ARIZONA A BELLWETHER STATE — INDICATOR OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
I quickly responded when I read these words from Gov Doug Ducey of Arizona (Jan 05, 2015):
“It will be a first principle of my agenda that schools and choices available to affluent parents must be open to all parents, whatever their means, wherever they live, period.”
This is what I wrote on Jay P Greene’s website yesterday:
Amazing For Parents In Arizona !
That promise by Gov Doug Ducey is so exciting, and SO correct philosophically. Hope that’s the 2015 trend.
I keep spreading the ESA idea as much as I can in Canada. We have one province here — Ontario, with a $12.5 Billion deficit, $23,000 per man/woman/child. This is what I just published in the National Posthttp://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2015/01/05/kelly-mcparland-faces-with-debt-hobbled-government-ontario-teachers-unions-are-reduced-to-bluster/
How The 90¢ Education $ Would Cut Ontario Deficit By 1+ Billion
Taxpayers are not generally averse to paying for public education. What they would like to see is a better Return on Investment (ROI).
Firstly, there is a lot of wastage and over-inflated costs. Teacher union collective bargaining, bureaucratic empire building plus hosts of other inefficiencies contribute to a chiseling away from the education dollar what should be going directly to educate a student. Somehow, education is prone to wastage. In the 70s UNESCO produced reports on Wastage in Education — A World Problem.
Secondly, corruption occurs when accountability is slack and where the consumer is kept at arm’s length from decisions and feedback. The narrative has always been that the system knows what’s best for the students, and customers — parents and guardians must comply. The system easily gets bloated with hordes of ancillary staffs, consultants and public relations experts who feed that marketing hype.
What if the payments from the public purse were flipped? Pay the client rather than the provider? Shave the education dollar to 90% of its worth to the system and see how many parents choose the option?
Exactly this model is now operating successfully in Arizona with respect to Special Needs students. Variously called Education Savings Accounts (ESA) or Education Debit Accounts or Empowerment Scholarship Plan, this program has also been adopted in Florida and actively pursued in other states. The parents of the student have their special account loaded with an amount equal to 90% of what a school system would get — per student plus top-ups for the SN category — to spend on approved choices in services, education, tutoring and talent development. Who better than parents to assess what’s best? And they would be prudent with the money especially if savings can be carried over from year to year or even towards post-secondary education.
See stories on this topic — http://thefederalist.com/2014/09/09/these-lucky-parents-get-to-control-their-kids-state-education-money/
Let’s think outside the box on education delivery. If we started from scratch wouldn’t something like an ESA plan work for parents and students? Wouldn’t teachers love to start their own specialty schools? Wouldn’t tons of talent development programs arise — technology, arts, entertainment academies, sports
academies, etc.?
Academic scores and graduation rates would likely increase. And the provincial debt would decrease.