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INSIDE IOWA STATE
February 15, 2002
Examining school choice
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Chris Lubienski looks for further evolution in home schooling and
charter schools in the years ahead. Photo by Bob Elbert.
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by Kevin Brown
Children. Choice. Competition. Innovation. Collectively, these words define
the research interest -- school choice -- of Christopher Lubienski,
assistant professor of curriculum and instruction.
Lubienski researches school choice in the United States and other nations.
His work includes historical and international comparative studies of
education policy. He studies how and why the different systems come into
being, and what educational goals they pursue.
"School choice is on the cutting edge of social policy," he said, "and quite
controversial."
Recently, Lubienski examined more than 100 studies on independent charter
schools and similar schools in other nations to see how devolution
(decentralizing authority), choice and competition are changing what's
happening in the classroom.
Charter schools are publicly funded, but run independently from established
boards of education. They first appeared in Minnesota in the early 1990s.
Approved in 38 states, charter schools do not exist yet in Iowa.
Some charter schools are operated by for-profit companies and, ideally, all
are accountable to market forces. Charter schools often are accused of
taking the best students from school districts, Lubienski said.
He concluded that while school choice reformers tout "innovation in the
classroom" as a major goal of charter schools, that isn't always the result.
"There is often a lot of innovation at the administrative level," Lubienski
said. "There are new ways of looking at employment and marketing, such as
advertising campaigns. But in the classroom, practices are quite similar to
those seen in public schools."
Lubienski said some autonomous schools seem to get "captured" by the
competitive environment and focus on copying successful programs in other
schools, rather than on developing new concepts themselves.
"They have the opportunities and incentives to innovate," he said, "but
often use that freedom to do things that are rather familiar."
Several options
Other school choice options Lubienski looks at are home schooling and
vouchers. Home schooling is a broad and increasingly popular movement used
by parents for a variety of reasons -- from religious and social concerns,
to a strong desire to individualize instruction for the child.
In the voucher system, public and private schools compete against each other
to attract students and the publicly funded voucher that comes with each
student. Iowa does not have a voucher program, but is among a handful of
states (and the number is growing) that provide tax credits for such
choices.
Some inner-city school districts have used vouchers to encourage
lower-income families to seek education in more desirable school settings.
Lubienski said that the results of these programs are hotly debated.
"There is mixed evidence on academic gains for children in these programs,"
he said. "But there is some concern that increased segregation results,
leading to overall declines in social and academic indicators."
Charter schools and the larger issue of school choice have impacted public
education, Lubienski said.
"Schools are becoming more responsive to parents," he said. "They are
re-orienting themselves to focus on consumers. However, we need to ask: Are
schools businesses?"
Schools also are borrowing a page from the home schooling movement by
focusing on back-to-basics curricula, embracing older but neglected methods
like the Montessori approach (stressing self initiative), or developing new
systems of delivering education over the Internet, Lubienski noted.
Redefining "public"
Many school choice advocates argue for an expanded concept of what "public"
school means, he said. They believe that private and independent schools can
better serve families in many instances. Therefore, they argue, these
schools should be considered "public" because they serve the public, and
should receive public funding.
Lubienski said mid-19th century reformers established the popular definition
of public schooling based on public access, funding and governance.
The system was based on the idea that taxpayers funded the schools and ought
to have some say in school governance, he said. "In that sense, tax money
for schools outside public control could be considered taxation without
representation."
In the 1960s and 1970s, liberals and some Marxists endorsed the idea of
vouchers to empower poor families. Today, conservative agendas focusing on
family values have embraced these reform movements.
Many associate the voucher idea with Milton Friedman's writings in the
1950s and 1960s, Lubienski noted, but the voucher idea for education
actually goes back to the writings of Adam Smith and Thomas Paine.
Looking ahead
On the horizon, Lubienski said, is online home schooling and for-profit
charter schools that could encourage further privatization of education.
"The wave of the future may be tax credits to support educational choice,"
he said. "This is a reality in Iowa, and it's attracting the attention of
policymakers throughout the U.S."
Lubienski also noted that while people seem to embrace the concepts of
charter and voucher systems in polls, those same ideas "tend to get
trounced" when they appear on ballots.
"That's when people consider choice not as an abstract ideal, but as a
reality with immediate repercussions for them."
Originally from Michigan, Lubienski came to Iowa State in 1999 with his
wife, Sarah Lubienski, also a member of the curriculum and instruction
faculty, and two daughters. Iowa's emphasis on public education weighed
heavily on their decision to move their young family here.
"This is a great time and place to be studying these issues," he said.
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Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-4111
Published by: University Relations,
online@iastate.edu
Copyright © 1995-2001, Iowa State University. All rights reserved.
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