ProgressOhio

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal today shows how the issue of education can be twisted to blame our public schools and then offer them no help at all:

The profound failure of inner-city public schools to teach children may be the nation's greatest scandal. The differences between the two Presidential candidates on this could hardly be more stark. John McCain is calling for alternatives to the system; Barack Obama wants the kids to stay within that system. We think the facts support Senator McCain.

The WSJ breaks it down to the school voucher system to be the "golden ticket" to educational success.  The editorial goes on to praise school choice programs in D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program which is a federal initiative and Philly EdisonLearning a private company run effort.   The numbers behind the success?

A recent Department of Education report found nearly 90% of participants in the D.C. program have higher reading scores than peers who didn't receive a scholarship...

The number of students performing at grade level or higher in reading at the schools managed by private providers increased by 6.1% overall compared to 3.3% in district-managed schools. In math, the results for Edison and other outside managers was 4.6% and 6.0%, respectively, compared to 3.1% in the district-run schools.

These figures are made to sound exemplary, but the gains are marginal at best.  Then the Journal paints Obama and the Democratic Party as threatening to kill those "successful programs" at the bequest of "uniformed teachers unions."  To top it off, the editorial points out the fact that the Obama's send their kids to expensive private schools, not willing to wait for fixes to public education.

Not only is the articles evidence shortsighted (kids respond well to good schools that are safe and have excellent resources) but it is out of touch with reality.  The issue of improving public education cannot afford to be sidestepped.  The Democratic Party is in favor of increased federal funding, improved teacher salaries and more early childhood education, where the real differences are made in closing the achievement gap.  While vouchers and school choice systems can help with certain students, its not a magical solution, and its most certainly in need of standards reform and better accountability standards (even the Ohio Grantmakers Forum, a large school-choice support agrees on pg 37-42 in "Education for Ohio's Future").  The WSJ is missing the point on the debate about public education... there is no one size fits all solution and shallow observations about Obama's children prevents the real issues from being discussed.