School Choice: Get schools out of political wars

the-liberator-logoLet’s get our kids and our schools out of the culture and political wars.

Should 4 + 4 = 8 have a political spin? Or the spelling of cat? Or the ability to read?

But vouchers and charter schools have become politically sensitive terms that trigger intense emotions on both sides of the political divide.

Arguing about vouchers and charter schools is arguing about the wrong thing.

Vouchers and charter schools aren’t magic potions that will solve the problems with our nation’s schools.

They aren’t poison pills that will destroy public schools, either.

Vouchers and charter schools simply reflect the desire by a growing number of parents for choices when it comes to deciding where to send their kids to school.

I created End The Education Plantation last year with the goal of putting parents in charge of their children’s education by putting them in charge of the money used to educate them.

I’m not an advocate of charter schools or vouchers or public schools. I’m not opposed to any of them, either. I’m for giving parents choices and for getting better results than we are today when it comes to educating our children — rich, poor or in the middle.

We propose a federal law requiring states to fund parents, not school districts. We don’t want to dictate how the states implement this, just that they do it. And we would set a floor of at least 95 percent of the total per-pupil spending by each state or school district that would be controlled by parents.

Some parents already have choices, of course. We’ve had private and parochial schools for generations. But many parents don’t have choices. Or they want more choices than the ones available to them.

I’m on the side of those parents.

Most parents aren’t classroom experts. But they know what’s good for their kids. Giving parents control over the money spent to educate their kids will turn them into consumers in a competitive marketplace. They’ll be able to choose where their kids go to school.

That will force schools to compete for their business. And that will force schools — public, private, charter or something else — to improve or go out of business.

Let’s quit arguing about vouchers and charter schools. Let’s put parents in charge, give them choices and let them decide which school they believe will do the best job of educating their children.

Henry Ford once said “any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” Look around next time you’re out on the highway. People who buy cars are choosing more colors than the one offered to them by Mr. Ford back in the days of the Model T.

It’s time to do the same with our schools.

By John Conlin on May 16, 2013   EndTheEducationPlantation.org
Categories: Home Page, School Choice, The Liberator Newsletter  
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John Conlin

John Conlin is a self-employed management consultant who lives in Littleton, Colorado. He started End The Education Plantation because he’s seen first-hand the harm being caused by our nation’s schools and believes it’s time to do something about that. Join our email list for continuing updates. And get involved. We’re a grassroots organization.


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School Choice: Fix our schools to erase poverty

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By John Conlin, Founder
End The Education Plantation

The single most accurate indicator of a child’s academic performance in the United States is their family’s income. The poorer the family, the poorer the academic performance of their children.

I know people who believe it’s okay that schools serving poor neighborhoods throughout America are failing to educate their students. Their logic? Poor people don’t care about education. So, there’s no point in educating them until they lift themselves out of poverty.

People who think this way have got it backwards.

We shouldn’t wait until poor people quit being poor to fix our schools. We need to fix our schools so fewer people will be forced to remain poor.

Poverty is a consequence of not having a good education. And education is the path out of poverty. We need to fix our schools to erase poverty, not the other way around.

Charter schools, school vouchers and other efforts to give more parents more choices have become a hotly debated political dividing line in our country.

Why? Because some see school choice as nothing more than a way for rich and middle-class white families to get the rest of us to pay for enabling them to abandon public schools in favor of something more exclusive.

But poor parents want those same choices, as Mr. Fair makes clear in his article. And they’re the ones with the most to gain from giving all parents real choices because they’re kids are the ones least likely to get a decent education today.

School choice isn’t about charter schools or vouchers. It’s about giving parents — every parent — an opportunity to send their children to schools offering them a good education.

Our solution: Put parents in charge of their children’s education by funding students, not schools. We propose a federal law that does two things:

  • Requires states to fund parents, not school districts. We don’t want to dictate how the states implement this. Just that they do it.
  • Sets a floor of at least 95% of the average total per-pupil spending by district or state that would be controlled by parents.

Most parents aren’t classroom experts. But they do know what’s good for their kids. By giving parents control over the money spent to educate their children, we will:

  • Turn parents into consumers in a competitive marketplace, giving them real choice when it comes to choosing the schools their children attend.
  • Force K-12 schools to compete for students, just as colleges and universities compete for students today. Poor-performing schools will improve or go out of business. And, with millions of families to serve, there will be huge incentives for educators to create new schools that will do a good job.
  • Force schools to treat parents and their kids as customers. Successful schools will be the ones that do the best job of serving the needs of their customers.

Or, as Mr. Fair put it: “I do not pledge allegiance to traditional public schools, charter schools or voucher schools. I don’t care about the vehicle. I care about the result. And I’ve found the result is much better when parents are allowed to make choices.”

By John Conlin on May 3, 2013   EndTheEducationPlantation.org
Categories: Education Reform, Home Page, School Choice  
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John Conlin

John Conlin is a self-employed management consultant who lives in Littleton, Colorado. He started End The Education Plantation because he’s seen first-hand the harm being caused by our nation’s schools and believes it’s time to do something about that. Join our email list for continuing updates. And get involved. We’re a grassroots organization.


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Stop blaming poor parents, empower them with school choice

T Willard Fair

By T. Willard Fair
President and CEO
Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc.

There has long been a troubling attitude in our society about low-income parents. Put bluntly, it goes like this: Poor people make poor parents.

Of course, folks in proper circles usually don’t come right out and say it, which is what made the recent comments by (Florida) state Sen. David Simmons so stunning.

When asked by the media about the parent empowerment bill, Sen. Simmons responded: “Let’s face it, the parents are the very people who haven’t been involved in their own children’s lives so as to cause the school to improve. What kind of credibility do you give to the parents in those kinds of circumstances?”

Everybody knows who he is talking about because the bill is meant to address consistently failing schools in low-income neighborhoods.

Forget about the historic neglect of these schools. Forget that school districts and unions have used them as out-of-sight, out-of-mind depositories for ineffective personnel. Forget about the long history of promoting illiterate children to certain failure just to move them through the system. Forget that many of these parents are working two minimum-wage jobs to support their children and don’t have time to form a PTA or lobby in Tallahassee.

It’s all the parents’ fault. Let’s face it.

If a school fails year after year, the judgment of those running the school should not be challenged by the parents of the children the school is failing.

The people responsible for the failure are competent, but the parents are not. They can’t be trusted with decisions about changing school management because they will get bamboozled into turning their school over to some nefarious profiteer. And during the process, they will squabble amongst themselves and create discord in the community.

So take away their power to act, and reduce them to hoping that this next time around those who have consistently failed their children will somehow get their acts together. If they don’t, then so be it. If the unions block the removal of ineffective teachers, so be it.

After all, it’s the parents fault. Let’s face it.

Maybe I would expect this out of union leaders, politicians beholden to their campaign contributions, education bureaucracies and parents who send their children to high-performing schools and see only that side of public education. But it disturbs me to see black legislators tacitly give their approval through their silence and their votes.

I have devoted the past 25 years to ensuring poor minority children have access to an equal education. In this effort, I do not pledge allegiance to traditional public schools, charter schools or voucher schools.

I don’t care about the vehicle. I care about the result. And I’ve found the result is much better when parents are allowed to make choices.

Those vested in the current system attack choice. They throw out buzz words like privatizing education or corporate reformers or destroying public education.

But this is what they don’t want people to know. The reason there are a growing number of charter schools, the reason for the long waiting lists, the reason why vouchers are so coveted, is because parents want them. And of course the only intellectually honest rebuttal to that demand is that these parents don’t know what is best for their children. (Emphasis added by The Liberator.)

Now if parents make a six-figure paycheck and can buy school choice, that is an entirely different matter.

I certainly found Sen. Simmons’ comments to be distasteful. But I do give him credit for at least having the courage and honesty to say out loud what many in the Legislature appear to be privately thinking.

Reprinted with permission of the author. This article appeared originally as a guest column in the Miami Herald. The parent empowerment bill mentioned in the article was defeated April 30 with a tie vote in the Florida Senate.

Original article: The Miami Herald

By T. Willard Fair on May 2, 2013   EndTheEducationPlantation.org
Categories: Home Page, School Choice  
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T. Willard Fair

T. Willard Fair is a former Chairman of the Florida State Board of Education, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc., and a member of the Foundation for Florida’s Future Board of Directors.


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School choice that works for everyone

Posted: Sunday, April 28, 2013
Original article can be found on Fosters.com

By John Conlin
Founder, End The Education Plantation

I believe every parent in America should have the opportunity to send their kids to a school offering them a quality education. I’m not alone.

The increasing popularity of charter schools and vouchers is a symptom of growing discontent among parents dissatisfied with the quality of the education available to their children.

One problem with charter schools and school vouchers is that they don’t benefit everyone — as The Daily Democrat has pointed out in some of its editorials.

But there’s an easy fix for that. Put parents in charge of the money spent to educate their children.

Our proposal is simple. Require any state or school district that accepts federal educational funds to provide parent-directed funding for each child equal to at least 95 percent of the average total per-pupil spending in that state or district.

Parents could use that money to send their kids to any state-approved school.

Charter schools are an effort to provide more choices to parents. But you literally have to win the lottery to get your kids into many of them because demand far exceeds supply. Our proposal eliminates this problem.

Vouchers usually don’t pay the full cost of a child’s education. So, they’re worthless to families who don’t have any money to supplement to vouchers to send their kids to a private school. Our proposal fixes this problem, too.

And, as the Daily Democrat pointed out in a recent editorial, vouchers don’t adequately accommodate special needs children unable to attend schools that don’t have programs or the money to address their unique needs.

Our solution? Adjust the amount available for special needs children, as determined by elected state officials, so the parents of these children also have choices.

The parent-directed funding we propose could be used at any state-approved school or for any state-approved learning services and other school-related needs. In short, our proposal would benefit all parents and all children.

Charter schools and vouchers have sparked a lot of controversy, partly because they don’t benefit everyone.

But charter schools and vouchers aren’t the issue. They’re symptoms of underlying parent discontent. Treating the symptoms of a disease may make you feel better, at least for a while. But, ultimately, you have to cure the disease to get well.

Our national educational system is broken.

Most fourth and eighth graders aren’t proficient in math or reading. SAT reports 12th grade reading scores are at a 40-year low. ACT, another college testing service, reports 75% of incoming college freshman are not prepared for college. Only four percent of African-American students graduate from high school ready for college. Forty percent of all college freshmen must take some sort of remedial course work. Fewer than half of college students graduate within six years. And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports 80 million to 90 million adults — about half the workforce — don’t have the skills required to get or advance in jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage.

The most common objection I hear to our proposal is that it’ll destroy our public schools. It won’t destroy them. They’re already broken. But it will force them to change.

Our proposal will force schools to compete for students. That means poor performing schools will be forced to improve or go out of business. Parents will become consumers in a competitive marketplace with the power to choose the schools their children attend.

Competition works. If you don’t believe me, name a product or service that hasn’t been improved by competition.

If your neighborhood school is doing a good job, send your kids there. If it’s not, our proposal will force it to get better. And you’ll have educators knocking at your door offering to provide a good education for your children.

The editorial that prompted me to write this article was titled “Something which is well worth the fight.” (April 23)

Let’s fix our schools. To quote the editorial that prompted this article: “That, dear readers, is something worth fighting over and fighting for — but even then in a civil fashion.”

By John Conlin on April 28, 2013   EndTheEducationPlantation.org
Categories: Media  
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John Conlin

John Conlin is a self-employed management consultant who lives in Littleton, Colorado. He started End The Education Plantation because he’s seen first-hand the harm being caused by our nation’s schools and believes it’s time to do something about that. Join our email list for continuing updates. And get involved. We’re a grassroots organization.


