MAY 17, 2012

Chart: School District Fund Balances Nearly Tripled in 14 Years

PA Independent reported on Monday that Pennsylvania school districts' fund balances reached $3.2 billion in 2011 (they compiled the data from the PA Department of Education's (PDE) school funding portal).

This represents a dramatic increase over recent years, with schools reserves almost tripling since 1997, and doubling in just the last 6 years, according to PDE data.

posted by NATHAN BENEFIELD | 01:30 PM | 0 comment

MAY 2, 2012

The Patriot Can Do Better Than This...

Our friends at The Patriot-News here in Harrisburg just posted an online poll that asks the following question:

The state Senate has passed a school voucher bill that would allow parents to move their children to better schools at taxpayer expense. Do you support that?

With all due respect to a fine newspaper, that is just not neutral language.

First of all, Senate Bill 1, the piece of legislation in question, is not just about vouchers.  It would also expand the Educational Improvement Tax Credit, which is no minor issue, with this program having awarded more than 284,000 scholarships worth $335 million during its first decade.

Secondly, by alluding to doing something new and different "at taxpayer expense," the question implies that vouchers cost taxpayers extra money, but they don't.  The money students would take with them from violent, failing schools—to remind you, an act of violence occurs every 17 minutes in one of our lowest-performing public schools—would get spent no matter what, as it would come out of the state subsidy to their original schools.  The question is not whether taxpayers have to fork over the cash or not; it is whether students and their parents are forced to use it at a failing, violent school or take it elsewhere.  And, of course, in the long run, school choice saves money.

Thirdly, while I would certainly advance the argument that the schools voucher recipients would choose to attend are indeed better than those where an act of violence occurs every 17 minutes, that is also a non-neutral term.  "Different" would be more appropriate.

A better way to ask the question would be something like the following:

The state Senate has passed a "school choice" bill that would allow parents to move their children to different schools and have some taxpayer money follow them from the old school to the new. Do you support that?

Thanks to the Patriot for being part of this important discussion.  Let's make it as factual as we can.

posted by CHARLES MITCHELL | 03:30 PM | 1 comment

MAY 1, 2012

Philadelphia School District Faces the Budgetary Music

It doesn't take an advanced degree to figure out that something's rotten in the school district of Philadelphia—or that school choice is the antidote. More than half of Philadelphia's 249 schools do not make Adequate Yearly Progress—they are failing. The school district is also notoriously violent: In 2011 alone, it saw nearly 4,000 violent incidents, including 1,437 assaults on students, 1,076 assaults on staff, 116 indecent assaults, 87 robberies, 37 arsons and 642 weapons possessions. Last year saw 10 rapes in Pennsylvania's public schools and all 10 were in Philadelphia.

To cap it all, the school district is almost insolvent, trying to plug a $218 million budget gap that is set to balloon to $1.1 billion by 2017. Faced with such woes, the school district is proposing some serious restructuring:

The plan—subject to public comment and (School Reform Commission) approval—would close 40 schools next year and 64 by 2017, move thousands more students to charters, and dismantle the central office in favor of "achievement networks" that would compete to run groups of 25 schools and would sign performance-based contracts.

As it happens, school choice in the form of Philadelphia charter schools—which have nearly 41,000 students—already saves more than $200 million on public education. That's because charter schools, on average, spend just 83 percent of what traditional public schools spend per student. The School District of Philadelphia retains more than $5,000 in funding for every child that moves to a charter school.

Ultimately, Philadelphia needs more school choice, not less. Opportunity Scholarships or a significant increase to the Educational Improvement Tax Credit would allow parents to use education tax dollars at the school of their choice, and grant an immediate escape to desperate families trapped by their ZIP code in violent, failing schools. It's good that Philadelphia school officials finally see the need to spend more efficiently, but that's a small step toward comprehensive—and necessary— education reform.

posted by PRIYA ABRAHAM | 10:10 AM | 0 comment

APRIL 23, 2012

Chart of the Day: Pennsylvania School Revenue per Student

Critics of state spending cuts claim there is a lack of funding for public schools. But from the 1995-96 school year through 2009-10 (the latest year with data available from the Pennsylvania Department of Education), public school revenues increased 44 percent, after adjusting for inflation, from $10,000 to more than $14,000 per student.

posted by NATHAN BENEFIELD | 02:12 PM | 0 comment

MARCH 21, 2012

No School Tax Referendums in Pennsylvania this Year

Remember the gnashing of teeth over "cuts" in state education subsidies (driven by the end of federal stimulus money)? The education establishment and partisan critics of Gov. Corbett insisted this would result in massive property tax increases.

