- The St. Johnsbury region is rugged and sparsely populated. Income levels in the area are among the lowest in the state, with Caledonia, Orleans, and Essex counties ranking 11th, 13th, and 14th out of 14 Vermont counties in per capita income. Poverty rates are also among the highest in the state, exceeding 15 percent in each county. ("Vermont: An Economic-Demographic Profile Series--Northeast Vermont, 1999," Vermont Department of Employment and Training, p. 6.)
- Students in the St. Johnsbury region can choose from numerous public and private schools, including private academies such as the Lyndon Institute, St. Johnsbury Academy, and the Burke Academy, a unique school that combines academics with competitive ski-racing. St. Johnsbury Academy draws the lion's share of students in the region 22. (In 1998-99, St. Johnsbury Academy enrolled 600 of the 1,275 students tuitioned from the 16 tuition towns in St. Johnsbury Academy's cachement area. Source: table of tuition towns, students, and schools provided by the Vermont Department of Education to the author.)
- St. Johnsbury Academy draws students from 16 Vermont tuition towns; 13 of which have median family income levels below the Vermont statewide median family income. (Income figures provided by Arthur G. Woolf, former state economist.)
- Forty-six percent of St. Johnsbury Academy's budget comes from students receiving tuition from the state, and the remainder is generated privately. Tuition is $7,775, and towns pay the entire amount when they send children to that school. ("Vermont: An Economic-Demographic Profile Series--Southern Vermont 1999," Vermont Department of Employment and Training, pp. 9-11.)
- On the other side of the state is the Rutland region. Rutland is the second most populated county in the state and has the seventh highest per capita income, with correspondingly low poverty rates. ("Vermont: An Economic-Demographic Profile Series--Southern Vermont 1999," Vermont Department of Employment and Training, pp. 9-11.) In this region, however, most voucher students attend public schools. In fact, the majority of voucher students from the region attend Rutland City High School. (Table of tuition towns, students, and schools provided by the Vermont Department of Education to the author. In 1998-99, Rutland High School enrolled 267 of the 514 students from the nine tuition towns in its cachement area.)
- Courtesy of the Cato Institute
Florida's school choice
- In 2000, Florida instituted an innovative school choice program for children with disabilities. During the 2000-01 school year, the McKay Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities provided scholarships to more than 1,000 students who chose to attend private schools rather than remain in their neighborhood public schools. Currently, more than 8,000 special education students in Florida attend 464 private schools throughout the state. Private schools have proven their willingness to accept McKay scholarship students, and the fact that 89 percent of McKay students reenrolled in their scholarship schools demonstrates that most parents are satisfied with their chosen private school.
- Fifty percent of recipients in 2003 were white, 28 percent black, 19 percent Hispanic, and 3 percent were identified as multiracial or "other." Sixty-nine percent of scholarship recipients this year were boys and 31 percent girls. About half of all recipients were in grades five through eight, and about half (53.3%) had been categorized as learning disabled by the public school that they previously attended. The next largest categories of disability were speech- and language-impaired children, who together account for about 16 percent of McKay scholarship recipients. (Data provided by Kendra Lee, Florida Department of Education, Choice Office, Tallahassee, December 4, 2002.)
- Florida categorizes special education students using a level-of-services matrix to determine the size of each child's benefit. Historically, around 85 percent of all Florida special education students were categorized as level one or two on the matrix, meaning that those students require minimal levels of intervention due to their disability. (See Florida Department of Education, "Use of the Exceptional Student Education Matrix of Services," Appendix B: ESE Guaranteed Allocation Funding for Scholarships, Charter Schools, and DJJ Facilities, Division of Planning, Budgeting, and Management Memorandum #0204, Tallahassee, January 2002), p. 4, wwpub-home.htm.) About 83 percent of McKay scholarship recipients are matrix level one or two, again showing that scholarship students are reflective of the general special education student population. (Data provided by Kendra Lee, Florida Department of Education, Choice Office, Tallahassee, Florida, December 4, 2002. )
- One indication that the MCKay Scholarship Program is helping low-income families is that 50 percent of students using McKay scholarships in 2002-03 fell within federal income guidelines for the free or reduced lunch program in their public schools. This is a higher representation of low-income families than in the state's student population generally, where 44 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. (Florida Department of Education, "McKay Scholarship Program Data as of November 19, 2002," Florida Department of Education, Tallahassee, 2002, p. 1. See also Florida Department of Education, "2002 SEA Profile," Division of Public Schools and Community Education, Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services, Tallahassee, p. 6. )
- Currently, 547 of Florida's 1,646 private schools are registered to participate in the McKay program. Of those schools, 215 are non-religious private schools and 332 are religious schools. (Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, "Florida Facts, McKay Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities," www.miedresearchoffice.org--mckayscholarship.htm scholarship. According to Kendra Lee of the Florida Choice Office, 464 of the 547 approved private schools had enrolled McKay students as of January 7, 2003, personal communication, January 7, 2003.)
