Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Americans United for Separation of Church and State backs the lawsuit seeking to terminate the Florida tax credit scholarship program for low-income students, and the president of its national board of trustees is listed as a plaintiff. But that’s not why it’s receiving a “Needs Improvement” today. Getting basic facts about the case wrong earns it that distinction.
The biggest error is from AU’s blog, where blogger Rob Boston wrote,
“The plaintiffs and the groups backing them argue that the program shares the same flaws that ultimately condemned the state’s previous voucher system, mainly, the overwhelming majority of private schools participating in the current plan are sectarian.”
“Separation of church and state” may be AU’s bailiwick, but it clearly overstates the claims here. In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court ruled the Opportunity Scholarship Program unconstitutional, but it dodged the question of whether the program crossed church-state lines. That’s because in 2002, after the Florida suit had been filed, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parents can in fact use vouchers to send their children to religious schools.
If scholarships to sectarian private schools was really a main flaw of the Florida program, as AU alleges, we might expect that argument to occupy more than one page of 20 in the plaintiffs’ complaint.
(As always, we note the scholarship program is run by nonprofits like Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog.)
Grade: Needs Improvement
The Economist
In an industry as complex as education, could one single policy account for the nation’s staggering decline in international test scores? The Economist weighs the evidence and finds school choice isn’t the culprit.
Researchers in Europe corroborated what American researchers know: school choice provides small positive impacts for poor students. So what is really to blame for Sweden’s decline? Evidence points to a bad national curriculum, about 200 fewer hours of instructional time than the international average, and a poor “disciplinary climate” in public schools.
Grade: Satisfactory
New York City charter school parents
The relationship between charter schools and public schools took a nasty turn when NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio took office. He made a few blunders then tried to make up for it, but his efforts may be too late. He’s woken a sleeping giant.
About 10,000 to 20,000 people (depending on who is counting) rallied in NYC recently to show support for charter schools. That would make it the first- or second-largest school choice rally in the U.S. to date.
Hopefully this display of parent power will get public school leaders in NYC to be less antagonistic and more supportive of parental choice. Frankly, we hope both sides start working together, but good job to the parents for coming out and supporting each other.
Grade: Satisfactory
