Saturday, July 15, 2017

You're the First to Know - Fundamental 5 National Summit!






























Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...
  • Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
  • Upcoming Conference Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
  • Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook


Thursday, July 13, 2017

A Reader Adds... School Voucher Refunds?

LYS Coach, Jeanette Nelson, add another reason for why school vouchers are a bad idea and horrible public policy.

All of these posts addressing the foibles of school vouchers got me thinking about another point.

Let's say a parent takes a school voucher, uses it to go to a private school, and decides after a few weeks or months that the private school is not right for the child. So, the parent goes back to the public school to re-enrolls her child. But wait, the money to educate that child is gone!  Paid to the private school.

Now, can the district charge the parent tuition?  If not, now the public school is educating the child with no (or severely reduced) funding (really bad for public schools).  Or the taxpayer is paying twice to educate the child once (really bad for taxpayers).

Or, can the parent get a refund from the private school?  What if it's only a partial refund?  If yes, then where does the refund go? In the pocket of the parent? Back to the state?

Can the district even accept that money once it has been refunded or can it only be used for another private school?
 
No one is thinking about all this. Least of all our anti-public school, pro-voucher politicians.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...
  • Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
  • Upcoming Conference Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
  • Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The Lies Keep Coming... School Voucher Economics

Intellectual honesty and the Anti-Public School Politicians who are proponents of school vouchers are seemingly mutually exclusive. At least, publicly displayed intellectual honesty. In private, they may espouse to their confidants that the real goals of school vouchers are to dismantle public education and provide tax breaks to the rich.

Since we know that we can’t expect intellectual honesty from our anti-public school / anti-egalitarian / anti-democratic politicians, I’ll attempt to fill the void. 

The Political Lie of School Voucher Economics: School vouchers will reduce the cost of private school tuition and make private schools available for the poor.  

For example, if private school tuition is $10,000.00 a year (above the reach of a poor family), the poor family can use a $7,000.00 school voucher. This will reduce the cost of tuition to $3,000.00, an affordable amount.  

"Vote for Me!"

Truth #1 of School Voucher Economics: Assuming the above model holds (it won’t, see Truth #2, below) it really only works if the family has only one child.  Every additional child increases the cost to the family. 

One child = $3,000.00. Two children = $6,000.00. Three children = $9,000.00. And so on.  When the family reaches its private school funding capacity, what are they supposed to do?  Rank their children by potential?

“I’m sorry, Johnny.  But we all know your little sister is smarter than you. So quit complaining and get on the Yellow Bus.”

Welcome to Survivor: Family Edition.

Truth #2 of School Voucher Economics: The political school voucher economic model assumes the operators of private schools are stupid. Which makes you wonder what politicians think about public school educators? Not really, their actions speak loud and clear about what they think about us.  I on the other hand do not believe that private school operators are stupid. 

Assume I am a private school operator. I am charging $10,000.00 a year for tuition, and I have a waiting list.  All of a sudden, my clients have an additional $7,000.00 of non-discretionary income that can only be used at private schools.

"What to do? What to do?" 

I could do nothing and my clients can reallocate $7,000.00 of their discretionary income to buy new iPhones and go on vacation.

Or, because I am smart, I can raise my tuition by the amount of the non-discretionary client windfall (the school voucher).  My clients get the same service. My clients spend the same amount of their discretionary income on private school tuition.  

No harm, no foul. 

But, and here is the good part, I get to pocket the extra $7,000.00 of state money. Sure, it may be bad for public school children and taxpayers, but that’s not my problem.

"Thank you, Mr. and Ms. Anti-Public School Politician!"

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...
  • Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
  • Upcoming Conference Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
  • Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

More Lies... School Vouchers and the Student With Special Needs

It is shameful anytime craven politicians victimize children.  When those children have special needs, it is almost beyond belief.  But I have learned that when it comes to the strategies that Anti-Public School Politicians are willing to use to further their agenda, there is no such thing as too low.  Consider their current “justification” for enacting school vouchers… Saving poor children with special needs from “failing” public schools.  There are a number of reasons why this is despicable, I’m just going to cover the big two. 

First of all, a significant reason why schools often struggle to meet the needs of students with special needs is due to a lack of funding.  Funding that has been reduced year after year by the same Anti-Public School Politicians that point to school vouchers as the best solution to fix the problem that they created.  Without naming names, my local school district, which was known state-wide for the quality of services it provided to students with special needs was told by a state politician that they were overfunded. In his opinion, the state did not need to fund great service for Students with Special Needs, good was good enough.  This same politician is leading the Special Education School Voucher Charge… For the children. 

Second, there is no need to create a school voucher program for meeting the education need of students with special needs. Why is the case? There already is a process in place that addresses this. Every Special Education Student has an Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) Committee that meets at least annually to consider the academic needs of the student. If the ARD Committee determines that the needs of the child cannot be meet in a public education setting, the ARD can recommend a private school placement.  If the ARD Committee make a private placement decision, the public school district is compelled to pay the ENTIRE cost of the placement.  Though this is not a common occurrence, it does happen. And just to be clear, the majority of members of an ARD Committee are the employees of the public school.       

Which brings me to my closing question. How does the Anti-Public School Politician get up in the morning and look himself in his face? Maybe he lives in a house with no mirrors so he does not have to. 

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...
  • Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
  • Upcoming Conference Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
  • Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook