Education Tax Credits

Cecilia Rouse Is Anti-School Vouchers

2008-12-31T12:22:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama has appointed an anti-school voucher economist to the Council of Economic Advisers. Here is a summary of a 2008 study of school vouchers done by Dr. Rouse:

"The best research to date finds relatively small achievement gains for students offered education vouchers, most of which are not statistically different from zero."
- Cecilia Elena Rouse and Lisa Barrow, August 2008

This is in direct contrast to the 9 out of 10 random assignment studies that show "significant positive effects" from school vouchers. One of these random assignment studies was done by the same Cecilia Rouse in 1997: "I find that the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program appears to have had a positive effect on the math achievement of those who attended a private school; but had no benefits for reading scores."

Question: Do vouchers have a "positive effect" as in the 1997 Rouse study or do vouchers produce gains "not statistically different from zero" as in the 2008 Rouse study?

Barack Obama Is Anti-Science

2008-12-24T05:17:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama Says Being Anti-Science Is Bad:
"I'll change the posture of our federal government from being one of the most anti-science administrations in American history to one that embraces science and technology."
- Barack Obama

The Science:
"There have been 10 random assignment evaluations (the gold-standard in research) of voucher programs and 9 show significant positive effects."
- Jay P. Greene

Barack Obama's Position On The Science:
"What I do oppose is using public money for private school vouchers."
- Barack Obama

Why Barack Obama Is Anti-Science:
"The biggest teachers' union, the National Education Association (NEA), has 3.2 million members and committed $50 million to Obama's campaign."
- Time Magazine

Teacher Unions Like Arne Duncan

2008-12-15T16:23:00.000-08:00

"Arne Duncan actually reaches out and tries to do things in a collaborative way."
- Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers

“This could be the beginning of a promising new period for public education in this country. Arne Duncan has said before Congress that funding for NCLB should be doubled within five years, and that the law must be amended to give schools the maximum amount of flexibility possible. For too long, federal education policy has been about teaching to the test, and Duncan could use his new position to move beyond those failed policies, and provide every child with 21^st century skills.”
- Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association

"We applaud President-Elect Obama's choice of Arne Duncan to be the next Secretary of Education.”
- Jo Anderson, Executive Director of the Illinois Education Association

Arne Duncan's Record

2008-12-15T15:23:00.000-08:00

The Chicago Public Schools:

"Only six of every 100 freshmen who entered a CPS high school last September (2007) will ultimately earn a bachelor's degree from college."
- Heartland Institute

2001 Chicago Graduation Rate: 48.8%
2005 Chicago Graduation Rate: 51.0%
- Editorial Projects in Education

2007 Chicago 8th Graders Scoring Below Basic In Math: 51%
- Nation's Report Card

School Vouchers Growing

2008-12-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

Wrong With Public Schools

2008-12-11T16:13:00.000-08:00

1. students are mostly assigned to schools based on where they live

2. teachers are almost never fired, no matter how incompetent they are

3. teachers are paid almost entirely based on how many years they’ve been around rather than on how well they do their job

4. teachers are required to be certified even though there is little to no evidence that certification is associated with quality

5. all teachers are paid the same regardless of subject, even though we know that the skills required for expertise on certain subjects have much greater value in the market than other subjects

- Jay P. Greene

33 Percent Of 4th Graders Can Not Read

2008-12-09T15:35:00.000-08:00

"In 2007, 33 percent of fourth graders and 26 percent of eighth graders scored "below basic" in reading."

- Heritage Foundation

Why Should We Give Public Schools More Money?

2008-12-09T15:27:00.000-08:00

- Heritage Foundation

Asian Students Outscore American Students

2008-12-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study:

"The gap between the U.S. and top-performing Asian countries is huge, just enormous."

- Ina V.S. Mullis, executive director of the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College

Joel Klein On Public School Teachers

2008-12-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

"In the United States, we draw teachers from the bottom quarter of our college graduates, and our kids in high-poverty neighborhoods get the bottom quarter of the bottom quarter."

- Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education

College Students Do Not Need Taxpayer Subsidies

2008-12-04T16:07:00.000-08:00

"...students who borrow a sizable share of the funds required to pay for college are likely to be financially better off relatively
soon after graduation than they would be if they began their full time work lives immediately after high school."

- The College Board

Go To A Private College To Earn A Lot Of Money

2008-12-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

"The only public college to appear on our list of the top 20 schools was the University of California at Berkeley."

