Rex Sinquefield and the Children’s Education Alliance
Progressives in Missouri criticized Rex Sinquefield for conspiracy theories about public schools, spending millions on campaigns supporting private school choice and for donations to ALEC, but they remain oddly silent about the way he, and the organizations he backs, are spending money right now.
Before we discuss these latest expenditures, a little history is in order.
Last year, over 1,000 students (about one of every four) in the mostly low-income, minority Normandy School District transferred out thanks to a law that allowed students in low-performing districts to enroll in higher-performing districts. As a result of all the transfers, Normandy faced bankruptcy and was taken over by the state. The Missouri Board of Education voided the district’s low-performing status and revoked the right to transfer. Fortunately, a judge recently overturned the Board’s new rule.
Now Normandy must allow students to transfer and every district, except for the mostly white and affluent Francis-Howell School District, agreed to comply. Francis-Howell said they would only accept transfer students upon direct court order.
In other words, officials in the mostly white affluent district told low-income minority parents they needed to hire a lawyer if they wanted their child enrolled. Fortunately, Rex Sinquefield’s Children’s Education Alliance is covering the legal expenses of any Normandy parent who wants to do that.
So far, the attorney for the alliance has enrolled 17 students in Francis-Howell and is requesting court orders for another 35. Francis-Howell, meanwhile, has spent $17,000 trying to keep the students out.
Grade: Satisfactory
The Keene Sentinel editorial board
The Keene Sentinel, a newspaper in New Hampshire, wants the state legislature to kill the state’s tax-credit scholarship program now that the state Supreme Court has refused to do so. The editorial board argues the scholarship program disadvantages public schools:
“The state already fails to live up to its constitutional obligation to adequately fund the education of its children….
Putting public schools at even more of a disadvantage by drawing funding away from public education isn’t creating a competitive environment — it’s widening what gap may already exist.”
Only 10 states spend more per pupil than New Hampshire, but maybe a case for more spending could be made. That said, the newspaper is wrong to accuse the scholarship program of harming public schools.
New Hampshire’s scholarship averaged just $1,246 in the 2013-14 school year, about 8 percent of total K-12 per-pupil spending. The scholarship is even a small fraction of state aid to public schools, which itself is a fraction of total spending. That means the state not only saves money thanks to the scholarship, but is able to increase per-pupil spending by spreading the remaining public funds among public school students.
Finally, even though the tax credit for donations to scholarship organizations does reduce state revenue, it is only worth 85 percent of the donation. Again, the state saves money for each student using the scholarship.
Grade: Needs Improvement
Metro Nashville School District
The leadership of Metro Nashville hasn’t been on the friendliest of terms with charter schools in the past, but it may have drawn an important lesson from charters’ popularity: parents like choices.
Thanks to the StrIDe Youth Mobility Program, which gives free passes on city busses, Metro Nashville will now allow public school choice for all high school students in the district. Of course, the right to choose a new school is dependent on space available at the school, but this is certainly better than the status quo of assigning students to schools based on zip codes. Eliminating transportation problems does seem to make districts more amicable toward school choice so, who knows, maybe choice will become more mainstream with driverless cars.
Grade: Satisfactory
