If you haven’t heard, Tennessee’s state-wide voucher program is likely dead after its sponsor, representative Dunn (R-Knoxville) failed to garner enough votes for it to pass the assembly.
When reading coverage of the bill, the following statement made by Rep. Dunn rankled me (at the close of the chalkbeat article covering the decision):
But Dunn had a different perspective when asked whether Memphis students were being used as “guinea pigs” on education reform efforts.
“I feel sorry for the parents who have children in failing schools. All we did was try to help them and unfortunately for another year they’re going to be on the path to failure,” he said.
I take issue with this statement for two reasons. The first being that the fast and easy answer isn’t always the best answer as Rep. Dunn implies. Voucher systems may temporarily help some students escape struggling schools, but long term they sap resources from our public schools and haven’t been shown to be effective at actually improving student achievement. They are a short term fix that doesn’t really work in the long run. We should be seeking solutions that are sustainable an impactful in the long term, not just the quickest and easiest.
Second, if Representative Dunn is actually serious about helping students in failing Memphis schools, there are a number of long term policy solutions that he could throw his weight behind. Some are mutually exclusive and most would be controversial, but no more or less so than a voucher program. I’m not saying I’m in favor of any or all of these, but I do believe that they all represent much more viable long term policy solutions to failing schools than a voucher program.
Fully Fund BEP. If Representative Dunn is serious about getting kids out of failing schools, what better way to achieve that than to give the schools the resources they need to make it happen? The state’s public education funding formula, the BEP, is currently underfunded by hundreds of millions of dollars. Even the Governor’s budget increase isn’t enough, as exemplified by the fact that SCS is still suing the state for violating its obligation to properly fund schools. Rep. Dunn could become the hero of districts and teachers across the state by leading the charge in this regard, which would help out failing schools to no small degree.
Increase Funding to SCS iZone. The iZone, to understate it, has been highly successful in its first few years. Given that the voucher bill is all but dead, Rep. Dunn could create a proposal to give the money he proposed to spend on vouchers (an estimated $16 million next year) to empowering the iZone to strengthen its footprint in Memphis.
Strengthen Charter Accountability laws. Memphis has been fortunate in charter schools in that overall we’ve had very high performance. However, we struggle with accountability. Notably, we received a 6 out of 12 points (or 50%, an F by most standards) for accountability laws from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Some charters unfortunately fail students and if that is the case, we need to empower LEA’s to address these failings by shutting those schools down (full disclosure: I teach at a charter school).
Expand High Quality Operators. We have some great charter schools locally in Memphis, and they provide some of the best alternatives for students and parents who want to escape a failing neighborhood school. Representative Dunn could seek to promote laws that encourage the growth of high performing schools and networks for schools that already exist in conjunction with holding schools that are not performing accountable.
Strengthen the ASD. The ASD has been allowed to rapidly expand within Memphis and now directly runs or supervises dozens of schools both here and in Nashville. Yet to date, the state has given them a relatively free hand with the notable exception of law sponsored by local representative Akbari (D-Memphis) to limit the ASD’s expansion. If he wants to provide alternatives to failing schools, representative Dunn could explore policies to encourage the ASD to better deliver on its original promise of moving schools from the bottom 5% to the top 25%. Or Dunn could even take the opposite route and allow the ASD to expand even faster than it currently is by providing them with more funding.
In summary, vouchers are dead, at least for now. If representative Dunn truly wants to help students in Memphis as he claims, there are myriad ways for him to do so. Here’s hoping he recognizes this as we have.
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