Levesque

Editor's note: This is the fourth post in our series on the future of parental choice and accountability.

by Patricia Levesque

Should public, charter, online, and private school choice programs be subject to the same accountability system? This issue came home to Florida this year, with some lawmakers questioning whether tax credit scholarship students should be required to take annual state tests. The rationale is not unreasonable: one system of accountability would allow all sectors of schools to be compared, which would make it easier to determine success and failure. But these arguments simply focus on how we hold different school systems accountable, not who schools should be accountable to: government officials or parents.

So how should things look in 10, 20 and 30 years? If we truly want to create a student-centered system of education that holds all schools accountable to parents, the future will have three key components: choice, customization, and a focus on mastery. Public education needs to transform from a system that funds schools to one that funds the child, where parents take control of their child’s education and direct funding towards the schools, programs, and services that best fit their needs.

Ten years ago, school choice meant being educated in Building A or Building B. Today, a student can attend a traditional school in the morning, classes at community college after lunch, and take AP Calculus on a laptop after basketball practice. This student is taking a customized approach to education – but only within the confines of what the public school system allows. By giving parents control over their child’s education funding, this type of customization won’t be dependent on the permission of a forward-thinking school system; it will be based on the universe of available options and the prerogative of individual families.

At a very small scale, this shift is already happening in Arizona through the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs). Designed originally for students with disabilities, ESAs deposit 90 percent of a student’s public school funding into an account, which can be used for multiple educational costs, such as school tuition, online courses, tutoring, therapies, or college savings. This program allows parents to customize their child’s education and, for the first time, creates an incentive for parents to judge K-12 services not only on quality but also on cost effectiveness. Florida recently became the second state to pass an ESA program and many states are sure to follow.

As the definition of public education grows, so will the way we view accountability.

Regulations would be in place to ensure funds are spent in authorized ways. The government could establish guidelines for authorized uses of education dollars, much like it currently does to determine what institutions of higher education are authorized for state and federal financial aid, what can be purchased with food subsidies, and other areas of financial authorization. Arizona’s nascent ESA program is already beginning to tackle these issues, where the state’s departments of education and revenue oversee the distribution, approved expenditures, and oversight of participants.

Ultimately, parents would be the best judges of whether dollars were spent efficiently and effectively. As school choice pioneer Milton Friedman once said, “Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own.”

Most disagreements about academic accountability today arise from differing views on how to define school quality. Literacy and numeracy continue to be the core functions of school – and thus, the focus of state accountability systems. Yet, many say it is unfair to limit labels of school quality to just a few subjects. The problem is: if you ask 10 people what should be included, you will likely get 10 different responses. (more…)