You will also remember that the General Assembly passed legislation reducing the number of exemptions to the school tax referendum requirement. Add to that the fact that the base "index"— the level above which school districts must seek voter referendum on tax increases— is only 1.7 percent. This contrasts to recent school district property tax increases, which averaged 5.2 percent per year over the past decade, even factoring in "relief" from gambling revenue (see chart below).

Surely this combination of factors would result in a bevy of school tax referendums in 2012. But the Reading Eagle reports that not a single district in Pennsylvania is seeking a tax referendum this year.

In other words, schools, thanks to decades of funding increases, are able to make ends meet without going to local taxpayers for significant tax hikes (except for pension increases, which remain exempt, and will be a cost driver for decades).

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't help school districts stretch their budgets further. Matt Brouillette and Pennsylvania School Boards Association Executive Director Thomas Gentzel's recent op-ed in the Allentown Morning Call explains how prevailing wage reforms and economic furloughs will allow districts to do more with less.

posted by ELIZABETH STELLE, NATHAN BENEFIELD | 00:38 PM | 0 comment

MARCH 21, 2012

Violent, Failing Schools Will Lead to Unsafe, Ailing America

That's the upshot of a story in this morning's Wall Street Journal.  It begins:

Flaws in U.S. schools are increasingly causing a national-security risk, producing adults without the math, science and language skills necessary to ensure American leadership in the 21st century, warns a report issued Tuesday by the Council on Foreign Relations.

Warning that "the education crisis is a national security crisis," the report says that too many schools are failing to adequately equip students for the work force, and that many have stopped teaching the sort of basic civics that prepare students for citizenship. Resources and expertise aren't distributed equitably, often hurting the most at-risk students. The situation, it says, puts the country's "future economic prosperity, global position, and physical safety at risk."

What do we do, you ask?  Exactly what CF and many parents whose kids are trapped in failing, violent schools have been requesting:

The report urges wider use of charter schools and other alternatives to neighborhood public schools that are underperforming....

The report acknowledges the persistence of the problems it highlights, noting that many of the same risks were identified in "Nation at Risk," a 1983 report commissioned by the Reagan administration that warned of "a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people." But it cites reasons for fresh hope, including growing public awareness of the issues and bipartisan support for measures to address them.

"This country has a real but time-limited opportunity to make changes that would maintain the United States' position in the world and its security at home," it concludes.

Indeed.  And you can imagine what comes after that inspiring call to action:  whining from those who are profiting from the status quo.  Here's union boss Randi Weingarten:

Six members of the task force offered "additional and dissenting views," including Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a leading teachers union. While praising the task force's goals and endorsing the report, she criticized it for "placing inordinate responsibility for school improvement on individual teachers" and for "promoting policies like the current topdown, standardized test-driven accountability that has narrowed the curriculum and reinforced the teaching of lower-level skills."

Memo to Ms. Weingarten:  Violent, failing schools aren't good for teachers, either.  And the amount of money—including from sky-high property taxes due to the pensions for which unions have pushed—that teachers' friends, family members, and neighbors are forced to put into schools that are not giving our nation what it needs is an outrage.  It's time for a new approach.  That would be the same approach we use in virtually every other important decision in life, including higher education:  choice and competition.

posted by CHARLES MITCHELL | 10:30 AM | 0 comment

MARCH 9, 2012

Does Underfunding Pensions "Help the Kids"?

A letter I recently submitted to the Allentown Morning Call on state education subsidies and pension funding:

The Morning Call's article on state subsidies to school districts has a curious headline "Corbett's education spending hike covers pensions, not books." Surely the authors realize almost no education spending goes towards books.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, in 2009-10, only 4 percent of public school spending went for supplies. More than 60 percent was for employees' wages and benefits, and 11 percent for debt payments.

