Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Robert Enlow

Augusta Chronicle

For far too many years, Georgia public schools have been teetering on the brink of disaster. Let's not forget Clayton County, which won national headlines when it became the first district in the country in 40 years to lose its national accreditation.

To add insult to injury, state auditors have revealed that as much as 10 percent of public elementary and middle schools administering the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency Test may have been involved in cheating.

Mix in a high dropout rate, and Georgia parents are continuing to ask this fundamental question: Are Georgia public schools really designed to help students or benefit the adults?

THE EVIDENCE points to an education bureaucracy that is more concerned about job protection than educating children.

Nothing speaks more to this conclusion than an unbelievable announcement recently that school districts would investigate their own cheating allegations. If school districts are granted the ability to police themselves and potentially put the protection of employees above the needs of students, then the fox truly is in charge of the henhouse.

With an independent investigation resulting in a true picture of CRCT results and verifiable cheating conclusions, parents and taxpayers would know which schools are failing children, and be able to hold them accountable.

Instead, this scandal and bogus follow-up probe adds to parent mistrust of the system and a growing desire for a one-way ticket out of schools that no longer work for their children.

In Georgia, home schooling is blossoming, and interest in charter schools is growing stronger by the day. Support for vouchers is also exploding, as evidenced by a statewide public opinion poll last year that showed 68 percent of voters supported vouchers for all students to attend the schools of their choice.

RECENT LEGISLATION also illustrates growing support for vouchers:

- Georgia's Special Need Scholarship Program. Enacted in 2007, this program offers state-funded vouchers to children with disabilities to transfer to the private school of their choice. During the 2008-09 school year, almost 1,600 students used the program with an average scholarship of $6,331. A survey by the Center for an Educated Georgia released last summer showed overwhelming parent satisfaction with the program.

- The Georgia Tuition Tax Credit Program. This $50 million program is the fastest-growing in the nation. It allows corporations, couples and individuals to take a tax credit on Georgia income taxes when they donate to one of Georgia's 26 student scholarship organizations. With more than $33 million in tax credits approved for 2009, taxpayers show they would rather provide scholarships to kids than write another check to the government.

- Vouchers for military families. The Georgia Senate is debating a popular proposal called the Early Hope Scholarship Program which would give scholarships ranging from $5,000 to $9,000 to children of military families and foster children to attend the public or private school of their choice. Military and foster children can get behind in their studies due to frequent moves or when a parent is out of the country. With 14 military installations in the state, including Fort Gordon near Augusta, there is much support for aiding these families.

There likely are many well-intentioned educators in public schools that want to get to the bottom of this scandal, but they will never regain public confidence in their mission if they seek to audit themselves. No one believes that Wall Street banks should audit themselves. It shouldn't be any different for our schools.

IN THE END, parents will see through the charade of self-auditing. They are tired of the same old song and dance. Parents will no longer tolerate a system that defends mediocrity and fails our children.

Adults have a responsibility to set an example for children, and to show them how to behave with integrity. If public schools won't look parents in the eye and give them the truth, then we should give parents the freedom to move their children to a school that will, whether that school is public or private. Let them use their own tax dollars to educate their precious children by any means possible.

(The writer is president and CEO of the Foundation for Educational Choice -- the legacy foundation of Milton and Rose Friedman, founders of the school choice movement.)