Term Paper on "Free Market Approach to America's Educational System"

Term Paper 10 pages (2619 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

FREE MARKET APPROACH to AMERICA'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The work of Stephen Lendman entitled: "Destroying Public Education in America" relates that Chicago has stated a strategy for 100 "new 'high-performing' elementary and high schools in the city' under a five-year contact in which the city will be held accountable in creating innovative learning environments under one of three structures of governance..." -- charter schools under the 1996 Illinois Charter Schools Law; they're called "public schools of choice, selected by students and parents....to take responsible risks and create new, innovative and more flexible ways of educating children within the public school system;" in 1997, the Illinois General Assembly approved 60 state charter schools; Chicago was authorized 30, the suburbs 15 more, and 15 others downstate. The city bends the rules by operating about 53 charter "campuses" and lots more are planned." (Lendman, 2008) the Charter schools are different from magnet schools that make a requirement of passing admissions tests or being tested for special skills yet the Charter schools do have "specific organizing themes and educational philosophies and may target certain learning problems, development needs, or educational possibilities. In all states, they're legislatively authorized; near-autonomous in their operations; free to choose their students and exclude unwanted ones; and up to now are quasi-public with no religious affiliation. Administration and corporate schemes assure they won't stay that way because that's the sinister plan." (Lendman, 2008) the other two types of schools in Chicago are the:

Contract (privatized) schools: These are run by "independent nonprofit organizations;" they operate under a Performance Agreement between the "organization" and the Board of Education; and Performance Schools: schools under Chicago Public Schools (CPS) management "with freedom and flexibility on many district initiatives and policies;" unmentioned is the Democrat mayor's close ties to the Bush administration and their preference for marketplace education; the idea isn't new, but it accelerated rapidly in recent years. (Lendman, 2008)

Various funding programs stated by the Friedman Foundation for Education Choice include the following:

Universal Voucher Programs for all children;

Means-Tested Voucher Programs for families below a defined income level;

Failing Schools, Failing Students Voucher Programs for poor students or "failed" schools;

Special Needs Voucher Programs for children with special educational needs;

Pre-kindergarten Voucher Programs; and Town Tuitioning Programs for communities without operating public schools for some students' grade levels." (Lendman, 2008)

It is related in this work that Jonathan Kozol, in his work entitled: "The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America" that problems in today's schools regarding race and civil rights are progressively worsening. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data shows that black and Latinos students "now comprise about 95% of inner-city students in the nation's 100 largest school systems - account for more than one-third of all public school students." (Lendman, 2008) Kogol relates the factor of "hypersegregation" characterized by five to ten white children in a student population of as many as 3,000..." (Lendman, 2008) the work of Minter-Hoxby entitled: "School Choice and School Competition: Evidence from the United States" reports findings which state: "Students' achievement generally does rise when they attend voucher or charter schools.... Public schools do respond constructively to competition from private and charter schools], by raising their achievement and productivity.... Not only do currently enacted voucher and charter school programs not cream-skim; they disproportionately attract students who were performing badly in their regular public schools." (Lendman, 2008)

STATE of the EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The work of Coulson (2004) entitled: "How Markets Affect Quality" reports a study which states findings that markets that are competitive and that are minimally regulated schools that are private schools and specifically schools funded "at least in part directly by parents, are usually more academically effective, more efficient, better physically maintained and more responsive in their curricular than area traditional state school monopolies." (Coulson, 2004) Coulson additionally states that of the 27 comparison made of public and private school academic achievement, twenty findings demonstrated that an advantage is held by the private sector schools with five demonstrating no statistical difference that was significant and with two showing an advantage to the public sector. The No Child Left Behind Act has left many students "forgotten and abused. They're warehoused in decrepit facilities, curricula offerings ignore their needs, testing is unrelated to learning, teachers don't teach, the whole scheme is swept under the rug, and 'educating' the unwanted is 'standardized' to produce good workers with pretty low skill levels for the kinds of jobs awaiting them." (Coulson, 2008) the schools are more separate and more unequal than they were previously and in fact, Lendman states that "...separate and unequal is the current inner city school standard. Unless, it's exposed, denounced and reversed, millions of children millions of poor and minority children will be denied the 'American Dream'. (2008)