- A number of national studies show that children with learning disabilities who are placed in public school special education programs make only small annual academic gains. (Hanushek estimates that the average educational improvement for children with learning disabilities is 0.04 standard deviations in reading and 0.14 in math. See E. A. Hanushek et al., "Does Special Education Raise Academic Achievement for Students with Disabilities?" National Bureau of Economic Research, working paper no. 6690, Washington, 1998.
A later study by E. A. Hanushek, John Kain, and Steve Rivkin showed gains of 0.1 standard deviations in math for one year of special education. See E. A. Hanushek, John Kain, and Steve Rivkin, "Inferring Program Effects for Specialized Populations: Does Special Education Raise Achievement for Students with Disabilities?" University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, August 2001.)
One study reported that 80 percent of poor readers in special education classes made no measurable gain during the school year. For this reason, the bulk of students placed in special education programs remain there perpetually, never catching up to their higher achieving peers. (See J. K. Klinger et al., "Outcomes for Students with and without Learning Disabilities in Inclusive Classrooms," Learning Disabilities Research & Practice13 (1997): 153-61. See also N. Zigmond and J. M. Baker, "Concluding Comments: Current and Future Practices in Inclusive Schooling," Journal of Special Education29 (1995): 245-50.)
These low achievement gains persist even though proven methods exist for effective remediation in reading. (One such program, known as "embedded phonics," has a demonstrated record of improving reading skills in children who had made little or no progress in the preceding 16 months of special education. After an eight-week intervention using this approach, 40 percent of children are able to return to regular classes (compared to the normal rate of 5 percent for leaving special education.) See G. Reid Lyon et al., "Rethinking Learning Disabilities," in Rethinking Special Education for a New Century, ed. C.E. Finn et al. (Washington: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and Progressive Policy Institute, 2001), pp. 259-87. See also S. W. Moody et al, "Reading Instruction in the Resource Room: Set Up for Failure," Exceptional Children16 (2000): 305-16; S. R. Vaughn et al, "Broken Promises: Reading Instruction in the Resource Room," Exceptional Children 64 (1998): 211-15; and R. L. Allington and A. McGill-Franzen, "School Response to Reading Failure: Instruction for Chapter One and Special Education Students Grades Two, Four, and Eight," Elementary School Journal89 (1998) 529-42.)
- Courtesy of the Cato Institute
Arizona's tuition tax credits
- The Arizona program is relatively simple. Taxpayers who make a voluntary donation to a school tuition organization (STO) of their choice receive a matching (dollar-for-dollar) tax credit up to a maximum of $500. Thus when taxpayers make a $500 contribution, they reduce their state tax payments by $500.
- · Since the 1999 ruling by the Arizona State Supreme Court, the total number of taxpayers making donations to STOs has leapt from 4,247 in 1998 to 37,368 in 2000. [See the figure]
· In 1998, $2 million in funds was donated to provide $167,650 in scholarships for 326 families.
· By 2000, the state collected $17.2 million in donations to fund $12 million in scholarships for nearly 15,000 students. A report by the Cato Institute estimates that by 2015, the scholarship credit will generate more than $58 million per year to fund scholarships for nearly 37,000 Arizona families. The majority of STOs report that financial need is the primary criterion used to determine eligibility for scholarships. Between 70 and 80 percent of scholarships are being distributed to low-income families, offering these families choices that include private education
- Courtesy of the Cato Institute
College financial aid
- A record $105 billion in financial aid (including loans) is available to students and their families, an increase of 12 percent over last year.
· States awarded $6.9 billion in aid last year -- an average of $467 per student.
· Almost 60 percent of undergraduate students receive some form of financial aid.
· Federal Pell grants, which target low-income students, have doubled to $12 billion since 1998. (NCPA Brief Analysis #482, "Is College Too Expensive, Or More Affordable Than Ever?"
- · The Hope Scholarship Credit, started in 1998, reduces federal income taxes by up to $1,500 per year of college for each college student in a family.
· The Lifetime Learning Credit reduces taxes by up to $2,000 per family and can be taken for an unlimited number of years; however, it cannot be used along with the Hope credit. In 2003, 6.5 million families received tuition tax credits that reduced taxes an average of $1,350 per return.
- Forty-one states awarded $1.2 billion in merit aid in 2003, up 118 percent from 1998.
· At the University of Georgia, 98 percent of in-state freshmen are HOPE scholars and pay no tuition.
· Colorado is implementing the nation's first college voucher plan, giving every high school graduate up to $2,400 toward tuition.
- · Current student loan limits are extremely high -- $23,000 for dependent undergraduates -- and may encourage borrowing over saving for college.
· A Hart Research Associates poll found that half of parents surveyed had saved less than $1,000 for college.
