Scott's vouchers-for-all plan still has accountability gap

From the Palm Beach Post

By Jac Wilder Versteeg

Gov.-elect Rick Scott should get ready to call in the Home School Police. Such a force will be necessary if the vouchers-for-all dream of his transition advisers comes true.

Mr. Scott's education team proposes to give vouchers worth thousands of dollars to parents who can use them at the public or private school of their choice, but also for "private tutoring" and "private virtual schooling." It also proposes separate state aid for home schooling. But if it happens, expect lots of "private tutoring" and "private virtual schooling" money to go for what otherwise would have been called "home schooling."

Some parents would spend that money on materials to enhance their child's at-home schooling. Other parents would stick their kid in front of a TV and spend the money on drugs.

How are we going to catch parents who do that? "Open up! It's the Home School Police!"

Gov.-elect Scott's education brain trust is guided by Patricia Levesque, one of the leading thinkers in shaping former Gov. Jeb Bush's education agenda. Mr. Bush and Ms. Levesque accomplished a great deal of what they set out to do, including a growing acceptance of vouchers and a growing reliance on standardized testing to measure every aspect of public education. Don't underestimate Ms. Levesque's ability to achieve her vision.

A major flaw in that vision has been a double standard for accountability. Private schools paid through Florida's corporate voucher programs do not have to give the FCAT and report their performance for all the world to see. They do have to administer an achievement test, but individual private schools have not been required to report their progress or lack thereof.

The rationale for exempting private voucher schools from FCAT accountability continues to be that parents know what is best for their child. Seems to me that if private-school parents are empowered to judge a school that doesn't use the FCAT, public­-school parents deserve the same courtesy. I always have suspected that Gov. Bush and Ms. Levesque, in pushing for vouchers, were afraid to make it easy for Floridians to make an apples-to-apples comparison between student achievement at public schools vs. student achievement at private schools.

Voucher proponents counter that such comparisons wouldn't be fair because voucher schools often take students who have not done well in traditional public schools. The attitude that Florida should have different standards for struggling students is jarring, though, coming as it does from groups that tend to criticize public schools for having low expectations for some children.

I'll concede that many private schools prepare their students well for college and life. The trouble is that there's no easy way to judge which schools are in that category and which private schools keep parents happy through grade inflation. A parent naturally is going to be happier with a private school that gives his daughter A's, compared with a public school that doled out C's. And that choice would be none of the public's business except that, for voucher students, private school tuition is being paid for by "donations" from corporations that are able to write off the entire amount from their Florida taxes.

At least the voucher schools have been subjected to a gradual increase in accountability. Most of the schools give their students the Stanford Achievement Test or the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Starting next year, the public will be able to see how voucher schools are doing overall on those tests. Of course, if the results turn out to be awful, the schools still won't lose their eligibility to receive vouchers. Contrast that with public schools that can be closed if they don't improve state scores.

How is "private virtual schooling" going to be accountable? I don't see the Scott team or the Legislature requiring those students to show up at the public school to take the FCAT. I suppose they could require some kind of national test . But what is the penalty if students fail it? Will the state then require those students to go to public school or a private school of their choice? Imagine the outcry among home-schooling parents if they could lose the right to a home-school voucher based on the results of one high-stakes test.

But then imagine the outcry on that day when The Post publishes the first exposé of parents ripping off the home-school voucher program.

Gov.-elect Scott wants to kick down traditional structures of public education. He'd better be prepared for Home School Police to kick down some doors as well.

Jac Wilder VerSteeg is the deputy editor of editorial page of The Palm Beach Post. His e-mail address is jac_versteeg@pbpost.com. Randy Schultz's column will return next week.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/columnists/versteeg-scotts-vouchers-for-all-plan-still-has-1154837.html