School Leader

Superintendents make debunked arguments against school choice amendment

In my latest column for the Bowling Green Daily News, I take on recent arguments made by area superintendents against Kentucky's upcoming school choice ballot initiative:

Public school superintendents – who are smart enough to know better – continue to make debunked claims against Kentucky’s upcoming school choice constitutional amendment.

At a recent event, four superintendents from the region condemned Amendment 2, which will appear on Kentucky’s November 5 election ballot. Amendment 2 asks voters to change the state constitution clarifying that lawmakers may, at some point in the future, pass legislation providing support for eligible families to access education options outside the traditional public schools.

The superintendents claimed that the passage of Amendment 2 would have devastating consequences. They said, among other things, that the Bowling Green Independent School district will lose $9.5 million and the Warren County Schools will lose $27 million.

But these figures come from a report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, an outfit deeply backed by teachers’ unions, that includes preposterous assumptions inconsistent with the way school choice programs work in other states.

Kentucky economist John Garen, my colleague on the Bluegrass Institute Board of Scholars, has already issued a paper exposing the KCEP report for its bogus claims.

In “The Fiscal Effects of School Choice: Doomsday Speculation Versus Reality,” Garen debunks all the central arguments made by KCEP and parroted by superintendents, starting with the assumption that Amendment 2 would lead to a voucher program.

Amendment 2 does not set up any program. Future lawmakers could consider a range of school choice policy options, including charter schools and scholarship tax credits, both of which were already passed in Kentucky until courts ruled the state’s constitution forbids all such legislation.

But if Kentucky did adopt a voucher, there is no evidence it would have the economic effects on public schools claimed by superintendents. KCEP’s report makes the absurd assumption that all of Kentucky’s 98,000 students currently homeschooled or enrolled in nonpublic schools would receive a voucher. Only 10 states offer programs to support homeschooling families and those are typically separate from voucher plans.

Furthermore, there is no state in which every nonpublic school student receives a voucher. Instead, voucher programs usually have an income eligibility requirement or some other stipulation of need, such as for students who have disabilities. The doomsday numbers cited by superintendents are based on these false premises that do not exist in reality.

Even Arizona, which has a universal education savings account, a policy mechanism different from a voucher that would not be constitutional in Kentucky even if Amendment 2 passes, disproves the claims of Amendment 2’s opponents. The KCEP report falsely says that Arizona’s ESA has blown a hole in the state’s budget.

As John Garen’s report shows, Arizona’s school choice program, like those of other states, has a positive effect on the state’s finances. Students who participate in school choice programs are educated for far less money per pupil than those in the traditional public schools, saving the state’s education budget millions of dollars that offset the cost of school choice.

If superintendents don’t know the KCEP report is a fraud, their constituents should let them know. If they do, they are deliberately trying to mislead voters about Amendment 2.

Read the original article here.

A reckoning is coming for higher education

In a recent column for the Bowling Green Daily News, I discussed a Gallup survey that shows public confidence in higher education is cratering. Only a third of respondents they had a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in colleges and universities, down from 57% in 2015. 

I discussed reasons for this fall in confidence revealed by the poll, concluding that...

A reckoning is coming for colleges and universities, which need to recommit to the traditional mission of forming men and women for lives of service and virtue, not just as economic producers. And for their own financial future, higher education leaders also need to be mindful that the taxpayers and tuition payers expect a high-quality education free from ideological extremism and coercion.

Read the whole thing here (may be behind paywall).

 

School choice opponents are confused or trying to confuse voters

In a recent op-ed for the Lexington Herald-Leader, I took on the habit of Kentucky's school choice opponents to pretend the upcoming Amendment 2 ballot initiative is a "voucher" plan.

In fact, Amendment 2 does not create a program at all, but simply asks voters to change the state constitution making it clear that the state legislature may, at some time in the future, adopt programs that help more Kentucky families access new education options. A constitutional amendment is needed because state courts have previously ruled all such programs unconstitional, making Kentucky one of only states in the country wihout school choice. (See Amendment 2 frequently asked questions on the Bluegrass Institute website, where I serve on the Board of Scholars).

