United States: three more states move towards choice

Last year, a 12-year legal battle culminated in a ground-breaking United States Supreme Court case which upheld the constitutionality of vouchers. More states are now taking steps towards choice, and we look at what’s happening in three of them: Texas, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

The Dallas Morning News has reported that Texas may become the latest state to adopt school choice, following a bill filed this month establishing a pilot school choice programme in 11 of the state’s largest school districts.

Parents in these districts would be given the option of choosing the best public or private school to suit the needs of their children.

“Many, many private schools are in place today which offer outstanding curricula, dedicated teachers and forward-thinking administrations. There should be a way for our children whose parents cannot afford to pay tuition to access them,” a sponsor, Rep. Ron Wilson, was reported saying.

Private schools that accepted the vouchers would be required to give education assessment tests and make the aggregated scores public, provisions to make sure accountability followed the money and to measure the programmes’ academic effects, the Morning News reported.

Choice in Colorado

Colorado appears on track to introduce a programme of public aid for private school tuition.

Education Week reported earlier this month that a programme subsidising private school tuition for students from low-income families who attend academically struggling public schools, could be created by two bills — one approved by the state House, and one by the Senate.

Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican who has long been a supporter of vouchers, was expected to sign such a bill if it reached his desk, Education Week reported.

Although the specifics of the two voucher bills differ, both would be aimed at children from poor families who attend low-performing schools and would allow the aid to be used at religious as well as secular schools. Both also would limit vouchers to students who had performed poorly on state standardised tests — where applicable.

Education Week reported that the bill advocates say is most likely to succeed is modeled after the contracts that public schools in Colorado currently arrange with private schools to serve special education students.

The bill would divert some funding from students' home districts to pay for the vouchers. As crafted, the vouchers would either cover the private schools' actual cost of educating students, or 75% of the districts' per-pupil operating revenue in the case of elementary and middle school students, whichever is less. For high school students, that amount would rise to 85%.

Pennsylvania parents prefer choice

A study showing satisfaction for low-income parents whose children were awarded scholarships under Pennsylvania's Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) programme, was released this month.

The Pennsylvania-based Commonwealth Foundation study, by education reform expert and Villanova University professor Dr. Robert Maranto, also details the cost savings to the Philadelphia School District.

The study focuses on one scholarship organisation, Futuro Educacional, a scholarship organization serving primarily the Hispanic community in Philadelphia and the first Pennsylvania scholarship organisation to distribute EITC money.

During the 2002/03 school year, an estimated 15,000-20,000 low-income students were benefiting from contributions of more than $18.9 million from nearly 1000 Pennsylvania corporations via 127 local scholarship organisations.

More information on Futuro Educacional is at the Commonwealth Foundation.

The Commonwealth Foundation study is also available for download.