Double Standards in School Practices
What is termed a level playing field in education is, like beauty, in the eyes of the beholder.
Consider a few examples.
Public educators regularly complain about regulations, for which they the usually the source. Yet rather than reduce or eliminate them their idea of a level playing field is to have them placed on other schools and homeschoolers.
Second, perhaps no field of endeavor is so resistant to research findings as is public education. Interest in research findings seems to arise only when someone proposes a significant change. Suddenly the cry is "where is the research providing proof this will work?" Not only is research otherwise ignored, there is strong opposition to even limited programs that could provide answers.
A third example: When the establishment attempts even limited reforms, it is emphasized that it may take years for results to be evident. But if a reform is proposed to which the establishment objects, demands are made for proof in advance, or soon after the new program's startup.
An extreme example was given when one observer criticized a brand new charter school in Washington, D.C. when there was some confusion the first day of school, and not all textbooks had arrived. But when an established public school district still has not made new textbooks available to its students by February of the school year - a real example - that's just an unfortunate circumstance and criticism is not unfair.
Proposals for charter schools have sometimes been charged with being elitist; that they would attract only the best and most motivated students. This has proven to be erroneous. Many charter schools are in urban areas where the needs, and minority students, are greatest. As a result, even though enrollment is voluntary because all charter schools are schools of choice, minority enrollment is high rather than low. So the critics shift ground and charge such charter schools with creating a new segregation. That these schools are located where the population is heavily minority, and everyone in the school is there willingly, is ignored.
Also ignored are reports that public school enrollments segregation is still a major problem 50 years after the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision was handed down. Seventy percent of black students are reported to be in schools where the minority enrollment is over 50% and one-third are in schools where minority enrollment is 90-100%. Some of that is the result of residential patterns - 20% of the total African-American population lives in the 10 largest cities. But it is also true school boards draw up attendance areas and not all of their decisions are believed to be neutral.
Public educators concerned with elitism in charter schools seem to have no problem with public magnet schools or schools for the academically gifted that have selective enrollment.
The establishment further objects to holding schools accountable for student achievement, arguing that there is much more to a good school than this demonstrates. They have a point. The interpretation of such tests often looks at raw scores while ignoring such factors as the point from which students started, the progress made, attendance rates, dropout rates, graduation rates, and degrees of parental and student satisfaction. But, while offering this disclaimer for themselves, they argue that charter schools, etc. should be judged by achievement tests and ignore evidence that charter schools may produce better results on these other factors than conventional schools.
While not exhausting the possibilities, another example is the universal tax credit proposal, as in Arizona, where a $500 credit is available for scholarships to nonpublic school students or $200 for certain purposes at a public school. Variations of this program exist in Florida and Pennsylvania. Public educators commonly protest the playing field is not even. It certainly isn't, especially when it comes to funding. Public schools are fully subsidized while nonpublic schools get only a fraction as much public funding and even that is usually in the form of grants for specific things, such as books or transportation.
A true level playing field would give the same resources to each.
But, then, when your mind is made up why be confused by the facts?
David W. Kirkpatrick is a Senior Education Fellow with the U.S. Freedom Foundation and The Buckeye Institute.
