lecture notes #6

POLS 220

N BERCH

FALL 2013

 

Education Policy

 

I.                    School Choice

a.       Works through voucher system—often includes choice of public school and partial subsidy of private school

b.      Arguments for:

                                                                                      i.      Promotes innovation

                                                                                    ii.      Gives poor kids access to better schools—the rich already have “school choice”

                                                                                  iii.      May bring about specialized schools that suit individual students better

c.       Arguments against:

                                                                                      i.      Rural students wouldn’t benefit (some rural areas can only support one school, no choice)

                                                                                    ii.      Raises cost of information about schools; rich and more educated will make better picks.

                                                                                  iii.      Inclusion of parochial schools may raise 1^st amendment issues

                                                                                   iv.      Who pays transportation costs?

                                                                                     v.      Is specialization at such an early age a good idea?

                                                                                   vi.      Could resegregate metropolitan schools

                                                                                 vii.      Test scores show mixed results

II.                  Equalization of funding

a.       Arguments for:

                                                                                      i.      Legal:  some states have constitutions that require equal access to education, but some districts within a state spend 2-3 as much per student as do others.

                                                                                    ii.      Moral:  should where you live affect the kind of education you get?

b.      Arguments against:

                                                                                      i.      If you are willing to spend more money to buy a house and pay taxes in a good school district, why should you not be allowed to do it?

                                                                                    ii.      Equalization plans generally lower the ceiling rather than raise the floor.

c.       What about equalizing funding between states?  Is this different?

III.                Standardized testing

a.       Has increased dramatically due in part to No Child Left Behind

b.      Mostly used to evaluate schools and teachers, but now also being used to certify students for graduation

c.       Can provide measurements that help parents with school choice

d.      Generally doesn’t compare cohorts of students properly

e.      Teaching to the test

f.        Takes away from instructional time

g.       Cheating by schools and teachers

h.      Sometimes used to place students in tracks

IV.                Higher education funding

a.       Declining in many states

b.      Harder to justify to public and legislature

                                                                                      i.      Why subsidize when those who go to college benefit financially?

                                                                                    ii.      Unlike elementary and secondary education, a sizeable portion of the population (more in some states) doesn’t go to college

                                                                                  iii.      Of those who do, some go out-of-state or to private colleges

                                                                                   iv.      People don’t want to subsidize out-of-state students who come to their state for college.