Pseudo-Education in New Jersey

Inner-city public school systems have been enormously profitable,
plundered laboratories for pseudo-educators.

<<One of the defendant school districts in the new suit, Englewood
City, spends $19,194 per student, well over twice the national average.
But at Dismus Middle School, over two-thirds of the students do not
have basic proficiency in math and fewer than half are proficient in
language arts literacy. Newark, a recipient of massive Abbott funding,
spends $16,351 per student and pays its teachers an average salary of
$76,213. Yet in 24 of its schools, fewer than half the students
demonstrate basic proficiency in math or language arts. At William H.
Brown Academy and at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School, fewer than one
of every 10 students demonstrates basic math proficiency. It's time to
try something else for these children.>>
....
<<I grew up in Hillside, a suburb of Newark, in a single-parent,
working-class family. In 1975, Hillside High School graduated me with
enough skills to secure a scholarship at an excellent college and go on
to a successful career in law and public policy. Some 31 years later,
Hillside is at the 20th percentile nationally in language arts and
math, and scores are plunging for the black and Hispanic students who
comprise nearly 90% of its student body. Young people in that community
today who go on to higher education and productive livelihoods do so
not because they attended Hillside High, but despite it.>>
=========================

The following document has been sent via ProQuest.

Remedial Education
Author: Clint Bolick
Wall Street Journal 12 Jul 2006 Page A16

Document URL:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1075546451&Fmt=3&clientId=16778&RQT...9&VName

The world of education reform will change tomorrow when a group of
families files a class action lawsuit in Chancery Court in Newark, N.J.
They are asking for an immediate and meaningful remedy for 60,000
children trapped in failing schools -- by transferring control over
education funds from bureaucrats to parents.

Seeking to vindicate the state constitutional guarantee of a "thorough
and efficient" education, the plaintiffs in Crawford v. Davy ask that
children be allowed to leave public schools where fewer than half of
the students pass the state math and language literacy assessments that
measure educational proficiency; and that the parents of these children
be permitted to take the pro rata share of the public money spent on
their children, to seek better opportunities in other public or private
schools. Supporting the families are three prominent New Jersey groups:
the Black Ministers Council, the Latino Leadership Alliance, and
Excellent Education for Everyone.

The remedy these parents seek is fundamentally different from the one
established by more than three decades of litigation across the
country. Courts in states like New York, Texas and California have
ordered massive increases in school funding to fulfill state
constitutional mandates for educational "equity" or "adequacy," all on
the belief that more money will boost school quality and student
performance. The funds have produced new programs and bureaucracies,
but too often they fail to trickle down to the students by way of
improved educational quality.

In any area other than education such a remedy would be considered
bizarre. Suppose you purchased a car whose warranty promised "thorough
and efficient" transportation, and it turned out to be a lemon. If you
sued to enforce the warranty, would a court order a multibillion dollar
payment to the auto maker in the hope that someday it would produce a
better product? Of course not: It would order the company to give your
money back so you could buy a different car.

That is what the families in this case are asking for. When children
don't learn, they may lose that opportunity forever, so a remedy that
offers a hypothetical future improvement is no remedy at all. Only by
giving parents control over their children's education funds can they
secure good schooling when their children need it -- today. At the same
time, the remedy will create a powerful catalyst for failing public
schools to get their acts together.

School choice remedies are not unknown in education. Under the federal
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Supreme Court has
ruled unanimously that where public schools fail to provide an
"appropriate" education, they must pay tuition in private schools.
Nationally, tens of thousands of children with disabilities benefit as
a result. Likewise, the No Child Left Behind Act mandates that children
in failing public schools must be allowed to transfer to
better-performing public schools within the district. Only 1% of the
eligible children have transferred, however, because of NCLB'S lack of
a private school transfer option; and so nearly four million children
languish in chronically failing public schools.

New Jersey courts have for their part repeatedly recognized that the
state constitution's education guarantee is judicially enforceable; and
the state itself has set the minimum proficiency standards to which the
defendant school districts in Crawford v. Davy fall appallingly short.
New Jersey is also the state that has traveled farthest down the path
of pursuing educational adequacy through new school funding and
programs -- starting in 1973, when the state Supreme Court first
declared the state's school finance system unconstitutional in Robinson
v. Cahill and again in 1985 in Abbott v. Burke. Today, dozens of
schools in the so-called Abbott districts remain under court control.
With abundant funding, some Abbott schools have improved, while others
haven't. On balance, however, the New Jersey experience demonstrates
that money alone cannot solve the ills of public education.

One of the defendant school districts in the new suit, Englewood City,
spends $19,194 per student, well over twice the national average. But
at Dismus Middle School, over two-thirds of the students do not have
basic proficiency in math and fewer than half are proficient in
language arts literacy. Newark, a recipient of massive Abbott funding,
spends $16,351 per student and pays its teachers an average salary of
$76,213. Yet in 24 of its schools, fewer than half the students
demonstrate basic proficiency in math or language arts. At William H.
Brown Academy and at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School, fewer than one
of every 10 students demonstrates basic math proficiency. It's time to
try something else for these children.

The lead plaintiff, Van-Ness Crawford, has struggled to obtain a safe
and decent education for his three sons in the Newark Public Schools.
But by reason of residency and financial circumstances, they are forced
to attend Malcolm X. Shabazz High School, where over 80% of the
students are failing mathematics. For them the guarantee of a thorough
and efficient education is an empty promise. That will change if Mr.
Crawford is able to wrest away a pro rata share of his sons' education
funds from the officials who have failed his children and thousands of
others. Such a remedy also would send a wake-up call to other districts
across the country: If they fail to produce, they may lose not only
students who currently have no other choices, but the funding that
accompanies them.

I grew up in Hillside, a suburb of Newark, in a single-parent,
working-class family. In 1975, Hillside High School graduated me with
enough skills to secure a scholarship at an excellent college and go on
to a successful career in law and public policy. Some 31 years later,
Hillside is at the 20th percentile nationally in language arts and
math, and scores are plunging for the black and Hispanic students who
comprise nearly 90% of its student body. Young people in that community
today who go on to higher education and productive livelihoods do so
not because they attended Hillside High, but despite it.

That so many schools are obstacles to opportunity stands the concept of
public education on its head. To fulfill the promise of high- quality
education we must enlist all options, including school choice. For
Van-Ness Crawford's sons and millions of other children in failing
schools, that option cannot come soon enough.

Mr. Bolick, recipient of a 2006 Bradley Prize, is president of the
Alliance for School Choice.