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The Politics Behind the Education Secretary Vote

The  New York Analysis of Policy and Government concludes its two-part review of the politics behind the Education Secretary vote.

The need for change in U.S. public schools is clear.

A 2011 report in the Atlantic by former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein noted:

“…three decades after A Nation at Risk, the groundbreaking report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, warned of ‘a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people,’ the gains we have made in improving our schools are negligible—even though we have doubled our spending (in inflation-adjusted dollars) on K–12 public education…While America’s students are stuck in a ditch, the rest of the world is moving ahead. The World Economic Forum ranks us 48th in math and science education. On international math tests, the United States is near the bottom of industrialized countries (the 34 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), and we’re in the middle in science and reading. Similarly, although we used to have one of the top percentages of high-school and college graduates among the OECD countries, we’re now in the basement for high-school and the middle for college graduates. And these figures don’t take into account the leaps in educational attainment in China, Singapore, and many developing countries.”

Why is this situation tolerated? Politicians bear great responsibility. Klein notes: “From their point of view, the school system can be enormously helpful, providing patronage hires, school-placement opportunities for connected constituents, the means to get favored community and business programs adopted and funded, and politically advantageous ties to schools and parents in their communities.”

Democrats are heavily dependent on union support for their electoral victories, and the teachers’ union, which vehemently opposes school choice, is a key element. Open Secrets notes that “Led by the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, teachers unions contributed a total of about $19.2 million in the 2012 elections. The NEA, which is more than 150 years old and advocates for teachers on a number of issues, contributed more than $14.7 million in 2012. Since 1989, it has been the fourth biggest donor out of all organizations tracked by CRP. AFT is another heavy-hitter, having given $4.4 million in 2012 that went to Democrats or liberal groups.”

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Clinton’s bow to teachers’ unions may have been a factor in her defeat. Slate reports that “Following eight years of federally driven closures and turnarounds of schools with low test scores, which have put union jobs at risk, it was music to the NEA’s ears when the presumptive Democratic nominee promised to end ‘the education wars’…the only time Clinton referenced ‘accountability’ was to refer not to getting rid of bad teachers, but to giving unions a bigger voice in education policy.”

While successful in manipulating Democrat Party politics, unions have had negative impacts on the success of students. Science Direct  notes that there is evidence that “students have lower test scores in larger school districts and in districts in which the district’s teachers’ union has negotiated a contract that is more favorable to the district’s teachers. The teachers’ unions at the state and national levels contribute a great deal of money to candidates for state and federal offices. This gives the unions some influence in passing (defeating) bills that would help (harm) the state’s teachers…[There is] remarkably strong evidence that students in states with strong teachers unions have lower proficiency rates than students in states with weak state-wide teacher unions.”

The Illinois Policy organization concurs. “… new study from the University of Chicago shows that union bosses…are actively advocating for policies that have a negative effect on people they are supposed to care the most about: students.”

Everyone who has a role in the day-to-day operations within most public schools, including the principals, the support staff, the teachers, and even the janitors, has a contract which provides them a specific return for their investment of time, and their contracts get upgraded periodically.

It is only the students and their parents that have no such guarantees, because they have not been molded into a politically influential force. Had Devos been defeated, that may have changed, and Democrats would have paid a heavy price. In this instance, the Democrats won by losing.

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Evidence mounts that school choice helps students

Overwhelming evidence points to the success school choice, including options such as charter schools and voucher programs, can provide to the vital task of improving student performance.

The latest example comes from a Connecticut Department of Education study conducted in the spring of this year.

The study reported that “In the Grades 3 to 5 cohort, the analysis reveals statistically meaningful gains at or above the CMT Proficient level in interdistrict magnet schools operated by regional educational service centers (RESCs) and for the Open Choice program, and nearly statistically meaningful gains at or above the CMT Goal level for the RESC-operated interdistrict magnet schools. In the Grades 6 to 8 cohort, public charter schools alone showed statistically meaningful gains at or above Proficient and Goal levels on the CMT.”

While the authors of the study emphasize the limited nature of their research, it joins numerous other analyses indicating that providing school choice with options such as charter schools helps many students succeed.

In June, the Opportunity Lives  organization noted that:

“School choice is helping to improve public schools. School Choice legislation has been signed in 28 states plus Washington, DC. This growing trend is better for students and parents as it challenges the public school systems and teacher unions to provide a higher quality of education. Jason Bedrick writes at The Cato Institute:

“When parents chose schools other than their child’s assigned district school–perhaps using Georgia’s tax-credit scholarships–the government school system responded by being more responsive to parental demands. …

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“We find greater score improvements in the wake of the program introduction for students attending schools that faced more competitive private school markets prior to the policy announcement, especially those that faced the greatest financial incentives to retain students. These effects suggest modest benefits for public school students from increased competition.

“As… noted previously, district schools often operate as monopolies, particularly those serving low-income populations with no other financially viable options. And sadly, a monopolist has little incentive to respond to the needs of its captive audience. Thankfully, the evidence suggests that when those families are empowered to “vote with their feet,” the district schools become more responsive to their needs.”

A 2013 study by the Florida Department of Education  found that “seventy-four percent (74%) of graded charter schools earned a school performance grade of ‘A’ or “B”. As reported in the 2011-12 Student Achievement Report, charter schools performed better than the state average in 156 out of 177 comparisons of student proficiency, student learning gains, and achievement gap.”

The Freidman Foundation for Education Choice  notes in “Studies conducted since the late 1990s convincingly show that school choice is an effective intervention and public policy for boosting student achievement. Twelve studies using a method called random assignment, the gold standard in the social sciences, have found statistically significant gains in academic achievement from school vouchers. No such study has ever found negative effects. One study’s findings were inconclusive. Random-assignment methods allow researchers to isolate the effects of vouchers from other student characteristics. Students who applied for vouchers were entered into random lotteries to determine who would receive the voucher and who would remain in public schools; this allowed researchers to track very similar ‘treatment’ and ‘control’ groups, just like in medical trials. Highly respected random-assignment research has been conducted in five large cities: Milwaukee, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Dayton…”

In his book, “National Suicide, ” Martin Gross writes that state governments “have permitted, even openly aided, the educational establishment–the teachers unions, the education professors, the education colleges and education departments of universities, and the educational personnel from teachers to principles to superintendents–to operate as it sees fit, which is almost always at a very low academic level.”

Despite these and other studies, there continues to be opposition to school choice from many union officials who fear the loss of control. That opposition is echoed by the politicians that those unions heavily influence through their contributions.