Regulatory Red Tape Risks Strangling DC Opportunity Scholarship Program

For 15 years, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program has been a District of Columbia institution. Yet the program, which provides scholarships to children from low-income families to attend a private school of choice, faces death by a thousand regulatory cuts.

Since Congress enacted it, participation among private schools has fallen from a peak of 68 schools during the 2005-06 school year to just 48 schools today.

Fewer schools participating—a 30% reduction—means fewer choices for families. So, what explains the decline?

Each time the program has been reauthorized, new regulations have been added requiring participating private schools to conform more and more to the public school system.

When the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program was originally signed into law and began operation in 2004, participating private schools were bound by a relatively light set of regulations.

They were required to abide by federal civil rights laws; had to have scholarship students participate in independent, congressionally mandated evaluations of the program; and had to provide reports about student academic achievement to parents.

But in 2011, Congress added new requirements that participating private schools submit to site visits by the program administrator, inform prospective students about the school’s accreditation status, mandate that teachers of core subjects have bachelor’s degrees, and require participating students to take some form of nationally norm-referenced test.

Notably, the 2011 reauthorization also required, for the first time, that participating private schools be accredited or be on a path to accreditation.

In 2017, Congress again added considerable new regulations onto participating private schools.

The reauthorization mandated that the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education conduct evaluations of the academic achievement outcomes of students attending schools in which more than 85% of the student body uses a voucher to pay tuition.

Notably, the 2017 reauthorization required that each participating school supply a certificate of accreditation to the administering entity upon program entry, demonstrating that the school is fully accredited before being allowed to participate.

Throughout the course of 2018, I interviewed private school principals about their decision to participate, not participate, or withdraw from the program.

Although the majority of the decline in participation is explained by school closures and charter conversions, other schools that exited the program may have done so out of an increasing regulatory burden.

Accreditation was one of the most frequently discussed issues throughout the interviews I conducted with principals and was largely seen as a time-consuming and costly process that outweighed the benefit of program participation.

Another major issue for school principals was the risk and volatility associated with program participation.

In particular, school leaders expressed frustration with the political nature of the congressional appropriations process.

They noted that funding instability makes schools appear risky to banks and donors, and that the scholarship amounts are typically lower than the price of tuition—meaning there’s a cost associated with accepting a D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program student for most private schools.

Finally, fear of future regulations was a frequent concern for participating school leaders, and nonparticipating private schools expressed considerable trepidation about future regulations, citing that concern as a reason for their nonparticipation.

Unfortunately, their fears may not be unfounded. 

The House Financial Services Committee’s bill includes language reauthorizing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program that would make it more difficult for private schools to participate in the program and serve needy students.

The language would add significant new regulations onto participating private schools, requiring them to certify that they will provide students with “the same services, rights, and protections under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA]” as D.C.  public schools do.

Parents of children with special needs, however, opt into participating private schools because the services provided to their children in the public school system—and the all-too-often litigious process in which they must engage in order to get what they’re entitled to in the public system under federal law—is not meeting their needs.

Families choose to enroll in a private school outside of the federal IDEA structure because a given private school is a better fit.

Layering on this new federal regulation to private schools in the Opportunity Scholarship Program would effectively end private school participation and the program as we know it....

The accreditation regulations should either be removed entirely, or schools should be given a five-year grace period to meet the requirements (instead of having to be accredited upon program entry), and/or the list of allowable accreditors should be significantly expanded to reflect the diversity of schools that would like to participate.

These immediate reforms would put the Opportunity Scholarship Program, the only school choice program overseen by Congress, on stable footing, and would set the stage for the program to meet the needs of low-income families in the District of Columbia for years to come.

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'Child labour!' Schoolboy 'was forced to fix teachers' cars as part of his coursework' before learning it didn't count towards his final grade

School is unrepentant

A furious mother has slammed her son's high school for making him work on teachers' cars as part of his 'coursework' because it didn't count towards his final mark.

Alica Evans said her 16-year-old son Jayden Fraser spent an entire year staying back to work for his teachers at Haeata Community Campus in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Hoping to one day become a mechanic, Jayden spent weeks 'practising' for his future career by priming and painting a teacher's car last year.

This year he, along with a group of students, spent hours of their free time working on two other cars.

However, his National Certificate of Educational Achievement record doesn't show the work as a type of formal assessment.

Ms Evans told Stuff that Jayden and his friends worked on a derby car for one staff member ahead of a race, and they also worked on a rolling chassis that was purchased by a teacher for $350.

The teacher applied for school funding but was rejected, and demanded the boys pay her back for the car.

Jayden and his friends managed to raise $100 through a car wash, which was given back to the teacher.

'My son literally spent the entirety of last year working and staying late and he got nothing,' Ms Evans said.

'Either he gets the credits he deserves or he needs to be paid, otherwise it's child labour.'

Ms Evans said she believed Haeata Community Campus would be perfect for 16-year-old Jayden as he is less academic.

She was told he would receive the 80 credits needed to pass Level 1 by July 5, but doesn't believe this is possible as he is currently behind.

The 16-year-old has only received eight credits for building a toilet roll holder.

Principal Andy Kai Fong said some 'overly costly' projects caused students to fundraise to enhance their learning. Mr Kai Fong said he was disappointed Ms Evans had alerted the media about what was happening with her son.

Education Ministry deputy secretary Katrina Casey said that students working on cars could foster problem-solving and collaboration skills, increase knowledge of mechanics and apply mathematics and other academic subjects.

However, she said not all learning would be assessed or have credits attached.

The education ministry website says schools don't cover fees of materials used, but allowed students to 'take on fundraising to supplement what the school can provide'.

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Australia:  Mobile phones are BANNED in State  schools across Victoria in a bid to clamp down on cyberbullying

Victorian public school students will be banned from using their phones from next year.

Students will have to switch off their phones and store them in lockers until the final bell, Education Minister James Merlino announced.

'This will remove a major distraction from our classrooms, so that teachers can teach, and students can learn in a more focused, positive and supported environment,' he said in a statement.

'Half of all young people have experienced cyberbullying. By banning mobiles we can stop it at the school gate.'

In the case of an emergency, parents or guardians can reach their child by calling the school.

The only exceptions to the ban will be where students use phones to monitor health conditions, or where teachers instruct students to bring their phone for a particular classroom activity.

The ban will start from term one in 2020.

It comes after McKinnon Secondary College banned phones from its grounds and reported students as being more focused during class and communicating more in the school yard.

In February 2018, ahead of the November state election, the Liberals announced a policy of banning students from using phones in classrooms.

At the time the Andrews government said bans were the decision of individual schools. 'I guess policy imitation is the greatest form of flattery,' former Liberal leader Matthew Guy tweeted on Tuesday night.

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