Lawmakers could adopt a voucher plan, but they could just as easily institute charter schools or a scholarship tax credit program, both of which have previously been approved by the General Assembly, only to be struck down by courts in decidely ideological rulings.

Read more here about the various options available to state legislature when Amendment 2 passes.

Postliberalism in Western Kentucky

I was honored to recently be featured as a guest on the American Postliberal podcast. 

The American Postliberal was launched in 2023 by a group of young Catholic intellectuals who are seeking to help articulate a vision of Catholic realism to guide Americans in this unique political and cultural moment. I've been pleased to serve as a contributor for the American Postliberal over the last year. My essays published there so far include the following:

• Beyond the laptop class (September 8, 2023).
• Catholics and "Red Caesar" (November 22, 2023).
• Liberalism leads to Marxism (January 24, 2024).

The American Postliberal offers a youthful, pragmatic take on the larger postliberal movement. Postliberalism is a political philosophy, closely associated with the work of professors Patrick Deneen, Yoram Hazony, and others, that helps explain the current political and cultural crisis facing Western Civilization through a critique of liberalism, how liberal assumptions have shaped and distorted the perceptions of thinkers on both the political left and right, and how liberalism inevitably leads to its own demise in the forms of various kinds of totalitarianism. Rather than just diagnosing doom, however, postliberalism, especially of the variety offered at the American Postliberal, also seeks to articulate a vision forward, and how a common good conservatism can restore a healthy social and political order. 

We discuss some of these concepts, and especially how they apply to my work in education, on the podcast. You can also listen via YouTube, below.

 

 

Biden wants to impose radical gender views on Kentucky schools

In my last column for the Bowling Green Daily News, I discussed the Biden administration's attempt to rewrite the federal Title IX law in a way none of the original authors of that legislation ever imagined: that "sex" is whatever gender identity a person claims to be. 

This means schools in every Kentucky community will be forced to let students use the facilities of the opposite gender, and for school employees to treat students as if they were a gender different than their biological sex. Biden is working on a separate set of regulations that will force female athletes to compete against biological males in school sports.

Schools that don’t comply could lose their federal funding, including special education services and access to the free and reduced lunch program.

All of this contradicts Kentucky law, which, despite vetoes from Gov. Andy Beshear, has been amended in recent years to protect the privacy of children in Kentucky schools and the rights and dignity of female athletes.

Read more about the legal fight over Biden's Title IX rules and the implications for Kentucky schools in the full op-ed.

10 Commandements laws are about education, not evangelization

In an op-ed for Kentucky Today, I defended Louisiana's new law mandating the display of the 10 Commandments in classrooms in K12 schools and public universities:

Making sure every student is aware of the Ten Commandments is not an attempt to indoctrinate them into a specific religious belief. As evangelism, such an effort would be clumsy and ineffective. The Ten Commandments law is, rather, about forming students with an accurate historical understanding of the American system of government and its patrimony...

Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law, like Kentucky’s before it, does not infringe on any student’s right to believe whatever they choose about any religion. But it does recognize that students need to know the history of their government, and the civilization from which it emerged, and the religious ideas that informed it.

Read the whole thing here.

Enemies of school choice need better slogans

In my latest op-ed for the Bowling Green Daily News, I took on the slogan being used by opponents of this year's school choice constitutional amenment that "public dollars are for public schools." This argument fails to convince on multip fronts:

 

Kentuckians’ ballots this November will have more than just a contentious presidential race. Parents seeking a broader range of options for their kids’ education will be paying close attention to a state constitutional amendment to enable new learning options for families. For those families to win the day, the flawed but pervasive arguments in favor of the status quo need serious scrutiny.
Already those opposed to robust choice in education are repeating their familiar slogans, most notably that “public dollars are for public schools.” Slogans are often simplistic, but this one truly falls apart when confronted with some overwhelmingly inconvenient facts.

First, public dollars are already used in private colleges and universities. Pell grants, the GI Bill, and government-subsidized student loans all follow beneficiaries to the college of their choice, including private, faith-based institutions. Even the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (KEES) program, which gives high school students money for college tuition based on their grades, can be used in private colleges. Many opponents of school choice have championed preschool programs that would empower Kentucky families with resources to choose from both public and private early childhood options.

