Watch Utah
November 6, 2007 pm30 5:42 pm
Teachers should be watching today’s voucher vote in Utah (looks like it will go down). Everything I know about the issue I learned from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub. Here’s his latest post: The whole world should be watching Utah, but search his site for “Utah” to get lots and lots of very good background. “E” who trains math teachers in Utah, has also written a bit.
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JD2718 
I’ve really only heard the other side of the story until now (due to a homeschooling friend in Utah who is all for vouchers). I’ve generally been opposed to vouchers in general, but this Utah version seems like it might actually help public school, and I’m curious about it. My understanding is that a public school student who switches to private school, can take with him or her between $500 and $3000 of the approximately $7000 “per student” money from the public school, depending on their family income. (And it would seem to me that most people who would qualify for the $3K wouldn’t be able to afford the rest of the private school tuition anyhow, so I suspect that the majority of the “scholarships” will be on the lower end.) If students leave public school for private, although the school will have less total dollars, the average per student will be greater. So plausibly, this could help reduce overcrowding in schools and increase spending per student, without costing the state any additional money over what it is spending now.
It seems to me that the people most likely to take advantage of this possibility are those who don’t feel the public school can meet their child’s needs — typically those who fall outside the “norm” and are harder to educate in a heterogeneous classroom. So, quite possibly, the class becomes a bit more homogeneous and easier to teach. (I think my kids’ public school was thrilled when we decided to switch to private school and stop demanding things of them.)
My main concern with vouchers in general is that they may “trap” sped kids in the public schools, since that is the only place they are guaranteed to receive services. But again if the school becomes a little less crowded and the funding per student goes up, doesn’t that help the kids left at the public school?
So… what is the gotcha here?
The Utah version will lose, and so can do no harm. However, it would have hurt public schools. I invite you to look through MFB’s archives; he reasons well and has followed the issue much more closely than I have. In particular,
Slapping the hand in the cookie jar
lot of damage, not much benefit
Pro voucher sources panic
But there’s lot’s more
thanks, I’ll take a look. btw, your last link is broken.
Link fixed, thanks.
The Utah vampire voucher proposal went down “in flames,” according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The “gotchas” were several:
First, the proposal took nearly a half billion dollars desperately needed to reduce classroom sizes in the public schools.
Second, Utah’s public schools are doing very well, especially considering that they rank near the top academically, while ranking at or near the bottom in per pupil spending. Utah’s schools give lots of bang for the buck.
Third, there are not enough good private schools in Utah to take more than a tiny percentage of students, probably less than 1%.
Fourth, the vouchers offer no gains on classroom size problems until about 40% of students leave the public schools.
Fifth, the proposal sucks money from the public schools from the start, increasing significantly after the fifth year of the program.
Utah voters want good schools. Sucking the blood out of the schools doesn’t seem like a good way to get good schools.
Most of the current voucher supporters just don’t get it. I’m waiting for one who does, someone who will come along with several tens of millions for a pilot project under which kids who need special help get vouchers to use as they choose — including to use to help their ailing (or healthy) public school that they currently attend, that they like, and which they do not choose to leave.
Voucher supporters don’t get that when they call for competition, they need to create competition. Every voucher program offered in the U.S. requires that public schools be hobbled to compete. Voters understand viscerally this is unfair, and stupid.
Oh, and you’re right: Special education programs generally are not offered by private schools. Special ed kids are essentially denied the use of vouchers. I think that’s patently unfair, but also exactly the wrong way to work things. Improvements in special education — especially increasing the pay and number of teachers — produces huge payoffs, and benefits the rest of the school.
Ed, I’m interested in your assertion that improving sped provides benefits for the entire school. Could you elaborate on that a bit? Thanks!
Sure.
Special education is typically regarded as a problem for schools. Some schools still regard it as a pain in the rear. But in many cases, it’s quite the opposite.
First, before federal aid provided extra money for education for kids above average and below average, these kids were usually just problems in the school system. In my age group, you can find a lot of people who had a kid or two in their class who clearly needed more help, but couldn’t get it. These students often created problems in classes, simply trying to help them out. Many disrupted classes in other ways, too. I think a lot of people forget those days. Many of the disruptions are gone, and that makes it easier for all kids in the school.
Second, we get better teaching methods, especially for the gifted and talented programs, but also largely unrecognized from special education programs, we have a host of teaching methods that have dramatically improved classroom delivery for all kids. It turns out that the methods that work well with gifted kids also help everybody else; and it turns out that the methods of repetition, to pick one thing, that help many developmentally disabled kids, also help average students. We’ve learned to get kids up and around the classroom, for example, because many kids learn better when learning is associated with body movement. Where did we learn that? Special education is one such area.
Third, especially after federal aid and rules promoted it, special education has brought to schools a host of people skilled in helping kids with learning problems. These skills are good for helping special ed kids, but they are fantastically useful for helping average and above average kids, too. It is not a coincidence that the rise in diagnoses of dyslexia increased so dramatically after these teachers got into the public schools in numbers. And I think most teachers have had the experience I have had, with a well-above-average kid who lagged in one area (often English), who the special ed teacher noticed had dyslexia. The kids’ genius got them through other classes, though it was difficult for them. Once we got the kids help for their dyslexia – help we didn’t know they needed since they were outstanding students otherwise – their productivity and learning soared even higher.
Fourth, just the numbers help out. Today I was paired with a “co-teacher,” who was in class to help out with the half-dozen kids in that period identified as needing help we used to call “special ed.” Nominally, that teacher is there to keep the formerly special-ed kids going. In actuality, having that second teacher there helps keep order and created a rich learning environment. Every other kid in the class benefits from that. So the special ed programs help out simply by bringing in more troops.
And while I don’t want to list it, I do want to note my experience that students learn a lot from being around other kids who are learning disabled in one form or another. The kids learn tolerance, they learn friendship, and they learn that disabled kids are normal. There are some lifelong friendships there, and I think that’s a huge advantage for the non-special ed kids.
Does that help?
Yes, Ed, that helps. I assume you are talking about putting extra money into a school for special ed. And I’d agree that putting extra money into a school for just about anything helps the kids there. My experiences have been more about bleeding other programs to improve special ed, which did not have positive effects on the kids whose programs were sacrificed. :(