In Depth

Education in Pennsylvania is in terrible shape.  Appallingly terrible!  More than half the kids cannot read at grade level, and two-thirds cannot meet the math requirements.  Clearly and without a doubt, whatever we’re currently doing with education is not working.   But what needs to be done to fix things?   The best solution is to get Harrisburg’s politicians and bureaucrats completely out of the way by privatizing the schools.  Read all about the privatization plan details here.  But if the political will cannot be mustered to save our children by privatizing the schools, there are several baby steps that can be taken legislatively to incrementally improve education.  Highest priority first, they include:

 Enacting Anti-Lobbying Rules for Teachers and Teacher Unions.  Statistics show that 95% of all teacher and teacher union political contributions go to Democrat politicians to lobby against reforms such as Charter Schools, homeschooling, vouchers, cyber schools, apprentice programs, and Parental School Choice, among many others.  Federal law currently forbids lobbying by federal employees and unions; the same rules should be enacted in Pennsylvania.  That means that teachers would not be allowed to lobby, tell individuals or outside organizations to contact their legislators, or provide support to lobbying campaigns by third parties such as trade associations or non-profit organizations.  Teachers and their unions would monitor external websites in press releases and social media to ensure there are no lobbying campaigns added.  In general, the ability of teachers to lobby or fund political initiatives should be eliminated using the federal regulation as a guide.  The fox should not be guarding the henhouse.

 Parental School Choice. Pennsylvania schools are an effective monopoly—and not just any old monopoly; they’re a government-controlled monopoly.  Approximately 90% of all students attend the same school system—the government school system—and like any monopoly, costs are higher, choices are fewer, and quality is far from adequate.  One of the best ways to cut back this choking monopoly is to introduce competition, and the ideal way to do that is to bring parents back into the equation.  Specifically, parents should be given the power to choose any government school for their child, and the funding which would have gone to their local school would instead follow the child to the school of the parent’s choice.  That way the better schools would grow, and the worst ones would be forced to close down.  Best of all, it would be parents deciding what is best, not some politician or unelected bureaucrat.  By introducing Parental School Choice, education would improve for the same educational dollar.  Students would no longer be chained to an underperforming school based solely on their zip code.  They’ll be guaranteed to get a better education—where “better” is defined by the parents.

End Teacher Tenure.  Imagine if there were a law guaranteeing your job for life.  No imagination is necessary, because this is the reality with public school teachers today.  But it is easy to imagine how this law could protect underperforming teachers.  Only for egregious misconduct can teachers be fired—and even then, only after a lengthy review process and their day in court.  A study by The New Teacher Project (TNTP) found that less than 1% of tenured teachers were dismissed for performance reasons annually, even in low-performing schools, thereby shielding ineffective teachers from accountability.  Oddly, granting tenure is only required for public school teachers, not private schools.  Virtually all non-union jobs in Pennsylvania are generally considered “at-will employment” where an employer or employee can terminate employment at any time for any reason.  Unfortunately, approximately 75% of experienced teachers are tenured, and such widespread tenure likely contributes to poor student performance.  If tenure were working, student results would reflect its value.  But they don’t.  Replacing tenure with at-will contracts would reward excellence, improve student results, and parents would receive greater value for their tax dollars

Merit-Based Bonuses for Teachers.  It’s a fact that some teachers are better than others, and they should be rewarded for their skill.  Bonuses for teachers should be awarded based on how many of their students score in the top 50^th percentile of a statewide standardized test.   Another approach would be to reward a teacher for a close correlation between a student’s report card and their standardized test scores.  Should a student get an A in a subject but fail the test, surely something is amiss.  Conversely, should a student get an F in a subject, yet score highly in the test, again something is out of kilter.  But if the report card and test score fall in the same good ball park, the teacher should be rewarded for their competence.  Note how this would also work to prevent grade inflation—and grade retaliation. 

 Limiting School Tax Increases:  Reform the existing Act 1 index calculations to include all fund balances when deciding if taxes can be raised.  Currently, districts can often ignore certain large fund balances when applying for exceptions, leading to unnecessary tax increases.   This reform has been recommended by the Auditor General for many years to address persistent issues in high-reserve districts.  If implemented, it could save taxpayers millions annually while maintaining school funding stability.  Needless tax increases would end.

 Ending the Administrator Bloat.  Pennsylvania’s population is shrinking, as is the student population, demonstrated by a 10% drop over the last ten years.  That trend is being driven by several factors, including persistent low birth rates (1.5 babies/woman) and net out-migration (-20,000/year), not to mention the shift to homeschooling and private education.  Despite that contraction, since 2000 the number of administrators in Pennsylvania schools has increased 40% from about 7,000 to almost 10,000, while enrollment has dropped 7.7% to 1.7 million, with 139,000 fewer students.  And those trends are sure to continue.   The ratio of administrators to students should return to its historical average of one per 80 students in 2000, rather than one per 45 students currently.  Education should not be a jobs program for administrators.

 Periodic Zero-Based Budgeting. To help keep expenses in line with current reality and future goals, every school budget should be re-evaluated from a clean start every five years.  By periodically resetting school budgets to zero, unnecessary or redundant spending becomes more obvious.  Spending is tied more directly to strategic priorities, and promotes consistent, auditable data for analysis and reporting.  Re-justifying each and every expense periodically is sure to uncover waste and reduce expenses.  Keeping the same budgeting flywheel spinning would not.

 In summary, these band aids would marginally improve education in Pennsylvania, but the best solution remaining is to privatize the schools.  Given the lack of political will in Harrisburg, the best way to achieve any of these reforms—and apparently the ONLY way—is to vote Libertarian.