Will DeVos' confirmation as Sec of Education increase applications to the top private schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if any effect do you all think it will have on the number of applications to private school? My DD is currently in public and the plan was to stay there though 8th grade and then apply to private school. Debating if we should jump for middle before whatever the fall out will be from DeVos' taking over the Dept of Education.

How much is DeVos's voucher supposed to be? It is a nation-wide fixed amount check or does it depend on what your home district receives if your child were a student there?

I don't think anyone knows. I don't think DeVos' knows. She has this pie in the sky theories about education and has no clue what it is going to take to pull any of it off. I wouldn't hold my breath for any vouchers any time soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. None of the private schools in the top or middle tier are going to take these vouchers. #BelieveMe

Bullshit. It immediately stretches their financial aid. Even if an elite private only has a dozen low income kids, those kids are going to receive voucher checks for $1X,000 each. Solid $120,000-plus in free cash.

+1

#MakeSidwell/GDS/Cathedral Schools even richer than they are now.

[Anonymous]

Let me get this straight -- the OP seems to believe that the incoming Secretary of Education (she's still incoming until she's been sworn in) will somehow enact a school choice and voucher program that will immediately have impact at the state and local levels, and will have an immediate impact on private school tuition levels.

I'm just going to let that sink in for a moment.

In the meantime, let's consider this. The American institution that is public education is big. How big? Public schools employed over 3 million teachers in 2016. For comparison, the world's largest employer, Wal-Mart, employs 1.4 million people. The active duty U.S. military clocks in at 1.3 million.

What are the odds that Betsy De Vos, much less any other education activist, can have a lasting impact on public education given the size of the bureaucracy? Heck, the Department of Education reported just last month that the Obama Administration's effort to improve America's worst schools with an injection of $7 billion in federal cash had no effect.

So, back to OP's question. No. There is no chance her confirmation will directly increase private school tuition in either the greater Washington, DC area or anywhere else in the country. You can stop hyperventilating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let me get this straight -- the OP seems to believe that the incoming Secretary of Education (she's still incoming until she's been sworn in) will somehow enact a school choice and voucher program that will immediately have impact at the state and local levels, and will have an immediate impact on private school tuition levels.

I'm just going to let that sink in for a moment.

In the meantime, let's consider this. The American institution that is public education is big. How big? Public schools employed over 3 million teachers in 2016. For comparison, the world's largest employer, Wal-Mart, employs 1.4 million people. The active duty U.S. military clocks in at 1.3 million.

What are the odds that Betsy De Vos, much less any other education activist, can have a lasting impact on public education given the size of the bureaucracy? Heck, the Department of Education reported just last month that the Obama Administration's effort to improve America's worst schools with an injection of $7 billion in federal cash had no effect.

So, back to OP's question. No. There is no chance her confirmation will directly increase private school tuition in either the greater Washington, DC area or anywhere else in the country. You can stop hyperventilating.

Uh, OP was asking about the # of applications, not the tuition.

[Anonymous]

DeVos is many things, but "education activist" is not among them. Like Trump, she cares only about herself, her interests, and how she can use a key government position to line her own pockets.

[Anonymous]

Some facts.

DC already has a school voucher program -- mandated by Congress at a cost of $20 million a year.

The vouchers today go to about 1,450 low-income students and 80% of them attend a religious school.

The vouchers provide up to $8400 for K-8th and up to $12,000 for high school.

The schools that accept the vouchers include Beauvoir, Aidan Montessori, St. Peters, GDS and Sidwell.
http://servingourchildrendc.org/our-program/find-a-school/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some facts.

DC already has a school voucher program -- mandated by Congress at a cost of $20 million a year.

The vouchers today go to about 1,450 low-income students and 80% of them attend a religious school.

The vouchers provide up to $8400 for K-8th and up to $12,000 for high school.

The schools that accept the vouchers include Beauvoir, Aidan Montessori, St. Peters, GDS and Sidwell.
http://servingourchildrendc.org/our-program/find-a-school/

Why $12,000? I thought DCPS received nearly $20k total per pupil.

[Anonymous]

I doubt it will make a difference except for parochial schools. The vouchers don't cover enough tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vouchers will drive the cost of privates up like Federal Student Loans have driven up the cost of college.

Yup. It's just another way of diverting public funds into private hands (like much of public education already).

[Anonymous]

The only spill over effect I can see is on specialized schools, such as River, Lab, Commonwealth, etc. If a child with SN, whether a disability, learning or behavioral issue, that normally would have an IEP in a public school is unable to get the same level of support then the parents may make the jump to private. But as for the big 3 or other mainstream schools, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some facts.

DC already has a school voucher program -- mandated by Congress at a cost of $20 million a year.

The vouchers today go to about 1,450 low-income students and 80% of them attend a religious school.

The vouchers provide up to $8400 for K-8th and up to $12,000 for high school.

The schools that accept the vouchers include Beauvoir, Aidan Montessori, St. Peters, GDS and Sidwell.
http://servingourchildrendc.org/our-program/find-a-school/

Why $12,000? I thought DCPS received nearly $20k total per pupil.

Different pot of money. The voucher program is funded entirely out of federal dollars. The local school system isn't involved.

[Anonymous]

Why don't you all Google how much it costs to educate a student in DCPS for a year and try to make sense of those $ against the outcomes? Seems like a system due for a shake up to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you all Google how much it costs to educate a student in DCPS for a year and try to make sense of those $ against the outcomes? Seems like a system due for a shake up to me.

Much of that money is privatized; i.e., the people who work with children and have the most training in education (teachers) have very little say on where that money goes. As a brief example, I'm a preschool teacher. Every classroom in my building has Promethean boards, but starting wages for assistant teachers are about $1 above minimum wage. As a result, assistants are frequently absent. Substitute assistants are paid just as badly, so when an assistant is gone, no one shows up for the day. We then either end up teaching up to 20 kids on our own (which is against the law but we do it anyway) or picking off students above 10, Hunger Games style, to go to other classrooms. We spend tens of thousands of dollars per student, but it's not going toward making healthy classroom or work environments.

[Anonymous]

The voucher system doesn't have to be set up the same way as it was in the past. In fact a tax credit for not using the public schools would be awesome!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you all Google how much it costs to educate a student in DCPS for a year and try to make sense of those $ against the outcomes? Seems like a system due for a shake up to me.

Much of that money is privatized; i.e., the people who work with children and have the most training in education (teachers) have very little say on where that money goes. As a brief example, I'm a preschool teacher. Every classroom in my building has Promethean boards, but starting wages for assistant teachers are about $1 above minimum wage. As a result, assistants are frequently absent. Substitute assistants are paid just as badly, so when an assistant is gone, no one shows up for the day. We then either end up teaching up to 20 kids on our own (which is against the law but we do it anyway) or picking off students above 10, Hunger Games style, to go to other classrooms. We spend tens of thousands of dollars per student, but it's not going toward making healthy classroom or work environments.

This is the opposite of privatized as privatized implies a competition and a meritocracy. This is an unbelievably frustrating situation for those closest to the kids to be in. It's time to shine some light on this and if Betsy DeVos does nothing else than expose it and show parents the questions they should be asking, and alternatives they may have, it's a win for me