________________________________________  THE VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT March 29, 2004 Vol. 4, No. 14 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯  Covering education news in Vermont and beyond... Informative, provocative, unique... Published by Vermonters for Better Education  VBE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to enlist parents and the public at large in achieving quality educational opportunities for all the children of Vermont by monitoring the state of education in Vermont; promoting the value of educational freedoms for all parents; and giving parents the evaluative tools with which to identify excellence. Libby Sternberg, executive director: VTBetterEd@aol.com NEWS & ANALYSIS... EARLY ED BILL: $30 MILL PRICE TAG The price tag for the early education initiative, S.166, is now put at $30 million, according to a Vermont Press Bureau article. But that figure could grow exponentially. The March 25 article said: “Education officials predict the proposed new rules...could spawn a 300 percent expansion in pre-school programs and enroll nearly 8,000 students by 2011.” Currently, the state spends about $5 million annually on 2,600 students enrolled in pre-school. As S.166 moved through the Senate Ed committee, by the way, only one witness was called, out of a list of 24, who opposed (or raised concerns about) the initiative. That witness was Ethan Allen Institute President John McClaughry who was given five minutes before the committee when he happened to wander by last year. Word has reached the VER that some limited-government senators voted for S.166 only when a “choice component” was added in. However, this choice component is not parent-controlled. It merely gives parents the right to petition to have their children sent to another public preschool program outside their district or to a private provider. If the pre-school provider outside the district does not have a contract with the district, the parent’s “power” is limited to the ability to “request” that the district negotiate a contract with the provider. Obviously, parents can request all they want from local school districts. Being allowed to request services by no means guarantees them. In fact, this type of so-called “choice” provision already exists for K-12 students. Parents are allowed to petition their local school boards to tuition their children to other schools and the boards have the power, through statute, to acquiesce to the those requests. Yet how often is this kind of choice allowed? VER hears regularly from parents who have tried petitioning their local school boards to send their children to a public school outside their district or even to a private school – to no avail. Once the public system has a stake in keeping the money in the district, they rarely let it go elsewhere. The choice component of S.166 is a farce unless it puts the power to choose solely in the parents’ hands. Even the Burlington Free Press, which has editorialized in favor of early education programs, has misgivings about the bill. In a March 26 editorial, the editorialist wrote: “Foremost, legislators and other policymakers should thoroughly evaluate recent studies on early childhood education to see whether they justify the states taking on more responsibility for preschoolers. Should preschool seem a good idea, the state should not simply graft early education on to the K-12 system. Instead, it should take advantage of the wide variety of private and nonprofit preschools around the state to help parents find the right program for their children. Parents who want to teach their children at home should not be pressured to do otherwise. High-quality preschool might help younger children acquire learning skills critical to their scholastic careers. However, while much of the research on early education is persuasive, more thinking and discussion are needed before Vermont launches on a major transformation in its schools and in the first years of its youngest residents.”  WCAX ED STORY WON MURROW AWARD Remember that WCAX-TV series on school security issues? The one that the VT-NEA condemned before it even aired, saying it smacked of “sensationalism”? Well, it just won the prestigious Edward R. Murrow award for “outstanding achievements in electronic journalism.” The awards are presented annually by the Radio-Television News Directors Association and Foundation. WCAX-TV’s series won in the “investigative reporting” category in Region 10, which includes Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Congratulations to the station and to education reporter Joan Ritchie Goodchild, who is leaving the station for southern climes.   PUBLIC HEARING SCHEDULED FOR DRIVERS ED BILL H.560, the bill that would allow homeschoolers more flexibility with drivers education requirements, has passed the House Education committee and now sits in House Transportation. Transportation will hold a public hearing on the bill on Wednesday, March 31 from 9:00 a.m. to noon in room 10 of the Statehouse in Montpelier. House Education Chairman Howard Crawford (R-Burke) will be there along with representatives of the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Education, the Automobile Association of America, the Vermont-NEA and others.  *   *   * COMMENTARY  NOT FIXING WHAT IS BROKEN by Libby Sternberg  Education reform is tough business. Numerous “special interests,” mostly in the form of organizations which have a stake in the status quo, are always ready to protect their turf. The teachers union rarely wants to see anything move forward that will put teachers’ jobs or salaries at risk. They are often joined in their obstructionism by the Superintendents and Principals Associations. In addition, the School Boards association can be counted on to sing from the same page, rarely straying from the tune the other organizations hum. Together these organizations’ budgets are in the millions of dollars. And their presence in Montpelier is pervasive. Their mailing lists alone mean only the most stalwart reformers will stand firm on any issue that goes against the “Education Coalition,” as these groups call themselves. When this coalition supports something, it usually can sail through. When it doesn't – no matter how small or seemingly insignificant – watch out. Thus this week we will be treated to a public hearing on what seems like an extremely modest reform – allowing homeschoolers another option for drivers education. But this is a program the Vermont NEA doesn't support. After all, allowing homeschoolers more options might mean a drivers education instructor loses a student and a school district the money that would accompany that student into the drivers ed program. So it’s no surprise then that larger reform is hard to come by, even when a popular governor is supporting it. This year provided a prime example. The governor supported public school choice, a bill was introduced, hearings were held at which supporters outnumbered opponents and opponents were on the defensive, and yet.... And yet public school choice is stalled. The bill hasn't even made it out of the House Education Committee, surely an embarrassment for the governor and, to some extent, the House leadership. The House leadership has, after all, only paid lip service to the bill, never publicly championing it the way the governor had. And it was the House leadership that originally configured the Education Committee in such a way that any real reforms would be nearly impossible to achieve. Real reform, of course, must include programs that seek to make education in Vermont more efficient. Efficiency is quality at the lowest possible cost. Currently, the Green Mountain State’s price tag for education is nearly one billion dollars. And for that money, the most we can brag about is that our students outperform other students across the country who themselves perform abysmally on standardized tests. Yes, that’s what we get for a billion dollar price tag – better than abysmal student achievement, with 60 percent of students tested on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in some core subjects not performing at a proficient level. Research shows, though, that choice and competition among schools improves academic achievement and school efficiency. This research has been performed by acclaimed scholars – Harvard professors and other academicians. What’s more, the research that shows improved academic performance comes from random-assignment studies, the gold standard in research programs. In fact, school choice is perhaps the only education reform tested by these kinds of studies. And yet...the legislature refuses to fix what is broken and instead is focused on looking elsewhere for solutions and causes for problems. If kids aren't doing well in school, then we need to start them earlier, say the early education proponents. The Senate has bought into this earlier-is-better rationale, passing S.166, an early education program that has the potential to pull the rug out from under private day care and preschool providers and add to the already high education price tag in Vermont. There’s an irony in S.166. While its price tag is currently estimated at $30 million, it will surely skyrocket in the future. This means that future generations of parents will be burdened with more taxes, taxes they'll have to pay by making more money. In other words, higher tax burdens make two-income families a necessity, not a choice, which makes the need for child care and preschool even greater. It sets up a vicious cycle. If the legislature were serious about helping young parents with child care issues, they'd look at ways to reduce the tax burden in addition to or instead of setting up new programs. And if they were serious about education reform, they'd look at fixing what is broken, making the education system in Vermont more efficient and capable of producing better results. But that would mean going up against members of the Education Coalition, something that takes political stamina and a real interest in education reform.  *   *   * The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701, 802.773.5240 Contact VTBetterEd@aol.com for more information.   Subscribe Here SubscribeRemove

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