Democrat Roy Romer Says Public Schools Are Failing

74% of college bound students who successfully complete the recommended college preparatory curriculum are not ready for college. They are not ready for college because the college preparatory curriculum which they successfully completed is not rigorous enough.

Democrat Roy Romer:

"In short, our schools are failing these young people – and their families, many of whom are making genuine sacrifices so that their children can go to college."

Washington D.C. School Vouchers Not Working?

A Washington Post article points out that some Democrats claim vouchers do not work because test scores of voucher students are the same as public school students after one year in the voucher program.

The amount spent per-student in Washington D.C.'s public schools was $17,809 in 2004-2005. The amount spent per-student in Washington D.C.'s voucher program is $7,500. Therefore a student in the voucher program costs 58% less than a student in the public school system.

How does spending so much less and getting the same results equal failure?

States Don't Tell The Truth About 4th Graders Reading Skills

The following graphic shows how a proficient reading score on each state's 4th grade reading test compares to a proficient score on the federal government's test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress:


Source: Washington Monthly

Teachers And Administrators Will Not Change Public Schools

Improving public schools requires change and public school teachers and administrators do not want the public schools to be changed. Therefore, efforts to improve public schools will have to be done without the support of teacher and administrator unions. Why don't teachers and administrators want the public schools to be changed? Because they are benefiting financially from the never ending increase in spending on public schools. Education reform will change who gets that money and those who are getting that money now do not want that to happen.

In The Public Schools Students Do Not Matter

Bill Gates said that not paying more for teachers with "scarce abilities" or "strong performance" means that "student's don't matter."

USA Today said that lax state education standards are a "disservice to students."

Why don't students matter in the public education system? It is because the teacher unions, who influence public school policy more than any other group, do not have to care about the students.

Albert Shanker, the former president of the American Federation of Teachers, said it best:

"I'll start representing kids when kids start paying union dues."

School-Choice Strategy

As explained in the Wall Street Journal, supporting universal school choice is superior to supporting means-tested school choice for two main reasons:

Limited choice plans draw the same amount of opposition as broad choice plans.
Broader choice plans equals broader support.

Therefore since you are going to receive the same amount of opposition from the teacher unions whether the choice plan is limited or broad, then you might as well as go for the broad choice plan.

Bill Gates Opposes Single Salary Schedule And Supports Merit Pay

In 2006 Bill Gates said about American public schools:

"It's astonishing to me to have a system that doesn't allow us to pay more for someone with scarce abilities, that doesn't allow us to pay more to reward strong performance,"

State Standards Are Lower Than National Standards

Grover J. Whitehurst, director of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, says the achievement level that many states call proficient is closer to what the National Assessment of Educational Progress rates as basic.

Secretary Spellings Does Not Support ED in 08

From the New York Times:
"But Secretary Spellings said it is up to the states, not the federal government, to raise standards and improve student achievement. “It’s way too early to conclude we need to adopt national standards,” she said."

One of the three goals of ED in 08 is "American education standards."

America's Oldest School Is Also It's Best

America's oldest K-12 school, the Collegiate School (est. 1628), sends a higher percentage of it's students to selective colleges than any other high school in the country with a graduating class of at least 49 students.

The Wall Street Journal conducted a survey of high schools and found that The Collegiate School sent 51% of the class of 2003 to 10 of the most selective schools in the country, a greater percentage than any other high school in the Wall Street Journal's survey.

For Profit High School

Horace Mann School, a school that sent 35% of it's students to 10 of the country's most selective colleges in 2003, made a profit of over 6 million dollars in 2007.

The Best High Schools

This list from the Wall Street Journal ranks high schools based upon the percentage of students that they sent to 10 of the most selective colleges in the country.

Are American Public Schools Doing A Good Job?

1. Spending on American public schools has increased dramatically both in the short term and long term.

2. America has one of the world's worst public high school graduation rates.

3. Of those students who do graduate from America's public high schools, the vast majority of them can not read, write, or do math at grade level.

Here Are The Facts:

Spending On Public Schools:
Inflation-adjusted per-student spending on public schools has increased over 600% in the past 50 years and over 20% in the past 10 years. In the 2004-2005 school year, states spent an average of $10,159 per-student on public schools.


2003 Public High School Graduation Rates:
30% of public high school students do not graduate. That is over 1.2 million people who fail to graduate from high school every year. 18 countries have a higher high school graduation rate than America.


2005 12th Grade Federal Government Test Scores:
Math
77% of 12th grade students are not proficient in math.
39% of 12th grade students are below basic in math.

Reading
65% of 12th grade students are not proficient in reading.
27% of 12th grade students are below basic in reading.

Writing
76% of 12th grade students are not proficient in writing.