Data and thoughts on public and private school funding in the U.S.
Or is it just a school finance Conn-job, in a CAN? In their response to my Think Tank Review of Spend Smart: Fix Our Broken School Funding System, ConnCan asserts that I claim that Connecticut’s school finance formula is not broken. (see: http://ht.ly/4BknI) As I state in my report, it’s not that the formula is … Continue reading ConnCan Cluelessness
Urban school districts are easy targets – often the whipping boy – exemplars of the failures of big government bureaucracy. Kansas City Missouri is a frequent target when it comes to education policy. But as I’ve discussed in more than one peer reviewed article (one, another), and other reports, tales of Kansas City’s failures are … Continue reading Come with me… if you wanna go to Kansas City? Thoughts on BBQ, Baseball and Reformy BS
Yesterday, Matt Di Carlo over at Shankerblog put out his April fools post. The genius of the post is in its subtlety. Matt put together a few graphs of longitudinal NAEP data showing that Maryland had made greater than average national gains on NAEP and then asserted that these gains must therefore be a function … Continue reading When Real Life Exceeds Satire: Comments on ShankerBlog’s April Fools Post
I was intrigued a few days ago when I saw this headline in my news alerts regarding school funding. Headline: Report: Funding helps low-performing school districts I was particularly intrigued because the headline comes from a Connecticut newspaper where I am fully aware that the state really hasn’t done crap to substantively increase resources for … Continue reading In Connecticut, Where There’s a Reformy Con, There’s a CAN!
For a short while yesterday – more than I would have liked to – I followed the circus of testimony and tweets about proposed education reform legislation in Connecticut. The reform legislation – SB 24 – includes the usual reformy elements of teacher tenure reform, ending seniority preferences, expanding and promoting charter schooling, etc. etc. … Continue reading Reformy Platitudes & Fact-Challenged Placards won’t Get Connecticut Schools what they Really Need!
I’ve noticed a pattern in a few recent school funding proposals, mostly emanating from shoddy, haphazard proposals developed on behalf of the CANs (ConnCAN & its close relatives) and often with “technical support” of Bryan Hassel of Public Impact. Let’s call it school finance reform in a CAN. These new simplified school funding formula proposals, … Continue reading School Funding Deception Alert! (in a CAN)
Alternative title: Why Hassel with research, data and facts? I was called up on this past week to review a new policy brief on reforming Connecticut’s education funding system – or Education Cost Sharing formula. The brief, titled Spend Smart: Fix Connecticut’s Broken School Funding System seemed simple enough on its face, but as I … Continue reading Public Impact’s Persistent Pattern of Shoddy Analysis
As follow up to yesterday’s post on the completely fabricated and back-of-the-napkin numbers presented in The Tab, here’s a quick simulated allocation of the $11,000 foundation + $3,000 poverty weight (applied to free or reduced lunch) + $400 per ELL/LEP child. The Tab pretty much conceals any real changes or patterns of changes by lumping … Continue reading Checking the Tab
Something that has perplexed me for some time in my field of school finance, is why it seems to be okay for policy advocates and “Think Tanks” to just make stuff up. For example, to just make up what level of funding would be appropriate for accomplishing any particular set of goals? or to just … Continue reading Why is it OK for Think Tanks to just make stuff up?
School Finance 101 