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Let parents dictate school funding

Posted: Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Original article can be found on Chicago Tribune.com

April 24, 2013

Regarding, “Charter school parents form advocacy group,” (News, April 23), this battle between public schools and charter schools is completely off base. Rather than this silly fighting, let’s change the very paradigm upon which public education is based.

Let’s fund parents and children rather than the education establishment. The schools in Illinois spend on average just more than $13,000 per pupil per year. Let’s give this money to the parents, in some sort of state-regulated environment of course, and let them decide how and where it is spent. This one change will transform public education.

Forget charters and all the rest. Under this system, no school of any type will be “funded.” They all start at the same place: zero. The way they are funded is by attracting children and offering them a superior education. Those that do so will flourish. Those that don’t will change or go out of business. Let’s put the power where it belongs, in mom and dad’s hands.

— John Conlin, Littleton, Colo., president and founder of End the Education Plantation, Inc.

By John Conlin on April 24, 2013   EndTheEducationPlantation.org
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John Conlin

John Conlin is a self-employed management consultant who lives in Littleton, Colorado. He started End The Education Plantation because he’s seen first-hand the harm being caused by our nation’s schools and believes it’s time to do something about that. Join our email list for continuing updates. And get involved. We’re a grassroots organization.


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Schools shouldn’t get a dime until they perform well

Posted: Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Original article can be found on TheAthensNews.com

To the Editor:

Regarding your April 22 article, “Local Districts Come Out Against State’s School Voucher Program,” we need to change the way we fund public education and fund parents and children rather than the education establishment.

These schools spend between $12,000 and $14,000 per pupil per year. Let’s give this money to the parents, in some sort of state-regulated environment, of course, and let them decide how/where it is spent. This one change will transform public education.

Forget charters and all the rest. Under this system no school of any type will be “funded.” They all start at the same place. Zero. The way they are “funded” is by attracting children and offering them a superior education. Those that do so will flourish. Those that don’t will change or go out of business. Let’s put the power where it belongs, in mom and dad’s hands.

John Conlin
South Delaware Street
Littleton, Colo.

By John Conlin on April 24, 2013   EndTheEducationPlantation.org
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John Conlin

John Conlin is a self-employed management consultant who lives in Littleton, Colorado. He started End The Education Plantation because he’s seen first-hand the harm being caused by our nation’s schools and believes it’s time to do something about that. Join our email list for continuing updates. And get involved. We’re a grassroots organization.


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Let parents take control

Posted: Monday, April 15, 2013
Original article can be found on OrlandoSentinel.com

Regarding The Front Burner column “Misguided school-choice reform will backfire on kids” in the April 5 Sentinel:

Bill Sublette’s concerns regarding school-choice reform are well-founded. But his solution heads in the wrong direction.

The only true solution is one that has worked everywhere it has been allowed to flourish. And that is freedom and competition. Simply give the money currently being spent to educate these kids to the parents, and let them solely decide how and where the money is spent, in some sort of state-regulated environment, of course.

Schools in Florida spend from $10,000 to $13,000 per student per year, as calculated in the state’s congressional districts.

Let’s unleash the wisdom of millions as freedom transforms public education. It’s easy, quick and doesn’t cost an extra dime.

Rather than fighting over who has control over your children, let’s put control where it belongs — in Mom and Dad’s hands.

John Conlin Littleton, Colo.

By John Conlin on April 15, 2013   EndTheEducationPlantation.org
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John Conlin

John Conlin is a self-employed management consultant who lives in Littleton, Colorado. He started End The Education Plantation because he’s seen first-hand the harm being caused by our nation’s schools and believes it’s time to do something about that. Join our email list for continuing updates. And get involved. We’re a grassroots organization.


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Is the proposed school finance act an answer to Colorado’s education funding woes? No

Posted: 04/14/2013 12:01:00 AM MDT
Original article can be found on DenverPost.com

It won’t help performance.

Guest Commentary

Simply putting a larger gas tank on a poorly designed engine won’t improve its performance. But that’s the solution state Sen. Mike Johnston of Northeast Denver proposes for our failing schools.

