TERRAFORMING TERRA
We discuss and comment on the role agriculture will play in the containment of the CO2 problem and address protocols for terraforming the planet Earth.
A model farm template is imagined as the central methodology. A broad range of timely science news and other topics of interest are commented on.
Monday, February 10, 2020
93 Vermont Towns Have No Public Schools, But Great Education. How Do They Do It?
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Well yes. what a great approach. All the parents have control over the budget per child. They then negotiate with the providers for the best possible outcome. We sudenly address so called special needs dynamically instead of clumsily.
There are better solutions. We have even talked about it all here as well. These can be promoted directly to the users. That starts the process of dynamic reformation of our school system. We provide the buildings. That is easy enough and there is always a surplus available. The parents provide the students and guidance regarding desired outcomes while paying for it all. Not so hard ias it?
The key word in all this is dynamic. A dynamic school system provides support and direction. How about real fitness as well? how about thirty days of field work every second month during the growing season? Sounds like too much but it allows a full connection with nature and your body. .
93 Vermont Towns Have No Public Schools, But Great Education. How Do They Do It?
In "tuition towns," the funds local governments expect to spend per
pupil are instead given directly to the parents of school-age children.
https://fee.org/articles/93-vermont-towns-have-no-public-schools-but-great-education-how-do-they-do-it/ In just a couple of weeks, 50 boys
with learning disabilities will take to a stage in Vermont, one after
the other, to recite the Gettysburg Address from memory. It’s a daring
experiment undertaken each February at the Greenwood School and its
population of boys who’ve struggled in public schools. Diagnosed with
ADD, dyslexia, and executive function impairments, Greenwood’s boys
stand before an auditorium full of people (and once even a Ken Burns documentary crew) to recite powerful words many adults would struggle to retain.
Many of these young men are residents
of Vermont’s “tuition towns.” Too small and sparsely populated to
support a traditional public school, these towns distribute government
education funds to parents, who choose the educational experience that
is best suited to their family’s needs. If the school doesn’t perform up
to parents’ expectations, they can take their children, and the tuition
dollars they control, elsewhere.
The Greenwood School is one of more
than 100 independent schools in the tiny state of Vermont (population:
626,000). The whole state has just 90,000 students in K-12 schools (the
city school districts of Denver and Albuquerque
have more students, and some county districts are twice as large). How
can Vermont sustain such a rich network of educational options?
Students at the Greenwood School in Putney, VT. Still from The Address documentary by Ken Burns and PBS. Photo Credit: Lindsay Taylor Jackson/Florentine Films
Tuition Towns and the Families They Serve
Ninety-three Vermont towns (36
percent of its 255 municipalities) have no government-run school at all.
If there were enough kids, the pot of public money earmarked for
education would be used to buy a building and hire teachers. In these
towns, the funds local governments expect to spend per pupil are instead
given directly to the parents of school-age children.
This method gives lower- and
middle-income parents the same superpower wealthy families have always
had: school choice. Kids aren’t assigned to public schools by zip code—instead,
parents have the ability to put their kids in school anywhere, to buy
the educational experience best suited to each child. If that decision
doesn’t work out, they can change it the following year and try a school
that might better fit their child’s needs.
Better Outcomes, Similar Costs
So how much money are we talking about? As far as income distribution, Vermont looks a lot like the national average. The per-student expenditure
of $18,290 is high by national standards (only New Jersey, New York,
Connecticut, and DC spent more). But independent, tuition-driven schools
spend $5,000 less, on average, than public schools in the area, which
is near the national average.
In many other parts of the country, even the most "progressive" ones, government-run schools consume ever-more resources while doing little to address disparities of outcome. The promise of equal opportunity through public education continues to fall short, and lower-income families are the most likely to feel trapped by the lack of choices.
A variety of schools has arisen to compete for these tuition dollars. A spectrum from centuries-old academies
to innovative, adaptive, and experimental programs competes for
students from tuition towns, just as for the children of independently
wealthy families.
Eligibility for tuition vouchers
actually increased home values in towns that closed their public
schools. Outsiders were eager to move to these areas, and the closure of
public schools actually made at least some people already living nearby
significantly wealthier as their home values rose, according to real estate assessments.
Because parents, not bureaucrats or federal formulas, determine how funds are allocated, schools are under high economic pressure to impress parents—that is, to serve students best in their parents’ eyes.
Educational Alternatives = Comparative Advantages
The Compass School,
nestled on the New Hampshire border, enrolls 80-100 high school
students from three states and a mix of demographics. Forty percent of
students qualify for subsidized lunch (the school system’s proxy for poverty), and 30 percent have special learning needs.
Compass achieves these results with $5,500 less funding-per-pupil than the average Vermont government-run public high school.
Nearly any public school in the country with Compass’ student population (considered mid-poverty) would be aspiring to a 75 percent graduation rate
and a 60 percent college-readiness rate. Compass has a virtually 100
percent graduation rate, and 90 percent of graduates are accepted to
college. And still, Compass achieves these results with $5,500 less
funding-per-pupil than the average Vermont government-run public high
school.
Emergent programming for children with physical, intellectual, or behavioral challenges provides a 22-school menu of accountable, adaptive alternatives
to public school remediation. Increasingly, “mainstreaming” students
with these challenges has become a priority at larger high schools,
which compete to serve special-needs students as fiercely as any other.
Room to Grow? Watch for More Tuition Towns
Having watched these models develop
nearby, two more Vermont towns voted in 2013 to close their
government-run schools and become “tuition towns” instead. The local
public elementary and high schools there closed and reopened as
independent competitors in an increasingly rich marketplace of education
options. We eagerly wait to see what the innovative combination of
private control and public investment can bring to students in those
areas.
...an expansion of Vermont’s publicly
funded tuition model can be an effective way to lower costs, improve
student outcomes, achieve greater diversity in the classroom, and
increase parental satisfaction with and participation in their
children’s education.
Wealthy parents will always have
school choice. They have the power to choose the best opportunity and
the best fit for their individual child. Tuition towns—where all parents direct their child’s share of public education spending—give that power to every family.
Vermont’s
empowered parents feed a rich landscape of educational choices, not
just one or two. In such fertile soil, smaller, tailored programs pop up
and grow to meet children where they are instead of where a
one-size-fits-most default curriculum says they should be. If the
family’s needs change, their choices can, too. We pour plenty of public money into educational potential. Only parents’ power of choice can unleash it.
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