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Charter School Analysis
Further Discussion:
If current private schools are allowed access to the 10k in Charter school money it will cost taxpayers a fair amount of money. Much of this might be raised by eliminating Federal fundings for a wide variety of Education programs that the Charter schools could implement more effectively (if they choose). Headstart, school lunch programs, after school programs, even daycare programs, and a plethora of wasteful grants and other programs could all be eliminated. Eliminating the Department of Education would save billions. It may also be the case that legislators (and parents) will be so surprised at the excesses of services provided by the Charter schools that they decide to cut funding of their public schools, which also cuts the funding of the Charter schools. It would be best if all of these decisions were made by state legislators and county commissioners, not the Federal Government. In fact, it would be best if the Federal government had no part of education at all. Considering that the Constitution leaves education to the states, this shouldn't be too much to ask. It is disappointing that the courts have not declared the Department of Education unconstitutional (along with the many other Federal programs and regulations).
Admittedly, there is a strong temptation to advocate national legislation to setup and implement something like the 'Charter School Act', but I feel the setup and running of these programs should be left largely to the states. If the Federal government screws it up, and judging by its past track record and the special interest clout in Washington, this is a distinct possibility, people will have nowhere to run. It would make things easier on the Charter school chains and franchises to have standard regulations (if any) and procedures in every state. One can easily imagine Charter schools already established in a state lobbying the state legislators for increasing regulations, fees, and licensing in the name of 'the public good' or 'public safety' in an underhanded attempt to stop new startups and keep out-of-state competition from encroaching on their profits. Federal legislation, possibly filed under the interstate commerce act, may be required to put a stop to some of this nonsense and to enable students in a state to attend schools in neighboring states, or even boarding schools across the country. These sorts of things need to be looked at in more detail and fleshed out (especially the question of the constitutionality of these laws).
I have also mentioned standardized test scores throughout this story. This might imply I support the continuation of nationally standardized testing, which may seem to contradict my disdain for Federal involvement in Education. However, there is no need for Federal involvement because the Charter schools are plenty capable of constructing their own tests, driven by parental demand for accountability. I'm guessing that various Charter school associations would most likely contract out the tests to a reputable company. These tests might be state based or nationally based, or perhaps parents won't demand testing even take place and rely more on standards like graduation percentages or SAT scores. By presuming parents want national standardized testing ,I am, perhaps, committing the same mistake that the folks in the Education Department or the NEA make everyday, taking the elitists attitude that I know what is best and that I know what parents want. This is especially egregious considering I personally disdain standardized testing and don't believe it is a useful barometer for much of anything. A better approach is to assume parents will want some sort of statistics to go on and that the market will filter a satisfactory way of doing this to the top.
I would support a Voucher program over the existing public education debacle, but I view it as only a half-hearted step towards reform. With Vouchers, the government returns to parents, oh... about half, or maybe, if they're lucky, three quarters, of their own money to spend at the school they please. With Vouchers, the argument that parents of the poorest children might not be able to afford the extra money actually has some merit. These students would continue to be stuck in the failing public schools with no way out.
The pure libertarian view, whereby control and jurisdiction over Education policy is taken from the Federal Government, the States, and the Counties and given directly to the people, is an interesting one. In such a scenario there would be no taxes, regulations or requirements for Education and every school would be truly private. Private foundations and charity organizations would exist to help the poorest areas. My gut feeling is that this may indeed prove to be the best scenario for permanently improving education in this country. However, legislation repealing all the old education laws and taxes is certainly not politically feasible at this time. The 'Charter School Act' legislation that I've described is politically feasible (as it is really just common sense), provided the proposal is not skewered and slanted and demaguaged (and rest assured, it will be). After this legislation is passed, and people adjust to the idea of (gasp!) being able to spend their own tax dollars where they desire and see the benefits of (gasp!) having more control over their kid's education, the pure libertarian view can be more closely examined and (perhaps) pursued.
See more on how a Charter School system would be setup: Introduction
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