Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

Home /  Archives / Links / Quotes / Book Reviews / Advertise /Contact us / Subscribe / Calendar

Choice Stifled

Bluegrass Institute For Public Policy Solutions

During the debate over the future of the school choice program in Murray and Calloway County, a parent told the county school board to “stop treating the children of this county as a commodity and start looking at how we can better prepare all of the children to be productive citizens of the community.”

Unfortunately, the commodity model of public education prevailed in the dispute between the two school districts. Calloway County officials succeeded in putting an end to an open enrollment program that had served parents, students and the community well for more than 25 years.

After a prolonged standoff with the Calloway County school board over the renewal of a contract allowing state funding to follow students who enroll in schools outside their attendance areas, the Murray board agreed to charge tuition to nonresident students for at least the next two years.

Parents in the county who send their children to the Murray schools will have to pay $550-per-child annual tuition. These parents pay taxes to support the county school district, but under the new agreement they will have to pay the public education system twice if they want to continue sending their children to the Murray schools.

Some parents probably will not be able to afford to send their children to the school of their choice. Many of those who keep their children in the Murray schools will have to make substantial financial sacrifices to appease Calloway County officials upset over the large-scale migration of county students to the Murray system.

More than 900 students live in the county but attend Murray schools. The popular choice program is coming to an end because Murray's superior ability to attract transfer students became intolerable for Calloway County school officials.

The basic argument of the Calloway administrators was that students who live in the county “belong” to the county school district and therefore should be denied the freedom to move to Murray schools and take state funding with them. Although the open enrollment system was well-established and enjoyed substantial community support, Calloway County administrators were dismayed by the disparity in the number of transfer students.

Calloway County officials held the upper hand in the dispute, because Kentucky's public education system discourages choice and favors the commodity model of education.

It's interesting to note that Calloway County administrators reviewed about 840 appeal forms nonresident parents filed with the state Department of Education last month. Calloway Superintendent Steve Hoskins said county officials needed to “look at the reasons the students were going there and not here. We wanted to see any points of interest we could improve upon, and it has been advantageous to look at them.”

It would have been advantageous for parents and students in Calloway County if county school officials had sought this information as part of an effort to strengthen the competitive position of the county schools in the open enrollment program. Choice creates competition and competition spurs schools to do a better job of serving their customers.

But if students belong to a school district based on where they live, the schools have little incentive to please the customers. The commodity model of public education puts the interests of bureaucrats – not parents – first.

The bureaucrats came out on top in the struggle over school choice in Murray and Calloway County. But there is hope that parents across the state will begin to rally around the banner of school choice, realizing that competition is the key to real education reform.

– This editorial was originally published in the Paducah Sun on March 24, 2005.

Weather (Louisville) / Mapquest /  White Pages / Business Search / CNN / Dictionary / E-card / MSN