EAST LANSING, Mich. - When a voter considers the issue of school choice, many questions arise. Who will benefit the most from these changes? What schools will likely be the recipients of public funding? How ready are we for this change in the way we've traditionally educated our children?
In an effort to bring these issues into focus, Michigan State University's newly founded Education Policy Center has released a new report that provides a detailed account of the school choice debate.
"The School Choice Debate: Framing the Issues" zeroes in on five critical areas: governance, equity and access, innovation, student outcomes and accountability.
"The goal of the report is to lay out some of the issues that citizens should consider when thinking about school choice," said David Plank, director of the center and professor in the Department of Educational Administration. "We seek to go beyond simply whether charter schools or voucher programs are good or bad. The fact is that school choice is here to stay. And as the report chronicles, those in favor and against school choice policies draw on arguments rooted in competing beliefs about schooling in a democratic society.
"In the report, we detail the opposing views and give citizens a broader context for thinking about a very contentious public policy issue."
The report is an outgrowth of the International Conference on School Choice and Educational Change convened at MSU last year. Advocates and critics of school choice policies attended the conference to present arguments for and against school choice. The report analyzes the debate and the various positions advocated during the three-day conference.
In the report, Plank and colleague Gary Sykes, a professor in the Department of Teacher Education, point out that the available evidence suggests that school choice policies have not had the dramatic positive effects that advocates promised nor the devastating negative impact that critics feared.
But neither charter schools nor voucher programs have been in place for very long, and while studied intensively, "assessment of their effects remain provisional at best."
The report contains other chapters that examine such issues as whether choice enhances educational opportunities available to poor children and whether the reforms make schools more accountable for their performance.
Along with Plank and Sykes, the authors of the various sections of the report are: Richard Hula and Michael Mintrom, professors in the Department of Political Science; David Arsen, associate professor in the James Madison College; Robert Floden, professor in the College of Education; and Brenda Neuman-Sheldon, a researcher at Policy Studies Associates in Washington, D.C.
The Education Policy Center's mission is to improve the quality of education in Michigan by providing access to timely, credible, and nonpartisan policy research and analysis to key audiences in Michigan's education policy system.
For more information or a copy of the report, please contact Plank at (517) 355-4494, or Victor Inzunza, College of Education, at 355-1826.