Outside of education, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, the WIC program, Section 8, and Social Security are all programs that allow beneficiaries to choose from a wide variety of providers, almost all of which are private entities. It’s only in K-12 education that we systematically deny low- and middle-income a choice in who educates their children.

The second reason the “public dollars for public schools” argument doesn’t work is it assumes education tax dollars automatically belong to public school districts and the state. Instead, school choice is based on the idea that, like the other programs just described, education is a highly personal public good. Education dollars are for helping children thrive intellectually. Families should be able to direct those resources to the provider that best fits their needs in the same way Medicare beneficiaries choose their own doctor and hospital.

The bottom line is that defenders of the education status quo want no possible threat to their monopoly when it comes to the education of children from low- and middle-income families. They simply do not want to compete for the dollars those students represent.

Sloganeering aside, the fight voters will witness over the coming months really comes down to one important question: Who should decide how state education dollars are directed? Should they be directed by parents to serve the unique needs of their children … or public officials managing a largely top-down system?
Kentucky lags its neighbors when it comes to empowering parents in this arena. Every single state that touches our Commonwealth has at least one robust parent-centered choice program in place.

It’s time for Kentucky to join the rest of the country and treat families with the respect they deserve. Voters should pass the school choice constitutional amendment so we can start funding students, not systems.

Read the original article here.

Tough talk for today's graduates

In my most recent commentary for the Bowling Green Daily News, I offered some unsolicited advice to recent college graduates. 

While we should celebrate the accomplishments of our graduates, the predictable, upbeat messages of encouragement we often hear during graduation season aren’t sufficient.

It’s time for students to hear some tough talk too: put down your phone, stop focusing on your feelings, give thanks for your blessings and get busy sacrificing yourself for others.

And while they’re at it: go to church, get married and stay together, raise a family, and do something good for your community.

Because these are the ingredients to a genuinely happy life and a just social order.

Read the whole thing here.

Campus threats to free speech

The Bowling Green Daily News has asked me to start regularly contributing a op-ed on various public policy issues of state and local interest. My first offering was this recent piece about the visit of Kyle Rittenhouse to Western Kentucky University's campus, which I considered a triumph for free speech.

But the event also demonstrated why lawmakers need to go further to ensure that college campuses remain places where a diversity of viewpoints are free to be expressed.

In 2020, Rittenhouse, age 17, took a rifle into the middle of a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was, perhaps unsurprisingly, attacked and later acquitted for shooting and killing two of his three assailants in self-defense. He now advocates for the right to bear arms on campus and was invited by a student group to speak at WKU.

Two weeks prior to Rittenhouse’s visit, WKU officials took the unusual step of sending a campus-wide message clarifying that the speaker was not invited by the university itself.

Controversial speakers often come to campus, many officially sponsored by some unit within the university, and almost all espousing far-left views that conservative students and faculty find disagreeable or upsetting.

In none of these cases does WKU issue such a disclaimer. But also in none of those cases do conservative students and faculty try to silence free speech. Sadly, that was exactly what was happening.

Read the whole thing here. 

Unpacking 7 Myths About Education

Over the years, there have been a handful of books about education I find myself recommending over and over, like E.D. Hirsch's Knowledge Matters and David Didau's What If Everything You Knew About Education Was Wrong. A third at the top of my list is Daisy Christodoulou's 2014 book, Seven Myths About Education, which I reviewed here.

I recently had the great honor of being a guest on the Freedom in Education Founders Podcast to discuss the enduring relevance of Seven Myths About Education. Freedom in Education is a new grassroots organization, which, according to its website, is dedicated to "restoring parental rights, high-quality education, and civic virtue to our public schools by enhancing and improving content transparency, curriculum quality, learning options, and equipping parents to act." I love what Freedom in Education is trying to do, and so I happily agreed to chat with co-founder Beanie Geoghegan about the book.

Our conversation covered two podcast episodes. Watch the first here:

 

And the second here:

 

I hope many more educators and parents discover Seven Myths About Education and change the way they think about teaching and learning.