Romney Education Plan Could Eliminate School District Lines

May 30, 2012 | 1:23 PM

By John O'Connor

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP

Fomer Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney’s education plan would effectively erase school district boundaries — allowing city students to enroll in the surburban schools they’ve eyed enviously, James E. Ryan writes in the New York Times.

Mr. Romney’s proposal, if put in place, could change that. Most directly, and perhaps most dramatically, Mr. Romney’s proposal would force — yes, force — suburban districts to accept city students, a step that the Supreme Court refused to take back in 1974. As Mr. Romney said in a white paper also released last week, he would require states to “adopt open-enrollment policies that permit eligible students to attend public schools outside of their school district.”

In doing so, Mr. Romney’s proposal would target the real source of educational inequality in this country: school district boundaries, which wall off good school systems from failing ones. The grossest inequalities in educational opportunity today exist between school districts, not inside them.

If Mr. Romney’s proposal is sincere, it would place him far to the left of the Obama administration when it comes to educational opportunity. Mr. Obama has focused on improving teacher evaluations, promoting common academic standards, turning around failing schools and increasing charter schools. Fine and sensible? Maybe. Bold? Hardly. Bold is giving poor city kids the right to attend good suburban schools.

Florida has been inching towards this idea, allowing students in chronically low-performing schools to cross district lines if space is available.

Some states and school districts collect property taxes at the local level. That leaves districts with lots of businesses or high property values better off than those with a lower property tax base.

But Florida pools property taxes and distributes the money to districts based on enrollment. Do district lines still matter? What do you think?

Topics

Creating Competition Through School Choice

Comments

http://www.facebook.com/people/Herb-Smith/100003517683848 Herb Smith

The critical issue here is who would pay. Would the inner city poor kid’s parents be stuck with paying for the transportation to the suburban school and also some tuition charges imposed because they have an out-of-district student? Further, would the out-of-district parent get to choose the particular school in the suburban district? That’s a privilege that even the taxpayers/residents of a district may not get.

I’m glad that you included the link to the Romney white paper where presumably the answers can be found.
- StateImpactJOC
  
  Herb,
  
  Good points.
  
  I don’t see any of those issues addressed in the white paper, which only speaks to who chooses how to spend Title I and IDEA money. In addition, the open districts policy carries the caveat of only applying to schools “that have the capacity to serve them.”
smazie

“Florida has been inching towards this idea, allowing students in chronically low-performing schools to cross district lines if space is available.”

This hints at the fundamental absurdity of Romney’s plan: there won’t be nearly enough seats at good schools to accommodate low-income students from failing schools! And Romney’s plan does nothing to rescue middle class students stuck in bad schools.

I blogged on these and other problems with the Romney plan at Big Think today:

http://bigthink.com/praxis/the-absurdity-of-romneys-education-plan

Topics

Comments

About StateImpact

Economy

Education

Energy