A little competition might help spur reform

Earlier this week in The Wall Street Journal, economist Richard Vedder suggested that we could cut tuition in half if college professors would simply teach more classes. As it happens, Dr. Vedder wrote the foreword for a new OCPA report, which Michael Carnuccio and I discuss in this brief video clip.

And while we're at it, now's as good a time as any to remind people that we should expand higher-ed vouchers in Oklahoma.

'Colleges of education aren't necessary'

"What should be required of prospective teachers," says an OU professor emeritus in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, "is to major in the subject or subjects they wish to teach and to take a couple of courses on how to teach."

Do homeschoolers do well in college?

Michael F. Cogan explores the question in the Summer 2010 Journal of College Admission ("Exploring Academic Outcomes of Homeschooled Students"). Here's the abstract:

This exploratory study examines the academic outcomes of homeschooled students who enter a medium size doctoral institution located in the Midwest. Descriptive analysis reveals homeschool students possess higher ACT scores, grade point averages (GPAs) and graduation rates when compared to traditionally educated students. In addition, multiple regression analysis results reveal that students who are homeschooled earn higher first-year and fourth-year GPAs when controlling for demographic, pre-college, engagement, and first-term academic factors. Further, binary logistic regression results indicate there is no significant difference between homeschooled students' fall-to-fall retention and four-year graduation rates when compared to traditionally educated students while controlling for these same factors.

HT: Milton Gaither

KFOR covers bill signing, ad campaign

I had an opportunity to take part in a very meaningful bill-signing ceremony today, and to talk to Channel 4 reporter Tina McGarry about Oklahoma's newest school-choice legislation and a new ad campaign. Unlike the Associated Press, McGarry understands that private donations to charity are "not state tax dollars."

 

WhyNotOklahoma.com

Perhaps you've seen the billboards or heard the radio ads asking, Why not give Oklahoma families the freedom of school choice? Please visit the website WhyNotOklahoma.com, and let's keep the momentum going for school choice in Oklahoma.

I'll be doing an interview with a reporter from KFOR today, so look for the story tonight.

School vouchers improve public schools

One of the talking points used most often by school-choice opponents is that "vouchers hurt public schools." The problem with that talking point is that it is false.

In the second edition of his report "A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on School Vouchers," Greg Forster "collects the results of all available empirical studies using the best available scientific methods to measure how school vouchers affect academic outcomes for participants, and all available studies on how vouchers affect outcomes in public schools. Contrary to the widespread claim that vouchers do not benefit participants and hurt public schools, the empirical evidence consistently shows that vouchers improve outcomes for both participants and public schools." Among the report's key findings:

• Ten empirical studies have used random assignment, the gold standard of social science, to examine how vouchers affect participants. Nine studies find that vouchers improve student outcomes, six that all students benefit and three that some benefit and some are not affected. One study finds no visible impact. None of these studies finds a negative impact.

• Nineteen empirical studies have examined how vouchers affect outcomes in public schools. Of these studies, 18 find that vouchers improved public schools and one finds no visible impact. No empirical studies find that vouchers harm public schools.

• Every empirical study ever conducted in Milwaukee, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Maine and Vermont finds that voucher programs in those places improved public schools.

• Only one study, conducted in Washington D.C., found no visible impact from vouchers. This is not surprising, since the D.C. voucher program is the only one designed to shield public schools from the impact of competition. Thus, the D.C. study does not detract from the research consensus in favor of a positive effect from voucher competition.

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Celebrating Oklahoma's school-choice victory

To celebrate Oklahoma's new school-choice tax credit, OCPA is hosting a come-and-go reception (complete with wine and hors d'œuvres) on Wednesday, June 8 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Please RSVP to Jennie Kleese at (405) 602-1667 or jennie@ocpathink.org.

Autistic child flourishing in new school

In his Broken Arrow public school, eight-year-old Trent Kimery "cried every single day," his mother says. But thanks to his special-needs scholarship, he is now flourishing in a private school.

Schools miss the point

In First Things, Patrick J. Wolf reviews the new book Does God Make a Difference? by the late Warren A. Nord, a political and religious liberal who taught philosophy at the University of North Carolina.

"With regard to religion," writes Warren Nord, "American education is superficial, illiberal, and unconstitutional. ... This should be recognized for what it is, a scandal." From kindergarten through college, public schools do a miserable job of teaching students about religion, if they even make the attempt. They leave most young adults poorly prepared to understand their world.

Catholic school nurtured Tisdales

"Here's a story about three black Tulsans," Patrick McGuigan writes in this month's issue of Perspective. One of them is the late Wayman Tisdale.

A black Tulsan known for smiling through the pain is the late Wayman Tisdale, a man I never met.

Last year, when the Knights of Columbus presented the John F. Kennedy award to Tisdale, posthumously, I learned more about the basketball superstar from the University of Oklahoma who went on to a successful NBA career, then superstar success in jazz. Tisdale may be best remembered for his heroic battle against cancer, to which he first lost his leg, and then his life.