He wants to raise taxes by $1 billion to help reform our public education system. That’s almost $1,200 per student. This is the perfect definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Johnston simply wants to do the same thing, but with more money.

Colorado currently spends about $10,600 per student per year on K-12 education. You can get a pretty good private education for that. Sen. Johnston wants to increase school spending to nearly $12,000 per student. But without changing the design of the system, why should anyone expect different results?

Let’s stop funding the education establishment and instead fund parents and children. In a state-regulated environment, let’s give that $10,000 to parents for each child they have in school and let them decide how and where the money used to educate their children should be spent.

The most common objection I hear to that proposal is that it will destroy public schools because too many parents will take their children out of their neighborhood schools. That’s the essence of slavery. You don’t get to choose because you might make the wrong choice.

The proposal won’t destroy our public schools. They’re already broken. It will force them to make needed changes. It will force poor-performing schools to improve or go out of business. And it will lead to the creation of new schools willing to compete to deliver a quality education.

Making this one change won’t increase costs by a single dime. But it will transform the education system. Rather than simply being passive users of a government-provided service, this change transforms parents and children into consumers with competitive choices.

Hundreds of new schools will pop into existence and all schools will be forced to treat parents and children as customers. Rather than having the legislature trying to decide things like teacher pay and sex education and hundreds of other things over which they have little real understanding, let the free market determine the answers.

Funding children addresses all these issues by unleashing the wisdom of millions. Let’s allow a system of free people freely interacting with other free people in a state-regulated environment solve the problems that plague public education.

This one act will also free teachers and administrators from the tyranny of the status quo. Let’s free the children and at the same time quit attempting to micro-manage schools and how they do their jobs. Freedom for students and teachers alike will create a tsunami of improvement in every school in the state. Every student will win, whether rich or poor, urban or rural. The same is true for every teacher.

Freedom and choice have improved every product on the face of the planet. It will do the same for public education. If Johnston and his cohorts really want to reform public education, they should change the structure upon which it rests.

John Conlin is a self-employed management consultant in Littleton and founder of End The Education Plantation.

By John Conlin on April 14, 2013   EndTheEducationPlantation.org
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John Conlin

John Conlin is a self-employed management consultant who lives in Littleton, Colorado. He started End The Education Plantation because he’s seen first-hand the harm being caused by our nation’s schools and believes it’s time to do something about that. Join our email list for continuing updates. And get involved. We’re a grassroots organization.


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The Liberator: April Edition

“Who” is about blame. “Why” is about solutions.

the-liberator-logoWhose fault is it? Ever heard that question when things go wrong? We all have. But, most of the time, it’s the wrong question.

As a long-time management consultant frequently called on to help clients when things go wrong, I’ve learned the real question is why, not who.

Focusing on who is about assigning blame. And who’s to blame? Well, the other guy, of course.

It might make you feel better the blame the other guy. But it won’t fix the problem. Ever. If you try to blame me, I’m going to defend myself. Just as you’re going to defend yourself if I try to blame you.

Focusing on why is the only way to find a real solution that will actually fix the problem.

Our schools are a national disgrace. There seems to be a national consensus on that.

Unfortunately we’re caught up in a national debate about who’s to blame, not why the system is broken. Some people want to blame the teachers. Or the unions. Or school administrators. Or parents. Or even the kids themselves.

But it’s the system that’s broken, not the people. Instead of asking who’s to blame, we should be asking why the system is broken.

Read the full article to learn more.

Applying Peter Drucker’s management principles to schools

Peter Drucker, probably the most influential management guru in modern times, spent his career emphasizing that people are the key to any well-run organization.

Any organization develops people. It has no choice. It either helps them grow or it stunts them. It either forms them or deforms them.

As the battles rage over fixing our failing public education system, Drucker’s insights are extremely relevant to finding workable solutions.

Central to his philosophy was the view that people are an organization’s most valuable resource and that a manager’s job is to prepare and free people to perform.

For example, Drucker said: “So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.” Can I have an “amen” to that from every teacher, principal and superintendent in the land?

