Paying up

Tuitition

4.1 The base tuition for all schools will initially be $10,000 per child; the maximum government contribution will be $15,000— each expected to increase in adherence with progressive systems. The specific tuition for all school’s will vary depending upon three sets of factors— predetermined factors, performance, and incentives-based.

The median per-pupil expenditure for students, as measured by the U.S. Department of Education in 2005, was $9,392; the 95th percentile: $18,100.[1]

4.2 The district will receive financing of $150-250 per child.

While the funding may vary significantly between schools, every effort will be made to ensure that the levels of financing are relative to the performance and needs of all schools.

Predetermined

4.3 The location of the school will weigh heavily on the school’s individual funding. Urban facilities and staffs will cost more to maintain and expand. In the same respect, rural schools will be allocated additional funds for transportation.
4.4 Elementary schools will receive additional funding—and subsequent scrutiny, to provide individualized services, ensuring literacy, a cost effective means to limit the expense and problems of lingering illiteracy in secondary schooling.

Performance

4.5 Schools that exceed superior standards for student basic skills will receive a maximum increase in funding of 2.5%. For example, a school that has 80% of students in the satisfactory range, five percentage points out of twenty-five more than the required amount, will receive a .5% increase—or one-fourth of the possible amount.

4.6 Schools that focus heavily on the arts and vocational studies receive an additional potential amount of $1,000 ($11,000-$16,000) to justify the additional burdens of pursuing mastery of both their specialty and core courses. Unlike similar performance funding, the percentage of a school’s population within the exceptional to superior range will determine the total amount per child awarded to schools.

Incentives based programs

4.7 In order to promote competitiveness between schools, the government will provide additional allocations to school’s that pursue its various incentives.
4.8 The primary incentives program will be a school’s performance in voluntary adherence to the more strict, complete curriculum. Schools that also seek to promote diversity, integrate students of lower socioeconomic status will also be allocated additional resources to encourage further inclusion by other successful schools.
4.9 Schools will also be encouraged to accommodate poor-performing students from other schools. The government would offer an additional $1,000 to schools under the $15,000 maximum for increased performance from students who performed poorly in other schools in the last year’s examination.

If for example, a school’s total population from other school’s last year was 74% on the basic examinations and increases to 90% this year, the school receives an additional $160 per child – including those not from poorer performing schools. This structure will encourage competition as well as maximize the opportunities available to each student.

4.10 Another such incentive will be a school’s adherence to the recommended budget allocation for schools that share similar characteristics. Another measure will award schools for students that are enrolled in college-level courses. Additionally, schools will be rewarded for a dropout rate below the national average; and participation in arts and sports— standardized records per sport and adjudications will serve as the basis for these allocations.

Stability

4.11 To prevent rapid fluctuations in school tuitions as well as to ensure that funding is being used effectively, mechanisms will be implemented to ensure stable funding from year to year.
4.12 Bonuses from previous years are priced in to the school’s upcoming year’s budget. Schools whose performance decreases will only lose a small portion of their relative bonuses from the previous years. Additionally, small portions of such bonuses are reclaimed each year to prevent an accumulation of resources that cannot be spent.

Special grants

4.13 Special grants are awarded to schools that pursue pilot programs,
expansions, and maintenance, allocated by the district.

Hybrid schools

4.14 In what will be appealing primarily to schools that have maxed out their maximum government contribution, schools will also have the opportunity to initiate a hybrid-funding program, receiving funds from both the government and parents.

4.15 The school will determine the required parent contribution, however,
participating schools must also adhere to mirroring standards to ensure that
cost is not used as a blunt instrument to reduce the counts of those who could
not otherwise afford the school.

4.16 The government will provide a fair valuation metric for parents to compare the true value of their school.
4.17 Certain schools run by organizations or religious associations will choose to provide all of its funding from other sources that do not directly tax students’ parents.

