Quality Education Not School Reform: A Modified Choice Proposal.

This paper presents a proposal for a modified school choice program that may serve as a public policy compromise to the current politicized and entrenched choice or no-choice positions. The Three Year-Three Step Performance Guarantee involves both choice and vouchers. The use of vouchers, however, is not directed at reforming schools, but at helping parents in a democratic society fulfill their obligation to educate their children to their fullest potential. The paper challenges the view of educational vouchers as reform strategies and argues that choice and vouchers are more properly tools to help specific children for whom the public schools are not working. The proposal is a modified choice program that allows parents of low-achieving students to find schools in which their children can succeed. It is based on three steps: first, any child who attends a public school for at least three consecutive years should perform at specified standards in basic skills; second, parents of low-achieving students are given a choice: either enroll their child in another public school in their community or receive a needs -based scholarship voucher so their child can attend either a public school in another community or a private (nonreligious) school; and third, the new school will be given the same 3-year period to raise the child's performance to standard. If the school does not succeed, the voucher is terminated. It is argued that the proposal assists low-achieving students most in need of acquiring a good education; protects the rights of children; protects the rights of the state to ensure an educated citizenry; eliminates the threat of dismantling the public schools; and introduces accountability for performance. Contains 31 references. (LMI) ************,.....,************************************* ************ Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** QUALITY EDUCATION NOT SCHOOL REFORM: A MODIFIED CHOICE PROPOSAL Robert W. Consalvo Assistant Director for Policy Development and Research kr) Boston Redevelopment Authority M Presented at The Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Eastern Educational Research Association W Sarasota, Florida February 11, 1994 2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ONce of EOucattortel Rine arch and Impedvernent ED 'DONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Tilts document has been reproduced as recetved Nom the perSon or agent/short oftgonettng )1 Cl Minor changes have been mode to 1171p1OVe reproduction quality Pants of wew a °Downs stated in thls document do not necessarily represent &hot) OE RI pottbon or poltcy -PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)" QUALITY EDUCATION NOT SCHOOL REFORM: A MODIFIED CHOICE PROPOSAL Robert W. Consalvo Assistant Director for Policy Development and Research Boston Redevelopment Authority Presented at The Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Eastern Educational Research Association Sarasota, Florida February 11, 1994 Purpose This paper presents a proposal for a modified school choice program that may serve as a public policy compromise to the current politicized and entrenched choice or no-choice positions. This proposal, called the Three Year Three Step Performance Guarantee, involves both choice and vouchers. Their use, however, is not directed at reforming schools, but more appropriately at helping parents in a democratic society fulfill their obligation to educate their children to their fullest potential. The terms 'choice' and 'voucherhave generated a great deal of political and social controversy as strategies to reform the institution of publicschools. This paper challenges that view and seeks to defuse the controversy by arguing that choice and vouchers are more properly tools to help specific children for whom the public schools are not working. School reform becomes secondary to student performance in this strategy. Background The dispute over choice as an educational reform strategy has been emotional driven in the extreme by one side which has lost faith in public schools and sees no redemption for public education, and thwarted by the other side which only seeks to protect the status quo, as if it were inscribed on some ancient tablet. For the most part, choice proposals have been offered as a school reform strategy based on free market assumptions. Little direct argument has been made that choice improves the educational lot of the individual child. By offering choice, parents would have a chance to vote with their feet, and schools would be encouraged to improve enough to attract their customers or