Nevada education ranks 18th

A new American Legislative Exchange Council report titled "Report Card on American Education" ranks states “A” through “F” on education reform laws and 1 through 50 on low-income student achievement. The report by the Goldwater Institute’s Dr. Matthew Ladner (who is also an NPRI policy fellow) along with Andrew LeFevre and Dan Lips ranks Nevada's performance 18th in the nation and gives the Silver State a “C” for education reform.

The ranking was based on reading and math scores for fourth- and eighth-grade low-income students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. By focusing on low-income student achievement the researchers create a better apples-to-apples comparison between states.
The good news is that Nevada beats all of its regional neighbors in educating low-income students. Nevada's ability to provide above-average education to low-income students is worthy of praise, but Nevada's middle- and high-income students don't perform much better, which drags Nevada’s overall achievement levels down.

Policies like identifying effective teachers, rewarding good teachers, alternative teacher certification and expanded school choice can all help improve the quality of education for all children in the Silver State.

No max school

Class size reduction doesn't work. So instead of spending $290 billion every biennium on a rigid and ineffective policy, Nevada should be working to experiment with other ideas like charter schools, virtual schools, pay-for-performance, value-added assessment, or even rethink the entire way we run a classroom.

Teacher bailouts

Thanks to the teacher bailout, Nevada went from "potentially" losing "thousands" of "teachers" (with less than half of all school district employees working as classroom teachers, I've already called shenanigans on Nevada's political elites) to wanting to hire up to 1,400 more. However, throwing $83 million in one-time stimulus at education to hire more teachers (which won’t improve student achievement) is just another example of bipartisan irresponsibility in the Silver State.

Good teachers vs. bad teachers

Is your child's teacher any good?

The L.A. Times collected data, via information request, on student achievement in the L.A. Unified School District, then handed the information over to the Rand Corporation for study. Using value added assessment, Rand and the L.A. Times found that there was a night-and-day difference between the quality of teachers at many schools. Some teachers were so bad that their students fell behind their peers. Others, so good that their students went from being below average to above average.

Unfortunately, union-imposed rules prevent school districts from rewarding high-quality teachers. Unions prefer the mind-dulling, lock-step pay system that rewards teachers for years of service rather than quality and, as a result, promotes mediocrity.

African-Americans like charter schools

Last week several civil rights groups, like the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, attacked the concept of charter schools in a report (both groups have since distanced themselves from the report, but not necessarily from their attack on charter schools). But as it turns out, a majority of African-Americans now support charter schools.

Dr. Paul Peterson of Harvard University writes in the Wall Street Journal,

“Each year we provided respondents the same, neutral description of charter schools, followed by the question: "Do you support or oppose the formation of charter schools?" Those interviewed were also given the choice of saying they "neither support or oppose" charters.

Support for charters among African Americans rose to 49% in 2009, up from 42% in 2008. This year it leapt upward to no less than 64%. Among Hispanics support jumped to 47% in 2010, from 37% in 2008.

Opposition to charters is expressed by 14% of African-Americans and 21% of Hispanics. Twenty-three percent of African-Americans and 33% of Hispanics take a neutral position.

Among the public as a whole, charter supporters currently outnumber opponents by a margin of better than 2 to 1. Forty-four percent say they are in favor of charters, while 19% stand in opposition. Parents in general are even more supportive of charter schools: 51% like them, 15% don't.”

So why are civil rights groups ignoring their constituents? Dr. Peterson concludes,

“By casting their lot firmly with teachers unions, the leadership of the NAACP and the Urban League hope to preserve their power and safeguard their traditional sources of financial support. Not only is this is a cynical strategy, it ignores where African-Americans and Hispanics are on the issue. Thankfully, the Obama administration is paying attention to the needs of low-income, minority communities and not to their purported leaders."

For more on this subject, check out my new commentary, titled "Civil rights groups’ education proposal misses the mark."

Dirty fighting from teacher unions

The teacher unions publicly support the teaching of evolution in biology classes ... unless denying it can help their favored politician win. Allegedly, the Alabama Education Association funneled money to Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert Bentley in support of his bid to defeat fellow Republican Bradley Byrne in the party’s run-off election.

According to FactCheck.org, "the teachers’ PAC gave $1.5 million to 10 PACs, which in turn gave nearly $1 million to True Republican PAC. Joe Cottle, a lobbyist for the teachers’ group, is the treasurer of five of the PACs, and Rudy Davidson, a former education lobbyist and a contributor to A VOTE, was treasurer of four others. Such PAC-to-PAC contributions are legal. Cottle told us they are necessary in cases when a candidate or group doesn’t want to be publicly associated with AEA — which is unpopular in some circles, particularly in a Republican primary — but wants its money, or when the AEA wants to help moderate Republicans."

After the money was laundered through teacher union front groups, it was used to attack Byrne with political ads stating that Byrne supports teaching evolution, something the teacher union also supports. Now that’s hypocrisy.


Hat tip to Jay P. Greene.

Teacher union power

*Most Americans view unions unfavorably, but because the American public respects and admires the teaching profession, the teacher unions have become adept at drawing on this positive sentiment to appear more friendly and less self-interested.

Wearing pastels doesn't make Darth Vador any less evil and talking about "the children" doesn't make unions any less self-interested.

Not only do the teacher unions have more power and influence than the largest corporations on earth, but they protect bad teachers in the classrooms and block meaningful reforms that benefit students. Bad teachers pay dues and, well, education reforms decentralize power and reduce union influence.

Read the Education Next article titled "Invisible Ink in Teacher Contracts" to learn more about the power and influence of the teacher unions.