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Data and thoughts on public and private school funding in the U.S.
Browsing All Posts published on »February, 2010«
Some statistical context for Central Falls
Pundits have been tweeting and blogging the Central Falls Rhode Island High School story this week, with many cheering the bold “turnaround” strategy of firing all of the school’s teachers. Essentially, the district Superintendent has dismissed all teachers in the school with the option for them to re-apply. The reason for the dismissal is that […]
Common Standards and the Capacity to Achieve Them
February 23, 2010
It would appear that the Common Standards movement has picked up some momentum this week, with the administration’s pitch that Title I aid should be tied to states adopting common college readiness standards. This is all good talk, but standards alone, on paper and/or in state policies or proclamations don’t achieve themselves. It is inappropriate […]
Stossel & Coulson Misinformation on Private vs. Public School “Costs”
February 20, 2010
Last summer, I had an interesting exchange with Andrew Coulson regarding the issue of private school costs. That discussion can be found here: http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/category/private-school-costs/ I had the displeasure this evening, while channel surfing, to catch a few minutes of John Stossel’s latest episode on the failures of the public education system and low-cost wonders of […]
Private Public Schools – OK Idea – Bad Calculations
February 18, 2010
I read with curiosity today, the Fordham Institute’s new report on “Private Public” schools, or elementary schools where fewer than 5% of children qualify for free or reduced lunch and middle or secondary schools where fewer than 3% qualify. Not a bad idea on their part, but some of the numbers just didn’t match up […]
NJ Surplus Drill-down Redux
February 17, 2010
This is a quick reply to NJ Left Behind’s highly suspect if not outright bogus NJ Surplus Drill-down. The crux of my response to NJ Left Behind’s summary of NJ school district surpluses, is that his/her analysis completely distorts the distribution of school district surpluses by not taking into account district size (enrollment). Of course […]
Today’s fun maps: NYC charter school free lunch rates
February 15, 2010
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Just for fun, here are a few maps of New York City traditional public, special public and public charter schools. Charter schools are indicated with an asterisk. School level rates of children qualifying for free lunch are indicated by circle color. Deep red circles have free lunch shares over 83.6%. Blue circles have very low […]
A closer look at New Jersey taxes
February 15, 2010
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I often hear talk radio pundits ranting about New Jersey’s supposed highest in the nation taxes – that New Jersey’s taxes are driving people out of the state. I’ll tackle the migration issues in a later post, but any attempted link to tax policy as a single driver is a stretch, to say the least. […]
CAP’s Title I Myth
February 4, 2010
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I just read a copy of “Spoonful of Sugar” from Center for American Progress in which they again propose fixes to Title I funding, which I have pointed out in the past are based on misguided assumptions and analyses (or lack thereof). Please see my previous analysis here: http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/title-i-does-not-make-rich-states-richer/ The authors of this “spoonful” note: […]
February 25, 2010
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