Morning Shots

In 2001, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge battled with Democratic state legislators to create a corporate scholarship tax credit program to bring the state’s families school choice. Five years later, Ridge’s tax credit has strong bipartisan support and is a model for other states. And just two weeks ago, Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, signed legislation expanding the program.

The 2001 school choice law offers corporations tax incentives to fund private school scholarships and “school improvement” projects at public schools. Under the law, corporations can claim a tax credit of up to 75 cents per dollar for a one-year contribution and 90 cents for a two-year contribution.

Initially, the tax credit was capped at $20 million for private school scholarship donations and $10 million for public school donations. Since 2001, it has been has expanded, reaching an annual cap of $44 million in 2005.

Businesses have been eager to participate. Last year, contributions hit the cap for private school scholarships just days after tax credits became available, raising $44 million to help 27,000 students attend private schools.

But many more children could receive scholarships if more tax credits were available. In 2005, more than 500 companies were unable to participate because of the cap. Responding to this strong demand, this week Gov. Rendell agreed to support legislation that expands the tax credit program—with a new annual cap of $54 million, the expanded tax credit will pay for thousands of additional scholarships.

Gov. Rendell’s support demonstrates growing bipartisan support for tax credit-based scholarships. Last month, Republican gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann proposed doubling the cap for corporate contributions to Pennsylvania’s scholarship program. Gov. Rendell’s office responded by pointing to the governor’s record of raising the cap in 2003 and 2005.

Across the country, corporate scholarship tax credits have become a popular way to expand school choice. The

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(This is the third in a series of articles from an ed school student working towards certification as a math teacher.  His first article is here, and his second here.  For reasons that will likely be quite obvious, he prefers to remain anonymous. -ed.)

For those of you who read my last missive regarding the highly agreeable professor, I’m sure it comes as no surprise that he would be the first to agree with the comments posted that many problems have only one answer—the right one.  I didn’t mean to pick on the guy so much.  He was merely echoing ed school wisdom about math education.  In ed school parlance, when more than one answer exists for a question, the thinking used to come up with answers is called “divergent”.  When only one answer exists, the thinking is called “convergent”.

In ed school, “divergence” is considered a good thing and “convergence” looked upon with disdain.  I think ed school teachers take an oath to uphold these beliefs as part of an attempt to turn math into a “divergent thinking” type of subject like social studies or English.  Such thinking reflects a significant and depressing lack of understanding of what math is about.  A math professor recently commented to me about this lack of understanding with respect to how it is taught:

“One problem I see that arises from how math is taught before college is that we get some math majors (who don’t all stay majors) who have a completely incorrect notion of what math is.  I’m not sure what they think it is, but when they have to take a course like abstract algebra and are asked to do proofs, they think this has nothing to do with math. Exposure

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A quarter-century ago, Washington D.C. voters considered a ballot initiative to bring widespread school choice to the District.

When the initiative went down by a margin of 9-to-1, then-Mayor Marion Barry crowed that its defeat sent the message that “nobody ought to mess with our public schools.”

Since 1981, not messing with the District public schools has resulted in hundreds of thousands of largely low-income and minority children passing through a school system that left them with some of the lowest achievement rates and highest dropout rates in the nation.

In the 25 years since that vote, as many as 50,000 students have dropped out of D.C. high schools — almost enough to fill RFK Stadium.

Twenty-five years later, D.C. parents are giving school choice a second look, and they like what they see. The result: sweeping education reforms that affect all District schools.

Today, the city’s 65 public charter schools enroll 20,000 children — more than a quarter of the District’s total student body. These students learn in schools that are free from many regulations that govern traditional public schools but, in turn, must meet performance standards.

Charter schools have embraced this flexibility, adopting innovative education models.

For example, a KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) Academy in the southeast neighborhood has dramatically increased the tests scores of its largely low-income student population. The KIPP school was the highest performing middle school in the District last year. The Thurgood Marshall Public Charter High School in Anacostia, created by Georgetown Law graduates, focuses on college preparation and a career in law.

All 18 of the school’s first graduating class were admitted to college in 2005.

In addition, 1,700 children attend private schools using vouchers through the federally funded D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. Research shows that opportunity scholarships have improved parents’ satisfaction with their children’s school. The Washington Scholarship

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