They know how it feels to have management done not FOR you but rather TO you. So, why don’t we quit having people who aren’t in the classroom micro-manage what teachers do there? Why don’t we get out of the way and let people simply do their job?

Read the full article to learn more.

By John Conlin on April 4, 2013   EndTheEducationPlantation.org
Categories: The Liberator Newsletter  
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John Conlin

John Conlin is a self-employed management consultant who lives in Littleton, Colorado. He started End The Education Plantation because he’s seen first-hand the harm being caused by our nation’s schools and believes it’s time to do something about that. Join our email list for continuing updates. And get involved. We’re a grassroots organization.


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“Who” is about blame. “Why” is about solutions.

Why, not whoWhose fault is it? Ever heard that question when things go wrong? We all have. But, most of the time, it’s the wrong question.

As a long-time management consultant frequently called on to help clients when things go wrong, I’ve learned the real question is why, not who.

Focusing on who is about assigning blame. And who’s to blame? Well, the other guy, of course.

It might make you feel better the blame the other guy. But it won’t fix the problem. Ever. If you try to blame me, I’m going to defend myself. Just as you’re going to defend yourself if I try to blame you.

Focusing on why is the only way to find a real solution that will actually fix the problem.

Our schools are a national disgrace. There seems to be a national consensus on that.

Unfortunately we’re caught up in a national debate about who’s to blame, not why the system is broken. Some people want to blame the teachers. Or the unions. Or school administrators. Or parents. Or even the kids themselves.

But it’s the system that’s broken, not the people. Instead of asking who’s to blame, we should be asking why the system is broken. Questions like:

  • Why are 75 percent of college-bound freshman not prepared for college?
  • Why are only four percent of African-American college-bound freshman prepared for college?
  • Why do half of all African-American students in America drop out before graduating from high school?
  • Why aren’t we doing more to address the dropout problem when we know a high school dropout is 47 times more likely to be incarcerated than a college graduate?
  • Why do children who grow up in poor families have only a 1-in-10 chance of graduating from college?
  • Why do 80 million to 90 million American adults, about half of the workforce, not have the skills required to get or advance in jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage?
  • Why is our education system so broken when the United States pays more per pupil to educate our children than basically any other country in the world? Right now it averages around $13,000 per student per year.

Why is our education system broken? Because it’s a top-down, “expert”-driven, state-operated monopoly.

The people working within that system are mostly dedicated, skilled, hard-working people. But putting more energy into a broken system won’t fix it.

Our solution? Put parents in charge by giving them control over the money spent to educate their children.

We propose a federal law that would do two things:

  • Require states to fund parents, not school districts. We don’t want to dictate how the states implement this. Just that they do it.
  • Sets a floor of at least 95% of the average total per-pupil spending by district or state that would be controlled by parents.

Most parents aren’t classroom experts. But they do know what’s good for their kids. By giving parents control over the money spent to educate their children, we will:

  • Turn parents into consumers in a competitive marketplace, giving them real choice when it comes to choosing the schools their children attend.
  • Force K-12 schools to compete for students, just as colleges and universities compete for students today. Poor-performing schools will improve or go out of business. And, with millions of families to serve, there will be huge incentives for educators to create new schools that will do a good job.
  • Force schools to treat parents and their kids as customers. Successful schools will be the ones that do the best job of serving the needs of their customers.
By John Conlin on April 4, 2013   EndTheEducationPlantation.org
Categories: Educational Freedom Accounts, Home Page  
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John Conlin

John Conlin is a self-employed management consultant who lives in Littleton, Colorado. He started End The Education Plantation because he’s seen first-hand the harm being caused by our nation’s schools and believes it’s time to do something about that. Join our email list for continuing updates. And get involved. We’re a grassroots organization.


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Who We Are

End the Education Plantation is a temporary nonprofit organization founded by John Conlin of Littleton, Colorado, because he’s seen first-hand the harm being caused by our nation’s schools. We are a grassroots organization with one and only one goal: Give every parent in America the opportunity to send their children to schools offering a quality education.

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