OPTIONS and CONSEQUENCES

The work of Donna Harrington-Lueker entitled: "School District's Entrepreneurism Raises Questions About Fairness, Funding, and the Best Place for Learning" states that the reforms that have taken place in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, "...a working-class New England mill town of 10,000, located about 40 miles southwest of Boston - that rhetoric has become a reality. With dogged persistence and an unwillingness to take no for an answer, the tiny school district has turned the world of education on its head with dramatic -- and often controversial -- changes in the way it delivers services to parents and children. Its free-market innovations have even attracted the attention of leading players in school privatization." (1997) the reforms in Uxbridge are of the nature that are only dreamed of by free-market advocates.

Uxbridge spends only $1,200 per students as compared to the statewide average of schools in Massachusetts of $5,948. The key tenants of Uxbridge's school reforms is the following 'key' tenet: "Competition is healthy, alternatives are good and parental involvement is possible if schools are willing to change traditional structures." If schools do not change to meet the realities and if schools are not willing to change the traditional structure...they risk becoming 'marginalized'. The flexibility of the school's scheduling has benefited the working-class families in Uxbridge. Many of the parents of students are required to make a daily commute to service-industry jobs in other cities. Fortunately, Uxbridge "offers a comprehensive child-care program that runs from 6:30 A.M. To 6:00 P.M. year-round in the school system's Early Learning Center." (Harrington-Lueker, 1997) Additionally housed in the same building is a district-preschool program for disabled children as well as a kindergarten 1/2 day program. The children must simply cross the hall to change from the school day setting to the after school setting. This offering on the part of Uxbridge is one that is characterized by a "seamless approach to service..." (Harrington-Lueker, 1997) More positions of employment have resulted from the variety of scheduling in the school and class hours. Uxbridge schools employs teacher, social workers, nurses, guidance counselors hours of work are from 11 a.m. To 7 p.m. various scheduling scenarios including half-time job-sharing arrangements, which have been negotiated among some of the employees in Uxbridge schools. In 1991, as an alternative to the traditional remediation approach of pulling kids out of classes was developed, and, the parents at Uxbridge were offered a choice: "Their children could continue to receive special help in reading and mathematics during the regular school day -- a practice that meant excusing children from other classes -- or the district could provide parents with a voucher and allow them to purchase before- or after-school tutoring sessions on their own" (Harrington-Lueker, 1997) the teachers s well coordinate with the tutors on lessons so that the individual students needs are met. The district was up against Massachusetts Title I office and was ultimately "forced to file an appeal to the U.S. Department of Education...officials in Washington eventually gave Uxbridge the green light to proceed." (Harrington-Lueker, 1997) Uxbridge approached the 17 families that were home-schooling and proposed that if home schooling would "cover the state-man dated curriculum, provide a minimum number of instructional hours, and have their children take the state assessment, the school system would agree to provide them with a voucher to cover a portion of their educational costs. The report of Harrington-Lueker states that insofar as threats to the status quo in Uxbridge that the biggest threat is the success of Uxbridge as reported that Uxbridge is one among five schools in the state of Massachusetts "to show significant improvement on the statewide assessment. On some portions of the test, Uxbridge students scored as much as 80 points above the statewide average." (Harrington-Lueker, 1997) the work of Snell (2005) entitled: "Let a Thousand Choices Bloom" states that a half-century before school choice and reform proposals came "in so many shapes and sizes" school vouchers were first proposed by Milton Friedman. According to Snell, reform that attaches money "directly...to the backs of children and allows them to choose any school, without regard to residential restrictions holds promise. The actual choice mechanism - tax credit, carter school or voucher -less important… READ MORE

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