From 1998 to 2008, the Children's Educational Opportunity Foundation funded tuition vouchers for residents of San Antonio's Edgewood Independent School District that ranged in value from $2,000 to $4,700 per year, depending on the student's grade level and whether the selected school was in the Edgewood district. The vouchers were available to any student in Edgewood whose family chose to participate, regardless of academic ability or income. After 2003-2004, budget limitations forced the foundation to restrict vouchers mostly to continuing students.
Thus, unlike most voucher programs, the Edgewood program did not limit vouchers to a few low-income students in poor performing public schools, and the program was funded long enough to have measurable effects on student performance and the community. This resulted in not only educational gains for both participating and nonparticipating students, but also economic gains for the Edgewood neighborhood, says John D. Merrifield, a professor of economics at the University of Texas at San Antonio and a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis.
Prior to the voucher program, Edgewood enrollment was declining as students' families moved out or students enrolled in other schools. Property values declined 12.2 percent in the three school years prior to implementation of the voucher program in 1998. This trend was reversed after the voucher program was introduced, says Merrifield:
From 1998-2001 Edgewood's property value rose 16.2 percent.
Compared to five other districts with similar demographics but no voucher program, Edgewood's property value gain from 1998-2001 was second highest.
From 1998-2005, Edgewood's property values rose 54.6 percent -- the highest among the districts compared.
Comparing Edgewood's growth to other similar districts helps control for factors such as inflation.
The number of single-family dwellings in Edgewood grew by 2.1 percent in 1998-2001, 4.9 percent over the 1998-2005 period and 7.4 percent over the decade (1998-2008) during which the voucher program was running; this was second fastest among the comparison districts in all three periods.
Single-family home prices increased by an average of approximately $6,500; in turn, property tax revenue rose, netting the district an extra $10.6 million.
The Edgewood experiment shows that policymakers can reap significant economic development and educational benefits at no net fiscal cost by implementing school choice programs like universal vouchers, says Merrifield.
Source: John D. Merrifield, "Education Vouchers Benefit Edgewood Economy," National Center for Policy Analysis, Brief Analysis No. 714, July 15, 2010.
For text:
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba714
Showing posts with label School Choice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School Choice. Show all posts
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
President Obama CAN read a teleprompter!
Americans can respect the Office of the President but still be on “heightened alert” over what this President may do, or what he may say.
Much controversy accompanied the announcement last week that the President wanted to speak directly to public and private schools. Schools were asked to carry his speech live along with a lesson plan was provided by the U.S. Department of Education.
As a former White House Liaison for Education in the Reagan Administration, I weighed in. My op ed KEEP POLITICS OUT OF THE CLASSROOM was posted on AFP’s website and also on FoxNews.com’s opinion forum. Read it here: (http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/09/03/peggy-venable-obama-speech-school-children/)
Let’s face it, August was a rough month for this Administration and this speech is on the heels of Obama’s plea to church leaders to get involved in pushing a government take-over of our health care system, and following a controversial Hollywood video shown in some schools in which actors pledged support for Obama and service to him and his policies. This is also a President who travels outside the U.S. and apologizes for our country.
Folks, we can honor the office but have concerns about the policies espoused by individual occupying it.
It boils down to one thing: Americans who were worried about what Obama might say simply don’t trust him. This is a controversial President who has pushed controversial policies and his credibility is being challenged.
After all, thanks to the public outcry, the lesson plan accompanying the speech was modified. We don’t know what the President was planning to say, but his address was likely “toned down”. One Administration official was quoted as saying they would have promoted their health care plan in the speech, but backed off that idea. No one can convince me they didn’t consider using this forum to promote their policies!
Having said all that, I don’t have a problem with the speech. It was appropriate for the speech to be posted online. The speech, though not particularly inspiring, is relatively innocuous. It isn’t a strong speech, but is not offensive.
The President could have used this speech to be more inspiring, but instead uses the “I” word 41 times in the speech.
Having said that, President Obama has achieved much to become the most powerful man in the world. It is thanks to our freedom that the office of President of the U.S. is so powerful.
He appropriately used his time to try to encourage students to stay in school and get a good education. He highlighted some young people who have overcome challenges.
In short, the President used his teleprompter and stuck to the prepared text. The message was one of personal responsibility. A good message.
The President did keep politics out of the classroom.
But he missed one major opportunity. He didn’t embrace freedom. He should have freed students from government-run schools.
Public schools will provide a good education for some students. But not all students. In a free country, parents should have the opportunity to determine the educational environment where their children have the greatest opportunity to learn. The education dollars should follow the child, not simply go to the public school where their child is assigned.
Allowing all parents the opportunity which President Obama and Michelle have exercised – to send their children to the school of their choice, public or private.
Empowering parents and students would lower the dropout rate and improve American education.
Peggy Venable
AFP-Texas Director
Much controversy accompanied the announcement last week that the President wanted to speak directly to public and private schools. Schools were asked to carry his speech live along with a lesson plan was provided by the U.S. Department of Education.
