Study shows widespread support for school choice, says state group

For Immediate Release
August 4, 2009

"Twice as many Kentuckians support school choice as have confidence in public schools," said Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst for The Family Foundation of Kentucky. Cothran's comments came in the wake of a report co-released by The Family Foundation and the Friedman Foundation showing wide public support for school choice.

"The support for letting parents have more control over where to send their children to school is not only significant, it is widespread. The support extends across socio-economic groups, political parties, geographical and demographic groups. When half the people with ties to the public school educational establishment support it, I think you can say that the time for school choice has arrived."

Here are a few important findings of the study:

• About half of respondents prefer private schools for their children
• Slightly more respondents prefer homeschooling as say that the public schools are "good" or "excellent".
• Slightly over half support school vouchers.
• 44% of respondents think current school spending is too high, and only 9 percent think lack of funding is the biggest problem with public schools.
• Only 14 percent think parents have the greatest influence on their public school system.
• More people would be likely to vote for a candidate who supports school choice than would vote for a candidate because he or she is against it.
• Half of those with ties to teachers unions support school vouchers

"Kentucky has historically shied away from school choice, but this study clearly shows that there is widespread support for this idea," said Cothran.

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Why should good education get in the way of propping up the school bureaucracy?

Over at Kentucky School News and Commentary, Richard Day is hammering Jim Waters of the Bluegrass Institute for advocating school choice--both between public school districts and between public and private schools.

In their most recent post, they characterize public-private school choice (the full unadulterated variety that involves something called "freedom") as "a religious agenda ... removing control from local officials." I am trying to find the Scripture reference mentioning school choice. I'll announce it when I find it. And imagine someone wanting to wrest control of their children from state bureaucrats.

Besides, it's in the Nicene Creed somewhere. I think.

Why is wanting to send your child to the best school available part of a "religious agenda"? Because the school a parent might want to send their child to might be religious?

And why is it that religious schools, which involve sometimes expensive tuitions, attract parents who aren't even religious away from schools that are basically free? Could it possibly be because they actually offer a better education? Not just a better religious education, but a better general education?

And why would anyone question their motives when they want a break on the their taxes for it in light of the fact that their helping to pay for public schools?

Day seems outraged that Waters is outraged by the fact that the state dictates that children go to inferior schools:

Waters finds it "outrageous" that local elected officials are being empowered by state law to decide if and where school attendance boundaries should be allowed to exist - in favor of his proposal that would impose a free-for-all on every local community in Kentucky.

"Parents may send their children to the public school of their choice."

Forget school districts. Forget school board authority. Parents can just send their kids wherever they want.

What? Why should we let the educational well-being of children get in the way of the well-being of the state educrats? Where are our priorities anyway?

It is a measure of the cultural inbreeding of public school establishment (that's the one William Bennett once referred to as "the Blob") that they literally can't comprehend that anyone would see the educational betterment of their children as more important than the care and feeding of the fiscally voracious educational bureaucracy. It's also an indication of the intellectually bankrupcy of the whole system.

Day points to a hypothetical situation that one might encounter under even public school choice plans:

Imagine a young couple selecting their new home right around the corner from the best school in their community. They have children who grow to school age only to be locked out of their neighborhood school because folks from the next county over have filled the school to capacity. I think I know how those parents would feel. Tough luck, Junior. Where should we move now? Such scenarios would happen repeatedly across the state.

I think Day must know there are reasonable ways to deal with such a contingency that are perfectly consistent with a common sense school choice plan.

But while Day has trouble seeing the rationality behind letting parents decide where to send their kids to school, those of who think it makes pretty good sense have an equally difficult time trying to figure out why anyone thinks it is good public policy to trap children in bad schools.

That wanting to allow children to go to good schools is somehow an inherently religious motivation is not self-evident. But maybe if we keep telling people this, it will make them forget just how bad their current options are.

Public school teachers vote with their feet by putting their own kids in private schools

Discussing the likelihood that the Obamas will put their kids in private schools (and asking whether they will make this option easier for other Americans by supporting school choice), University of Michigan economist Mark Perry points out, at his excellent blog Carpe Diem, the extent to which teachers are voting with their feet by putting their own kids in private schools:

This is not a new discovery. Data has shown this for years. The chart shows that a much greater percentage of school teachers put their children in private schools than do the general public. In other words, the people who know most about public schools seem to be the least likely to put their own children there.

Abolishing departments of education

Via Contending with the Culture, a clip from the British television show "Yes, Prime Minister" about school choice. Sir Humphrey sounds like someone from an American teachers's union. No wonder it was Margaret Thatcher's favorite television show: