“There is no respect in which inhabitants of a low-income neighborhood are so disadvantaged as in the kind of schooling they can get for their children.” Economist Milton Friedman

Given the fact that Montana continuously ranks near dead last in the country in average wages and our “low-income neighborhoods” arguably encompass our whole state, it should not go un-noticed that Montana also ranks dead last nationally in educational choice reforms as well. The Center for Education Reform ranks Montana 51st (even behind Washington D.C.) in its Parent Power Index. And Friedman’s economic analysis is spot on: There may be a direct connection between Montana’s failure to provide educational freedom to our impoverished families and the continued multi-generational stagnation of economic opportunity in Montana.

Of course it is the entrenched special interests such as government union bosses and bureaucrats who block any and all attempts at true reform, insisting that the only answer is to throw more money at a system that al-ready spends $11,530 per student statewide. This means the average Montana worker’s entire annual salary is devoured educating just 3 kids for nine months. This tired “increase spending” non-solution is repeated despite the fact that there are at least 138 studies nationwide which prove that level of funding bears no statistical corre-lation to quality of education.

To the contrary, numerous studies reveal real education reform which does work – and the key ingredient is true educational choice. Even think tanks like the Brookings Institution concur that both public and private schools do a better job educating kids in “market” environments where there is true competition on a level play-ing field, as opposed to monopoly areas (such as Montana) where public schools have no real competition.

Even Democrat researchers John Chubb and Terry Moe concluded: “Conventional education reforms have been generally unsuccessful in halting the decline in [school] performance and have little potential for doing so… The key to better schools is …greater school autonomy… competition and parental choice. …Although the goal of educational choice is to give our children a better education, it would also eliminate stultifying and expensive educational bureaucracies and may yield significant savings.”

Montana has the OPI bureaucracy, the MSBA bureaucracy, Board of Education bureaucracy, MEA bureauc-racy, MHSA bureaucracy, MASA bureaucracy, MQEC bureaucracy, local superintendents bureaucracy, and county superintendents bureaucracy – each with their own fleet of lobbyists to intimidate and indoctrinate your legislators; all paid directly or indirectly at taxpayer expense, all claiming that increased spending is necessary “for the sake of the children,” despite scores of studies proving otherwise.

If the last third of a century of world history taught us anything, it taught that government-run monopolies don’t work. Free market competition produces a better product at lower cost. Yet, when it comes to education, strangely Montana remains in the dark ages of government-run monopoly with no form of publicly-funded educational choice whatsoever. Because legislators and governors alike fear the political power of these en-trenched educratic special interests, past legislatures refused to give Montana parents the consumer power needed to dent Montana’s monolithic, monopolistic, non-responsive, inefficient education bureaucracy. So Montana is left in the dust of educational reform as the only western jurisdiction in the U.S. or Canada with no school choice of any kind. (Longstanding successful Alberta and British Columbia school choice plans both dis-prove the old canard that school choice can’t work in low-population rural states).

This is National School Choice Week. To counteract the stagnating weight of these entrenched special-interests, Montana parents and taxpayers need to rise up. Contact your legislators. Urge them to support true education reform bills like SB81 (Scholarship Tax Credit) and HB213 (Tuition Tax Credit), which will enable low and moderate income Montana families to have the same freedom as the rich to choose education options for their children. Not only will this give parents and kids more choices to find the educational setting which is best for them; it will also improve public school effectiveness and efficiency… because Milton Friedman was right – free market competition always leads to better service at better cost.

Former State Senator Joe Balyeat now serves as State Director of Americans for Prosperity – Montana. He is a Na-tional Merit Scholar UM graduate, (in 2 ½ years, straight A’s)… entirely a product of Montana’s public and private schools.

The Center for Education Reform, a national non-profit tasked with improving public education, has released an encompassing report that grades parental empowerment, solid educational choices, teacher quality and access to digital learning, among other factors. That Pennsylvania ranks in the top ten of all states can be viewed as proof educational reforms in the commonwealth are beginning to take hold.

According to the annual findings released in the Parent Power Index, Pennsylvania trails Indiana, which ranks first; Florida; Ohio; Arizona; Washington, D.C.; Louisiana and Minnesota. Wisconsin and Utah round out the top ten.

The PPI is an interactive, accessible online tool that collects and itemizes data critical to judging the gains and deficiencies in a parent’s control of their child’s education. The index is designed to provide in-depth information to not only parents, but to stakeholders, politicians and education policymakers as well.

“All across America, parents are demanding more power over their children’s education, but the task of sorting through all the information out there is daunting,” said Center for Education Reform President Jeanne Allen. “There are a variety of resources available to evaluate how students are achieving, but there is widespread disagreement about what constitutes sound education reform policy.

As the mother of college students, I liken the PPI to a cumulative GPA, which is a composite of grades from varying professors,” Allen continued. “In this case, these professors are among the nation’s leading authorities and critical evaluators of education policy.”

Each state is graded on five broad categories: school choice, charter schools, online learning, teacher quality and transparency, and the findings related to Pennsylvania are interesting.

For example, the state received points for having a pro-education reform governor in Tom Corbett, but suffered due to limitations in the so-called parent-trigger law, which allows parents to force a change of district leadership if said district doesn’t meet the parents’ standards. The state also received credit for the number and quality of charter schools, for providing school choice and supporting a performance-based pay structure.

Pennsylvania’s overall PPI grade is 74.5 percent.

“A high number of digital learning options prevail alongside charter schools that serve a significant number of students throughout the state. The state affords parents many good information sources and allows them to vote for their elected school boards in traditionally-timed elections,” read PPI’s Pennsylvania summary. “The state’s teacher quality measures are weak, however, and more and better options across all schooling structures are needed and much in demand.”

Pennsylvania was shown to be slightly deficient is several areas, however. On the matter of school choice, the index found that Pennsylvania has two private school choice programs, and that the commonwealth does have a charter school law. Pennsylvania enables public virtual schooling, but needs to address its limited open enrollment policies.

In terms of transparency, the index singled out the School District of Philadelphia and the School Reform Commission for their openness; however, improvements must be made in terms of educating parents about other, less traditional modes of education.

“Pennsylvania’s department of education website is parent-friendly and school report cards are accessible. It is next to impossible, however, to find information on charter or cyber school options. Generally, elections for the 501 local school boards in Pennsylvania are held in November of odd-numbered years,” read the index. “Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission is governed by an appointed panel. Harrisburg and Chester Upland are governed by state appointed boards of control, although their local boards still operate with limited authority.”

The index also shows that Pennsylvania graduates 80.5 percent of its high school students, while the average SAT score is 1473 and the average ACT score is 22.3; of import, Pennsylvania spends an average of $12,418 on per-pupil funding.

“The index’s ‘Top Ten’ prove that when parents have access to options and good information, all children can succeed,” Allen said. “Lawmakers need to look to these exemplars and the policies that have afforded parents greater power elsewhere and act as fast to bring real education reform to their respective states.

“Parents and voters have declared that mediocrity is no longer acceptable,” Allen added, “and our elected officials have a mandate to fix out educational and economic problems for good.”

Dear Friends,

I hope you all found time this weekend to go see Won’t Back Down. Now that it is in theaters, parents are seeing the movie and wondering if – and how – they can take control of their child’s education. Lucky for them, our Parent Power Index© can tell them just that.

As I mentioned to you last week, there are powerful anti-reform groups actively working against this movie, including the teachers unions. They fear that old adage that “information is power.” So we’ll double our efforts to make sure parents get the power they need and deserve.

We know firsthand the enormous tasks that parents can accomplish on behalf of their children when given the right tools and information. The Center has since 1993 counseled thousands of parents and activists on how to improve their schools, and with the tools we’ve created they’ve started schools, changed laws, and taken back their communities. And to meet the demands of anyone’s schedule our new Take 5 Minutes and Take Back Your Schools gives actionable tools to anyone wanting to get engaged now.

Thousands have already explored the Parent Power Index© and with your help in spreading the word we can create the next grassroots revolution in American education. So tell your friends and neighbors to visit the Parent Power Index© and become part of the national imperative to secure real, substantive improvement in all schools!

Thank You!

Jeanne Allen
President

Education reform film “Won’t Back Down” opened Friday to terrible reviews – and high hopes from activists who expect the movie to inspire parents everywhere to demand big changes in public schools.

The drama stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as a spirited mother who teams up with a passionate teacher to seize control of their failing neighborhood school, over the opposition of a self-serving teachers union.

Reviewers called it trite and dull, but education reformers on both the left and right have hailed the film as a potential game-changer that could aid their fight to weaken teachers’ unions and inject more competition into public education.

Private foundations, nonprofit advocacy groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have pumped more than $2 million into advocacy efforts tied to “Won’t Back Down,” including 30-second ads, promotional bookmarks, websites, private screenings and a six-month, cross-country discussion tour that will keep the film in circulation long after it leaves theaters.

Their goal: To attract new foot soldiers who will help them fight for legislation that allows parents to seize control of local schools, as dramatized in the film; eliminates tenure protections for veteran teachers; and opens the door for more competition to neighborhood schools in the form of charters, which are publicly funded but privately run.

“This movie has the potential to be one of the most transformative vehicles in the history of education reform,” said Ben Austin, a longtime Democratic activist.

Austin now runs Parent Revolution, which promotes “parent trigger” laws allowing parents unhappy with struggling schools to take control, fire teachers and bring in private management.

His organization is holding 35 private screenings of “Won’t Back Down” in states from Georgia to Utah to New York over the next month to rally more parents to the cause. “This movie is telling a story that’s relevant to hundreds of thousands of parents across America,” Austin said.

Union leaders, for their part, have slammed the movie as a propaganda film that bears little resemblance to reality.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, has called it “egregiously misleading” and complained that several scenes seemed designed for “the sole purpose of undermining people’s confidence in public education, public school teachers and teacher unions.”

Parent groups that support teachers’ unions have organized protests outside some screenings. And they’ve been gleefully posting negative reviews of “Won’t Back Down” on Facebook and Twitter.

PUSH FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS

So far, the reform coalition has ignored the bad reviews and pushed ahead with their marketing efforts.

The drive to capitalize on the movie grows out of lingering disappointment within the education reform community over the last major film to carry their message, the documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman.’”

Produced by Walden Media, which is also behind “Won’t Back Down,” the documentary chronicled dysfunction in urban schools and the desperation of parents trying to find alternatives for their children.

“Waiting for ‘Superman’” was well-received and widely viewed, thanks to backing by the Gates Foundation. But activists hoping for a big boost from the film were disappointed.

“We didn’t feel we captured anyone,” said Matt David, a consultant to Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of Washington D.C. public schools and a major figure in the reform movement. Many viewers walked out angry at the public school system, he said, but had no way to channel that emotion into action.

This time, Rhee is moving quickly to provide a channel. Her advocacy group, StudentsFirst, has bought 30-second ads to run before showings of “Won’t Back Down” in 1,500 theaters and sponsored marketing efforts to drive viewers to her website.

That website has been revamped to feature an “action center” where people moved by the film can sign up to join StudentsFirst, view short videos about its agenda (including one from comedian and newly appointed board member Bill Cosby), and share their own experiences with public schools.

The Center for Education Reform’s website urges viewers to launch their own charter schools to compete with public schools. “You don’t need a PhD or a teaching degree to start a school,” the center’s website advises. “Remember, you can do it now.”

The most enduring campaign linked to the film may be the six-month “Breaking the Monopoly of Mediocrity” tour arranged by the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Drawing on a $1.2 million grant from the Daniels Fund, the group plans to stage private screenings and discussion forums for business and civic leaders in cities from Memphis, Tennessee, to El Paso, Texas, to Trenton, New Jersey.

The American Federation of Teachers is countering with its own series of town hall meetings and workshops across the country designed to present teachers – and unions – as natural allies of parents seeking to better their schools.

Thank You!,
Jeanne Allen
President

A parent revolution is underway, and most Americans don’t have a clue it’s happening. That’s because most of us – concerned as we are about the environment, jobs and our own family’s sustainability – think education is someone else’s responsibility. And the self-perceived “owners” of the traditional education system – The Blob – stand in the way of virtually all meaningful education reform and work hard to give you the sense that everything is under control.

But reality has a way of intruding. Parents are waking up to the disturbing reality that they have no influence over where and how their children are educated. With eyes increasingly opened, they seek out others who have similar epiphanies and band together to change things. And then, like something out of a bad movie (cue creepy music) The Blob kicks into gear. The moment these parents gain any traction for real change, they find information that confirms they are not alone and they are off. And then, they are immediately maligned by phony Blob front groups portraying themselves as parent-friendly.

