested belly.
Whoo. That felt good.
I halfway agree with you about vouchers… it wasn’t perfect. I was sad it didn’t pass, for the very reason that Randy Smith gave.
Please, people… don’t take this as a sign that things ought to be left the way they are.
At the same time, who has a better plan? Where do we go from here? I don’t know.
I think I’m probably just going to homeschool my kids.
Comment by nosurfgirl — November 9, 2007 @ 12:20 pm
[…] die and never post again when you did so much for us last year! There are a few of you that continue to talk about education and we all thank […]
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