Bob Chase, the former President of the National Education Association, is right. “Many politicians talk tough about holding students and teachers accountable. But while they have zero tolerance for underachieving kids, they have abundant tolerance for underfunded schools.”[2]

[1] Expenditures per pupil at the 5th, median, and 95th percentile cutpoints and federal range ratio for public elementary and secondary school districts in the United States, by district type and type of expenditure: Fiscal year 2005. National Center for Education Statistics. Department of Education. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/revexpdist05/tables/table_5.asp?referrer=list
[2] Teacher’s Unions and Teacher Politics. American Education. Joel Spring. Tenth Edition. McGraw Hill. 2002. Page 55.

The duality

A brief summary of the the national framework
[You can view the PDF here.]

The structure of a nationally-standardized private-school structure would be a progressive mix of roles and formats. Most important of the roles will be that of the district, which will have the responsibility of establishing the format – focus and philosophy – of each school and their structure as subsidiary, private, or charter schools. As for the differences: subsidiary schools would remain under the full control of the district, whereas private schools would have principals appointed by the district and charter schools would have a board of trustees with a permanent group appointed by the district and a rotating group within schools. Private and charter schools are otherwise independent in the absence of poor performance. All would have a timeframe for renewal of philosophy, directives, and appointments. A rarer form would be foundation schools, established by philanthropists or churches, whose structure would correlate strongly with charter schools.

The district remains the organizing body for all of the school’s in the community – overseeing transportation, athletics, and transfers for all schools. The district’s authority and make up are subject to local government and subsequent policy: districts in large cities will likely report to a mayor or board of education; smaller suburban and rural districts would be appointed by county government or board.

The national curriculum
During the five year privatization process, Congress would establish an educator’s advisory panel composed of teachers, researchers, and relevant officials with the intent of establishing a national curriculum for all grades and subjects of study following a brief period of town halls throughout the country.

The curriculum will encompass the core courses—math, English, history, and science—and pinnacles, including the arts, foreign language, et al. Primary focus will be on the development of curriculum for core courses as competency in these subjects will be expected of all schools.

The goals of the panel should be limited to promoting a concise, basic curriculum on which national assessments would be based and a complete, voluntary curriculum. The basic curriculum is solely an articulation of expected degrees of competency. Each school will develop their own comprehensive curriculum.

The panel will seek to enhance retention through all grades and also evaluate the competiveness of both forms of the curriculum compared to foreign peers. The panel would be tasked with the distribution of such curriculum following its approval and its regular maintenance and alteration on a yearly basis.

Organization
At its essence, decentralization is a duality of purpose: it affords greater flexibility to individual schools while also centralizing the basic systems of funding, assessment, and accountability to a broader, national context. The structure of the new systems would be based on a national department of education responsible for funding, standards, and assessment. Local districts will continue to be comprised of several thousand children and several elementary and secondary schools—their role is more specifically discussed in The District.

Tuition
Tuitions for each school would vary based on a variety of circumstances including school performance in core subjects, involvement in sports and the arts, needs of the student body, and
participation in incentives programs. The formula for determining tuition for each school would also take into account the location of the school and allow buffers promoting the integration of students with poorer performance.

School tuitions will also vary based on adherence to additional voluntary curriculums and policies offered by the federal, state, and local districts.

Testing
Assessments of all students would take place each year based on the basic curriculum. The performance for each subject assessment is determined by failure (less than 65 percent of problems correct), satisfactory (65-75 percent), exceptional (75-85%), and superior (85-100%). All students are expected to pass each core subject; 75 percent of students are expected to have scores that fall within exceptional to superior.

Other subjects for assessment, not required for each student includes the arts, foreign languages, etc All tests are accessible at all times throughout the year depending on a school’s schedule. A national rating system for schools will be established based on the school’s performance in the core areas of study and pinnacle courses where applicable.

Accountability
For five years after privatization, schools will have the flexibility to make adequate yearly progress towards national standards. If they fail, the district will be responsible for coordinating acceptable change—if necessary, changing the school’s structure.