- PayScale.com ranking of college alumni earnings after 10 to 20 years of work experience

The Federal Government Has Little Control Over Education

2008-12-04T13:20:00.000-08:00

"Education secretaries barely have control over a professionalized staff that barely have control over a budget that contributes barely 8% of all education spending. I guess they can use their bully pulpit to influence the agenda for education policy, but almost all of the important education decisions are made by state and local actors."

- Jay P. Greene

School Boards Are The Problem

2008-11-30T11:44:00.000-08:00

"I don't believe that really significant education reform is possible with a school board structure."

- Michelle Rhee, Charlie Rose show, July 14, 2008
21:40 mark

The Future Of American Public Education Is Terrifying

2008-11-30T11:01:00.000-08:00

"When I compare our high schools to what I see when I'm traveling abroad, I am terrified for our work force of tomorrow."
- Bill Gates

"I'm somewhat terrified of what the Democrats are going to do on education."
- Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of Washington D.C. public schools

Will 50 Million Dollars Block Education Reform?

2008-11-28T21:14:00.000-08:00

"The biggest teachers' union, the National Education Association (NEA), has 3.2 million members and committed $50 million to Obama's campaign."

- Time Magazine

Teacher Quality Is Critical

2008-11-28T21:02:00.000-08:00

"If two average 8-year-olds are assigned to different teachers, one who is strong and one who is weak, the children's lives can diverge in just a few years, according to research pioneered by Eric Hanushek at Stanford. The child with the effective teacher, the kind who ranks among the top 15% of all teachers, will be scoring well above grade level on standardized tests by the time she is 11. The other child will be a year and a half below grade level--and by then it will take a teacher who works with the child after school and on weekends to undo the compounded damage. In other words, the child will probably never catch up."

- Time Magazine

Intel Can Find Workers Outside Of The United States

2008-11-27T00:41:00.000-08:00

"We don't need the U.S. to be successful."

- Craig Barrett, Chairman of Intel

States Are Lying About Their Public Schools

2008-11-25T08:59:00.000-08:00

States are lying about test scores:
"Based on state standards, Mississippi has the USA's highest-achieving fourth-graders: 89% passed the state reading tests in 2005, tying Nebraska for tops in the nation. Based on a national assessment, however, Mississippi has the nation's lowest-achieving fourth-graders: just 18% passed a more rigorous national reading test, the lowest of any state."
- USA Today

States are lying about teacher quality:
"In Arizona in 2004, the state said 94.4 percent of core classes were taught by highly qualified teachers. But Arizona teachers told the federal government in 2004 that 58.4 percent of core classes were taught by someone certified in the subject he or she was teaching."
- Associated Press

Obama Could Force His Children's Classmates Back To Public School

2008-11-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

"Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said this week that she is working on a plan to phase out the controversial D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program."
- Washington Post

"What i do oppose is using public money for private school vouchers."
- Barack Obama

"To their credit, the schools Michelle Obama visited this week -- Georgetown Day and Sidwell Friends -- participate in the voucher program, as do many other area private schools. That means classmates of Malia and Sasha might lose the ability to attend their chosen school if the vouchers were eliminated."
- Washington Post

Sidwell Friends Acceptance Rate

2008-11-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

15%

- Peterson's

Public School Was Never An Option

2008-11-22T01:00:00.000-08:00

"Mayor Adrian M. Fenty of Washington strongly lobbied the Obamas to consider a public school, but that was apparently never an option."

- New York Times

The Lowest Perfoming School District

2008-11-21T22:14:00.000-08:00

"Washington is the lowest-performing school district in the nation. Only 12% of D.C. eighth graders are proficient readers, 8% in math. A mere 60% of high schoolers finish in four years with a diploma."
- Wall Street Journal

"D.C. public schools also spent about $25,000 per child in the 2007-08 school year."
- Cato Institute

Students Are Not To Blame For Failing Schools

2008-11-17T16:39:00.000-08:00

American Public Schools Are Failing And Their Students Are Not To Blame:

"Anyone who opposes dramatic change in our schools has to make an impossible case. Either they have to deny that our schools are failing, or they have to argue that the kids are to blame. Either view is wrong. If you believe every child can learn—and the evidence strongly supports this—then if the students don’t learn, the school must change."

- Bill Gates, November 11, 2008

South Korea vs United States

2008-11-16T09:42:00.000-08:00

"More than 80% of South Korea's high-school seniors go on to college."
- Wall Street Journal

College-Going Rates of U.S. High School Graduates: 61.6%
- HigherEdInfo.org