School choice doesn’t automatically mean every child will be an educational success, but evidence from other nations certainly suggests it means better overall performance. Sweden, Chile, and the Netherlands are just some of the countries that have seen good results after breaking up state-run education monopolies.
The same is true in the United States. When parents have some ability to select schools, this generates competitive pressure for better results. This is true even in sub-optimal instances where the choice is merely among different government-run schools. as illustrated by the abstract of a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
We study the impact of a public school choice lottery in Charlotte-Mecklenburg (CMS) on postsecondary attainment. We match CMS administrative records to the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), a nationwide database of college enrollment. Among applicants with low-quality neighborhood schools, lottery winners are more likely than lottery losers to graduate from high school, attend a four-year college, and earn a bachelor’s degree. They are twice as likely to earn a degree from an elite university. The results suggest that school choice can improve students’ longer-term life chances when they gain access to schools that are better on observed dimensions of quality.
But real competition should involve private schools. Here’s the video from last year about why comprehensive school choice is good news for education.
School choice is one of the few issues where I’m optimistic. If we’re beginning to make progress even in places such as California and New Orleans, we’re obviously winning. No wonder the teacher unions are sounding so shrill.
crisap444 reblogged this on The Conservative New Ager.
Private schools, or at least a healthy system of charters schools. (Yes I teach at a charter so I am biased there).
I heard on the news a couple of days ago that enrollment in private schools is down. Assuming that that is true, and assuming that part of the reason that enrollment in private schools is down is that the economy is in the tank, perhaps that explains why Obama has done so little to improve the economy. Perhaps this Great Recession is an attempt to completely kill the private school movement in this country.
Don’t you love conspiracy theories?
I think healthy competition would greatly increase school quality. One thing I’ve noticed about Charter schools locally is the obsession with funding over curriculum. It is my understanding funding is based on the standardized testing results. From day one everything is about “practicing” for passing the tests. I understand they need the funds, but I think high quality teaching and curriculum would bring about the same result.
[...] Education. More Evidence for School Choice [...]
I’ve had luck changing some folks minds on vouchers by pointing out that choice already exists in education — it’s just that it mainly belongs to those who are well enough off to have it. Even middle income folks who can’t necessarily afford the best private schools, typically have more choice on which school district to live in. Why the wealthy can live anywhere (even DC) and send their kids to private school.
So, I ask them, why would you want to reduce or eliminate education choice for poor people? That seems to get the to think.
I wrote about it briefly in this post (http://ourdinnertable.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/don-boudreax-trusts-parents/) and I’m disappointed to see I haven’t written more about it.
Ultimately, parents are the fundamental feedback loop in education. No formula or bureaucracy can do near as good as them.
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