Category | Op Ed

School choice in Georgia: It’s about time

Published on November 3, 2009 by Justin Hayes

In 2009, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce gave the state of Georgia a grade of D in academic achievement, ranking 39th out of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. Some organizations have ranked Georgia even lower.

Whatever the case, it is clear that Georgia’s education system has some urgent problems. Education ensures a skilled workforce and a literate public, both of which are essential to a functional republic and a sound economy. Georgia’s lack of positive results in education is a problem that requires quick and practical solutions.

Many experts believe that lack of sufficient funding to public schools caused the negative results. Georgia ranked 10th in total education expenditures, spending about $18 billion in 2007-2008. Spending more on education obviously does not mean improvement.

According to the Cato Institute’s David Salisbury, “between 1995 and 2001 [national] per pupil expenditures rose 15 percent to $8,992.” Yet, the U.S. performance has continued to go down compared to the rest of the world. Currently, Georgia spends more than $9,000 per pupil. Imagine if parents were able to use that money to choose where their child goes to school.

It is time that Georgia-and the rest of the country, for that matter-adopts a voucher program that would take the money spent each year per pupil and give it directly to the parents to choose the institution their child attends. The parents could choose to send their student to a nonsectarian private school, a religious private school or their local public school.

Considering that the average tuition of private schools is around $6,600, the voucher would be more than enough to cover the costs with money left over for the state to use. States and school districts could actually save money if parents choose to send their kids to private schools.

These savings do not even include the benefits of competition. Currently, the government has a virtual monopoly of education. There are private and charter schools, but the majority of schools fall under the government’s control.

With limited competition, there is little incentive for innovation and real improvement. Competition creates more cost-effective, efficient and better quality goods and services. Why wouldn’t it do the same for education?

With charter schools and recent legislation, Georgia has been on the right track to school choice. In 1993, former Governor Zell Miller signed the first charter school law.  Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are independently operated by teachers, parents and the local community instead of a local school board.

The board does have some control over funding, and the school must require their students to take state tests, but the education practices within the school are up to the charter board. Charter schools do not have to follow the state curriculum.

If charter schools are successful, they can act as a model and competitor to other public schools. And it doesn’t just work in theory. Georgia’s charter schools have definitely been showing positive results.

A report conducted in 2004 by the Georgia Department of Education found that Georgia’s charter schools were outperforming traditional public schools. The report concluded that “a greater proportion of students attending charter schools scored in the ‘Meets Standards’ and ‘Exceeds Standards’ levels than their public school counterparts on state tests.”

Grade repeats and dropout rates are lower in charter schools compared with other public institutions. The Average Yearly Progress (AYP), required by the No Child Left Behind Act, was met by 74  percent of charter schools, higher than all of Georgia’s schools, of which only 64 percent met the AYP standards.

The comparative performance on Georgia’s standardized tests presents the most significant figure. “Ninety-three percent of charter school students passed the state’s standardized tests in all five subjects” while students in traditional public schools had a pass rate of 85 percent. These figures are hopefully holding traditional public schools accountable and providing incentives for improvement.

Next week, I will examine other attempts at school choice reform in Georgia as well as answer the concerns that some have with this sort of reform.

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