As a former White House Liaison for Education in the Reagan Administration, I weighed in. My op ed KEEP POLITICS OUT OF THE CLASSROOM was posted on AFP’s website and also on FoxNews.com’s opinion forum. Read it here: (http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/09/03/peggy-venable-obama-speech-school-children/)
Let’s face it, August was a rough month for this Administration and this speech is on the heels of Obama’s plea to church leaders to get involved in pushing a government take-over of our health care system, and following a controversial Hollywood video shown in some schools in which actors pledged support for Obama and service to him and his policies. This is also a President who travels outside the U.S. and apologizes for our country.
Folks, we can honor the office but have concerns about the policies espoused by individual occupying it.
It boils down to one thing: Americans who were worried about what Obama might say simply don’t trust him. This is a controversial President who has pushed controversial policies and his credibility is being challenged.
After all, thanks to the public outcry, the lesson plan accompanying the speech was modified. We don’t know what the President was planning to say, but his address was likely “toned down”. One Administration official was quoted as saying they would have promoted their health care plan in the speech, but backed off that idea. No one can convince me they didn’t consider using this forum to promote their policies!
Having said all that, I don’t have a problem with the speech. It was appropriate for the speech to be posted online. The speech, though not particularly inspiring, is relatively innocuous. It isn’t a strong speech, but is not offensive.
The President could have used this speech to be more inspiring, but instead uses the “I” word 41 times in the speech.
Having said that, President Obama has achieved much to become the most powerful man in the world. It is thanks to our freedom that the office of President of the U.S. is so powerful.
He appropriately used his time to try to encourage students to stay in school and get a good education. He highlighted some young people who have overcome challenges.
In short, the President used his teleprompter and stuck to the prepared text. The message was one of personal responsibility. A good message.
The President did keep politics out of the classroom.
But he missed one major opportunity. He didn’t embrace freedom. He should have freed students from government-run schools.
Public schools will provide a good education for some students. But not all students. In a free country, parents should have the opportunity to determine the educational environment where their children have the greatest opportunity to learn. The education dollars should follow the child, not simply go to the public school where their child is assigned.
Allowing all parents the opportunity which President Obama and Michelle have exercised – to send their children to the school of their choice, public or private.
Empowering parents and students would lower the dropout rate and improve American education.
Peggy Venable
AFP-Texas Director
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Students are the victims of the bribery and money laundering
DISD is the poster child for school choice:
Students are the victims of the bribery and money laundering in DISD
The Dallas school district must pay $750,000 and drop more than $150 million in requests for federal technology funds to settle claims that district officials abused a program aimed at providing technology for needy schools and libraries.
The settlement is the final chapter of a scandal involving the district's former technology chief, Ruben Bohuchot, who was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison for a bribery and money-laundering scheme involving computer contracts paid for by the program.
Since 2005, Dallas schools have been frozen out of participating in the Federal Communications Commission's E-Rate program during the lengthy investigation.
http://ednews.org/articles/dallas-isd-to-pay-750k-drop-tech-funding-requests.html
Before any of this was made public, I had met with citizens who were aware of the computer fraud taking place at DISD. There were some very astute taxpayers who knew what was going on at DISD and blew the whistle. Good for them!
Here’s the rub, though. While the educrats were feathering their own nests, and one got caught and will be feathering his prison cell for 11 years, the students are the ones who were – and are – paying for it. The students are the ultimate victims of a system with few checks and balances, and which often puts the interests of educrats before those of the students.
Isn’t it time we provide some competition? Isn’t it time we allow parents the opportunity to take the education dollars which are allocated for their child and take them to the school where their child has the greatest opportunity to learn and to succeed?
DISD is the poster child for school choice.
-- Peggy Venable, Americans for Prosperity-Texas; pvenable@afptx.ort
Students are the victims of the bribery and money laundering in DISD
The Dallas school district must pay $750,000 and drop more than $150 million in requests for federal technology funds to settle claims that district officials abused a program aimed at providing technology for needy schools and libraries.
The settlement is the final chapter of a scandal involving the district's former technology chief, Ruben Bohuchot, who was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison for a bribery and money-laundering scheme involving computer contracts paid for by the program.
Since 2005, Dallas schools have been frozen out of participating in the Federal Communications Commission's E-Rate program during the lengthy investigation.
http://ednews.org/articles/dallas-isd-to-pay-750k-drop-tech-funding-requests.html
Before any of this was made public, I had met with citizens who were aware of the computer fraud taking place at DISD. There were some very astute taxpayers who knew what was going on at DISD and blew the whistle. Good for them!
Here’s the rub, though. While the educrats were feathering their own nests, and one got caught and will be feathering his prison cell for 11 years, the students are the ones who were – and are – paying for it. The students are the ultimate victims of a system with few checks and balances, and which often puts the interests of educrats before those of the students.
Isn’t it time we provide some competition? Isn’t it time we allow parents the opportunity to take the education dollars which are allocated for their child and take them to the school where their child has the greatest opportunity to learn and to succeed?
DISD is the poster child for school choice.
-- Peggy Venable, Americans for Prosperity-Texas; pvenable@afptx.ort
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