At the Jim Thorpe Hall of Fame, Wayman’s brother, the Rev. Weldon Tisdale, represented the family and accepted the award.

Weldon remembered his sibling with deep affection as he accepted the JFK Award. Now pastor of Friendship Church in north Tulsa, he reflected, "You don’t have to tell me about the Knights, my family knows all about them." He thanked the Knights, and I learned the Tisdale boys (three of them, and Baptists) were graduates of grades 1 through 5 at the now-closed Immaculate Conception school. They got that education thanks to adults who loved them, and Knights in Tulsa.

After the event, I burrowed into the archives of the Tulsa World, and found a news story from 1988. The Tisdale boys (Wayman, Weldon, and older brother William) were on a sentimental journey. They were dedicating new basketball courts there at Immaculate Conception.

Wayman, then in his prime, told the World's Clay Henry, "I spent more years at this school than any other I've attended. The teachers here gave me the guidance I needed."

He said, "The teachers here didn't tell my folks all the things I did up here or I doubt I would be standing here right now. I was a fidgety kid. I liked to run around in class, throw stuff and yell. The teachers recognized that I was just a hyper kid with a lot of energy."

The Tisdale lads played a lot of basketball on the old courts at Immaculate Conception, but that was not what Wayman remembered: "It thrilled me more than anything to go play in the sandbox. I wanted to build sandcastles. I didn’t want to play basketball."

April 2011: The Knights in Oklahoma City cosponsored the first annual Wayman Tisdale Awards, presented by Devon Energy Corporation. ESPN legend Dick Vitale was given the Humanitarian of the Year designation for his leadership in raising money to fight the scourge of cancer. Young Jared Sullinger, the Ohio State University superstar, was named NCAA men's freshman basketball player of the year. A little star-struck, I shook hands with Toby Keith, and embraced Wayman's beautiful widow, Regina.

But the personal highlight of that evening came when I saw Weldon. Before I could remind him of the Knights connection, the preacher gave me a great big hug, that glorious Tisdale smile, and said, "Hello again, brother."

Brother. That meant a lot.

I never knew Wayman personally, but I know him a little more every day.

I know his roots in a community that believed in him, and ultimately loved him. His experiences at a Catholic school his family chose, a place that taught discipline, and let him be a little boy with possibilities. Wayman Tisdale was a lad nurtured in love, an optimist with dreams rooted in good education and hard work.

Tulsa prof mentions American woes

"American education ranks closer to Second- or Third-World achievement than it does to its industrial world counterparts," one Tulsa educator writes.

School choice is back in a big way

And the Left is none too happy about it.

ALEC backs Taxpayer Savings Grants

The following ALEC Issue Alert, dated May 25, 2011, was sent to ALEC members in Texas. It was written by David J. Myslinski, director of ALEC's Education Task Force (of which I am a member).

Providing a quality education to every student represents an ongoing challenge each state faces, especially in times of tight budgets. The very nature of the task requires a flexible and tailored approach, one that accounts for the uniqueness of every child despite the various categories under which they may fall.

Texas has before it the opportunity to provide its students with quality education options while saving taxpayers money. The Taxpayers' Savings Grant Program is currently being considered as an amendment to an upcoming appropriations bill.

ALEC strongly supports programs that provide students a variety of choices which allow them access to schools that best suit their needs. ALEC also supports efforts that lessen the burden on taxpayers, especially in times of economic instability.

The Taxpayers' Savings Grant Program (TSGP) allows parents to move their children from public schools to private schools, using a savings grant of up to $5,143 to pay for tuition. By limiting the grant to a maximum of $5,143—60 percent of Texas’ per-pupil expenditure, or the cost of tuition, whichever is less—Texas will save, at a minimum, roughly $3,429 for each student who opts into this program, which will be put back into Texas' education fund.

Research by The Heartland Institute shows approximately 350,000 students would be enrolled in private schools under the program, creating a net savings of more than $2 billion over the next two years.

Parents would be given the option to transfer their child from a public school to a private school and use a Taxpayers' Savings Grant to help pay the tuition. All parents with children currently enrolled in a Texas public school are eligible to participate, including students enrolling in kindergarten and first grade for the first time.

With students leaving public schools while a portion of their funding remains, public schools stand to gain. In fact, Texas public schools retain all of their local funding (on average, around $3,000 per student) and receive another $3,429 with every student who chooses to participate in the Savings Grant Program. At the end of the day, the program bumps current per pupil spending up by an astounding $473, and lifts Texas by as many as 8 spots in the national rankings.

The Texas Taxpayers' Savings Grant Program is in line with the principles of ALEC's Education Task Force, which supports effective programs such as the TSGP. It empowers parents with choice, it helps to raise achievement and create accountability in public schools, and it does all of this while saving the state over $2 billion and putting a major dent in a problem budget deficit.

For these reasons, ALEC strongly supports the Taxpayers' Savings Grant Program as it aligns with ALEC's existing policies.