It is surprising to see the Morning Call question whether pension payments, but not other school spending, are "for the kids." Pensions are nothing more than deferred compensation for teachers and other school employees.

For years, unfunded pension liabilities have grown as lawmakers chose to underfund these plans. As the article notes, taxpayer contributions to pensions will increase dramatically not only this year, but every year in the foreseeable future. This growth will certainly crowd out other areas of school spending, if not bankrupt the state and lead to massive tax hikes.

What the article curiously fails to note is the Pennsylvania State Education Association - now complaining about the impact of pension costs - was complicit in the crisis. The PSEA lobbied not only for the 2001 pension increase, but also for 2003 and 2010 legislation to delay pension payments. Along with investment losses, this led to unfunded pension liabilities of $40 billion. The bill, with interest, is now coming due.

It is easy to see why the PSEA didn't mind the underfunding, since it freed up funds to hire more staff, resulting in additional union dues. But educators should be aware that union bosses helped create a pension crisis that threatens teachers, taxpayers and students for generations to come.

posted by NATHAN BENEFIELD | 11:12 AM | 0 comment

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Exposing Two Class Size Myths

The Patriot-News reports that while schools in the mid-state have laid off some employees, most districts are still below the national average student-teacher ratio of 15.1. The student-teacher ratio is the overall student to staff ratio, not the average class size.

But will these reductions have negative academic impacts? The evidence says no. Academic studies have found little or no correlation between student achievement and class size, teacher salaries, or per-student expenditures.

It seems the quality of education has more to do with how effectively a district uses their teachers than the number of students in the room.

In fact, a 2010 study by 21st Century Partnership for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education (21PSTEM) comparing 11th grade math, reading, and science scores on Pennsylvania state tests with district per-student spending found low-spending districts often outperform high spending ones.

In contrast, school districts are beginning to right-size their staff. State-wide, student enrollment decreased by 35,510 since 2000 while schools added 35,821 more staff. School are being forced to deal with tighter budgets after decades of funding increases, but that need not mean a decline in student learning.

posted by ELIZABETH STELLE | 01:55 PM | 0 comment

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

Attacking Cyber School Funding

The House Education Committee held an informational hearing today with administrators from several of Pennsylvania's cyber schools. The school officials mainly addressed myths about cyber school funding and performance, in light of a new bill introduced by Rep. Michael Fleck in December, HB 1973. One testifier described the bill as "a wolf in sheep's clothing, purporting to reform charter operations with the true intent of killing cyber charter schools."

Why such strong language? Cyber schools are public, taxpayer-funded online schools that began a decade ago. They offer parents an alternative to their local brick-and-mortar public school, without the cost of a private education. And they are proving immensely popular, with nearly 28,000 students enrolled today. When a student leaves her school district for a cyber school, public funding—76 percent of the per-student cost, on average—follows the child. Faced with a loss of funding—though it is a minuscule 1 percent of public education spending—school districts are crying foul, and demanding that lawmakers "fix" how cyber schools are funded.

The main funding element of HB 1973 is a restriction: It would mandate that cyber schools keep their "fund balances" —essentially the school's reserves—at 8-12 percent of their budgeted expenditures. Lawrence Jones, President of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, explained why this is a problem:

Half of the 400 school districts refuse to pay for their students enrolled in cyber charter schools, forcing cybers into the four-month long redirection process and often into procurement of loans to cover operating costs...Cyber charters need to retain a fund balance so that taxpayer dollars that currently go to lending institutions and attorneys can instead be used to educate children. Imagine what it would be like to run the government if half of Pennsylvania's taxpayers simply refused to pay their taxes and there were absolutely no recourse to force them to do so.

So, yes: Cyber school officials agree that funding for their schools needs fixing and should be more equitable. But there is no one-size-fits-all "actual instruction expense" for every cyber school. Furthermore, questions such as "How much does it really cost to educate a child?" could equally be asked of a traditional public school.

In reality, having a competitive education marketplace in the form of charter, cyber, private and public schools is what keeps costs down and learning effective. Burdening cyber schools with needless regulation serves only to smother the innovation our public education system so desperately needs. In the end, public education funding should serve children, not a system.

posted by PRIYA ABRAHAM | 04:49 PM | 0 comment