Case in point: As I was sitting at home on a recent Friday night, bracing myself for the week ahead when I’d be dropping my two youngest at college, I decided to tweet my pleasure over Teachers Rock, a solid hour on prime time TV whose star studded cast paid tribute to rank and file teachers. Such teachers move mountains for children and defy the status quo, often at great personal cost. This is illustrated by the upcoming feature film Won’t Back Down, which chronicles the efforts of a parent and teacher to transform their failing school. As it was advertised during the show, parent groups began praising what they saw, only to be attacked, as I was, for applauding what they watched. “Shame on you for supporting a movie that sensationalizes locking kids in dark closets as ubiquitous ‘punishment,’” bellowed someone named Colum Whyte, just one of hundreds of venomous tweets I began to witness. (An earlier version of this op-ed attributed the previous quote to Stephanie Rivera who was part of the Twitter assaults on parent trigger that night but it was not her tweet.) “A ploy against teachers and public education,” said another. By nights end there’s were more than 100 tweets attacking us, with childish name-calling to boot. These Twitter bullies are typical of what happens when the status quo feels threatened. They seek and lash out at anyone who posits things could be better, who espouses parental choice, or who suggests that the unions and The Blob might be standing in the way of real reform.

Who are they and where did they come from? Responding to a decade of major, transformative changes in public education, The Blob helped organize a new group called Save our Schools (SOS). It masquerades as a parent effort to improve education but only backs reforms that the status quo embraces – more money and lower class size, neither of which has been shown to improve education. They neither address better ways to spend money, nor ensure accountability. They just want more of one, less of the other and oppose the same reforms the teachers unions fight daily.

SOS chapters across the country have long protested the creation of charter schools, bullying anyone who endorses them and stampeding statehouses to strong-arm legislators, too many of whom irrationally fear this vocal, extremist minority. They oppose testing and loathed NCLB, the nation’s first federal attempt to tie federal spending to accountability. SOS and The Blob successfully convinced the nation’s lawmakers that NCLB was hurting schools, though it was actually the flawed implementation by school districts that did so by imposing wildly unpopular rigidity in instructional delivery that was neither the intent nor requirement of the law.

SOS eventually took to marching to Washington where some mistook it for a true grassroots movement of ordinary citizens. What a put-up job! I saw the buses roll in, the professional signs waving, the well-funded tents, and the polished speeches. I listened to people as they talked about how they had been bused in by their unions. Ordinary people? No, these were people whose livelihoods depend on the status quo, joined by some parents, deluded into believing the fight is about “equity,” when it’s actually about power — theirs, not ours; and certainly not parents’.

Real parent power ensures that choosing a school for your child doesn’t get restricted because of one’s zip code. It allows someone with a child in a failing school to change it or have access to other options – like using technology to educate their kids.

That’s the centerpiece of Won’t Back Down, which stars Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal. It is brought to you by the same company that gave us Charlotte’s Web, Amazing Grace, and Holes. It is based on the experience of real people, and on real facts. SOS and its new allied group, Parents Across America, are doing all they can to keep you from seeing the film.

The heroic effort depicted in Won’t Back Down is becoming more common today in the 42 states with charter school, parent trigger or school choice laws. The real heroes of today’s revolution are the parents and teachers who, in the name of their children and students, fought to enact policies empowering them take back control from The Blob. Most of these heroes have neither the time nor the money to march on Washington or their statehouses, or to hang around Twitter casting aspersions. But they are out there, and they will persevere, driven by a clear and compelling need: to save their kids.

Jeanne Allen is President of the Center for Education Reform, which has been the leading voice and advocate for lasting, substantive and structural education reform in the U.S. since 1993. CER will release a Parent Power Index this fall as part of its Taking America Back to School on Education Reform campaign.

Sure, you’re happy your child is going to begin another year of learning and growth. But, at the same time you may be worried about whether or not your child is in the right environment, if the teachers are properly preparing your child for the future or if there are better options available.

Well, the Center for Education Reform is available to help.

Parent Power provides the tools for parents to become empowered and make the best decisions possible for their child’s future. For instance, Education 101 provides a quick rundown on the buzzwords and breakthroughs in schooling and education reform, and what they really mean for you and your child.

Whether you have questions about charter schools, school choice, curriculum, evaluating your child’s school, digital learning, or even how to stay involved and informed with your child’s homework, the site will help you get the answers you need.

Parents have more power over their child’s education than ever before. You just may not realize it. Parent Power will help you navigate the system and take control over your child’s learning.