Charter School Laws!
I listed this because VT is one of only ten states without charter school/choice laws (Center for Education Reform )and, because I went to CU Denver :).
Parent satisfaction is high for wealthy parents because they know they have options. For everyone else, it's not up for conversation. The following article is testament to what choice can do for people who can't afford (or get in to for that matter!) private schools.
Right here in Vermont, we have to send our kids to the neighborhood school. For me, I'm ok with that because my neighborhood school is very good by state standards. There's also a close community that comes together because of the school. However, even in Burlington, there is a need for choice. Just think about it...
What there were a free Renaissance-type school? What if there were a free outdoor leadership high school? What if there were a k-8 choice rather than attending a middle school? What if there were a regional bilingual school? Of course, I'll say it..or a free Montessori school? Those are realitistic options for parents in 40 other states.
Of course many states have crappy laws that don't work effectively in creating quality schools. However, many do. People say Vermont prides itself in small community schools or the population is not high enough or there's already some choice (there is a proposed magnet school in the works) but I know the demographics are changing and people have varying interests. Some just like the safety in knowing there are alternatives. I've only been here a year so I will admit I don't know Vermont's educational system all that well. I just know what works elsewhere is not available here. It's just something to think about and be aware of, really.
Bottom Line: We already know wealthy, upper class parents are happier because they can choose to send their children where they want. This article is for the rest of the population. I'd include middle income parents to the spectrum below.... just because options are limited for many in the middle...
School choices satisfy, study says
Low-income parents happy with options
Posted: Jan. 8, 2007
As Milwaukee Public Schools launches its premier period for enrolling students for next school year, University of Colorado researchers are issuing a report that says low-income parents in Milwaukee are happy with the range of choices they have for their children. The report also says those parents select schools in ways that aren't much different from higher-income parents elsewhere.
The researchers based their findings on surveys conducted about a year ago with 300 parents in Milwaukee, 300 in Washington, D.C., and 200 in Denver. Milwaukee and Washington are on the cutting edge of school choice in the United States, each with wide arrays of options for parents, including numerous charter schools and private schools that take part in publicly funded voucher programs for low-income families.
"This report's general finding is that low-income urban parents report feeling more well informed than was anticipated," the researchers said in the report, being released today. "They are extremely satisfied with their choices, and most do not believe that they lacked any important information when they made their choice."
The optimistic conclusions about school choice - in the broadest sense of the term - do not include an assessment of whether parents were actually making good choices in terms of schools where academic achievement is strong or where their children specifically would thrive.
But it does speak to one of the major pillars of the education scene in Milwaukee: giving parents a huge array of choices in where to send their children to school. Parents might have more choices in publicly funded education in Milwaukee than anywhere else in the United States.
The existence of that range of choices has made efforts to get students into classrooms seats - whether in MPS, charter schools or vouchers schools - one of the major shaping forces of education in the city. In all three streams of education, students mean dollars for individual schools, and missing enrollment goals can cause serious consequences. The result is that almost every school is more actively recruiting students.
Enrollment under way
MPS' annual "three-choice" enrollment period began Monday and continues until Jan. 26. During that period, parents of students who either want to or need to enroll in a new school for September can submit a request in which they can list three choices in order of their preferences. MPS officials say that 16,800 parents submitted applications during the "three-choice" period last year; 93.7% got their first choice, and 97.3% got one of their three choices.
Enrollment continues until school starts, but the early choosers stand the best chance of getting the schools they want.
The launch of MPS' main effort means non-MPS schools - including some scheduled to open for the first time in the fall - are also actively campaigning to sign up students.
In addition, the enrollment period for minority students from Milwaukee who want to attend suburban schools under Wisconsin's Chapter 220 voluntary integration program began Monday and continues until Jan. 26. And the statewide enrollment period for students who want to attend public schools in another district under the state's open enrollment law is from Feb. 5 to 23.
The conclusions that low-income parents in Milwaukee are happy with the choice process come from Paul Teske, Jody Fitzpatrick and Gabriel Kaplan, three researchers at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. Their report was issued by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The researchers say 68% of the parents surveyed are very satisfied with their school choices and another 20% are somewhat satisfied, an 88% total. In Milwaukee, they say, the comparable figure was 94%, with 77% very satisfied.
"In addition, Milwaukee parents are significantly more likely to say they 'did not lack any important information,' " they write.
The researchers write, "Low-income parents seem to value very much the same things in schools as do higher-income parents. Academic quality, by various measures, is the number one factor." However, the study notes, many parents did not check things such as test scores at the schools they were considering and, in the case of private schools in Milwaukee's voucher program, test scores are not required to be made public.
"The survey data indicate that parents work hard at getting the information they need," the report says. However, parents generally consider only a limited number of options for their children. About half consider two schools and apply to just one.
