Category: School Choice

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Million Dollar Classrooms

George Noga

New York spends $1 million per classroom
GEORGE NOGA
JUL 9, 2023

I have been involved in the school choice movement (one of my signature issues) on the local, state and national level as an activist and observer for 30 years. I am also a CPA and can reconstruct the true spending by government schools. This post: (1) computes the real amount spent per classroom; (2) compares classroom costs in Florida and New York; and (3) analyzes the results in a unique format that shows the money wasted by government schools. Note: My 3/26/23 post compares FL and NY taxes and spending; you may read it is on my website or in the Substack archives.

woman standing in front of children

Spending Per Classroom in New York

Based on a composite of several sources, New York State spends $30,700 per student; but that is just the starting point. To the base amount of $30,700 must be added:

  • Education spending elsewhere in the state budget and off the budget
  • Federal funding – which usually runs around 10% of total spending
  • Grants from governments, NGOs and others estimated at 5%
  • Funds paid by parents and students also estimated at 5%
  • Proceeds from bonds and other debt instruments
  • Pensions and health care for retirees
  • Debt service on school and mixed purpose bonds

Without an audit it is impossible to know precisely how much all of the above items add to the basic amount. Fortunately, someone already has done the work. The CATO Institute published a study of public school spending in several districts across the USA. CATO determined the average off-budget spending was 44%, while the minimum found in any district was 19%. Placing NY somewhere in the middle of this range, I add 30% or $9,300 to the $30,700 base amount, which results in total spending of $40,000 per student. Since the NY average classroom size is 25, the total spending per classroom is your basic one million dollars. BINGO!

It is not an accident that no human being is able to determine the actual spending on government schools. Educrats and unions intentionally make the data as opaque as possible to prevent anyone knowing the true spending. Despite the gargantuan spending, the quality of education is dismal and no one is happy. Teachers caterwaul about pay; educrats grumble about budgets; and parents flee en masse.

Spending Per Classroom in FL and Compared To NY

Spending data for Florida also is opaque as the funding comes from myriad sources. To be fair, I took data from several sources and chose the one with the highest spending, which is $11,000 per student (national average is $13,200). Adding the same 30% as New York to cover all off budget spending, means FL is spending an added $3,300, equalling total spending of $14,300. Again assuming the same 25 student class size as NY, results in spending $357,000 per classroom.

NY spends $643,000 more or 280% that of FL for each and every classroom. It costs nearly triple to educate each student in government schools in NY compared to FL. Moreover, the quality of education in FL is much higher than NY when using an apples-to-apples comparison. When deconstructing students by race and other metrics (and then reaggregating them), FL ranks #3 in the USA while NY is toward the bottom. People in NY are paying nearly triple and for vastly inferior results.

Analysis of Spending Per Classroom

To the best of my knowledge, no other source uses spending on the classroom level; they all use per student spending. However, looking at the issue by classroom reveals truths that otherwise might be masked. Let’s take a dive into the data.

In NY the average teacher salary is $80,000; when allowing an added 25% to cover benefits, a teacher costs $100,000. Of course, we also must provide for certain schoolwide expenses such as a principal, some assistants, guidance counselors, computer support, PE, art and music teachers, librarian, custodial and support staff. This should add no more than another $100,000 per classroom. And yes, we must allow for the cost of district administration which should add no more than another $50,000 per classroom – raising the total to $250,000 for each NY classroom.

Where is the other $750,000 per NY classroom? NY spends $3.00 outside the classroom for every $1 spent in the classroom, while FL spends $1.50 outside the classroom for each classroom dollar spent. Elite private schools spend about 50 cents outside the classroom for every classroom dollar. The champs are parochial schools, which spend only ten cents outside the classroom for every classroom dollar. Our local parochial school district has 15,000 students and only 3 full time administrators.

The Bottom Line

Waste, fraud, abuse and corruption are endemic in government schools which are incapable of reform. As the juxtaposition of NY and FL shows, spending and quality are uncorrelated and, in fact, negatively correlated. The only solution is universal school choice where the money follows the student. Nothing else will work.

© 2023 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

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Abolish Government (Public) Schools

George Noga

Government schools are a destructive force incapable of significant reform.

Abolish Government (Public) Schools

By: George Noga – November 13, 2022

This post destroys the final school choice myth, i.e. that public schools are necessary. We advocate universal school choice with the money following the child. Up to now, we assumed choice would force public schools to become competitive. We now conclude government schools are a destructive force incapable of significant reform and should be abolished. First, we recap other myths propagated by teachers’ unions.

  • Choice drains money: Vouchers always are for less (usually far less) than per pupil spending in public schools. Hence, vouchers increase spending per public student.
  • Some children are left behind: This is analogous to asserting that because there are not enough lifeboats for everyone, then no one should be saved.
  • Choice Balkanizes education: Students already are highly stratified by income and race. School choice, rather than compulsion, does much more to bridge divides.
  • Segregation would increase: Public schools already are highly segregated based on where people live. Voluntary integration under choice is better than forced integration.
  • The rich benefit under choice: The wealthy already have choice based largely on where they choose to live. The poorest among us need choice the most.
  • Poor families make bad choices: Not only is this insulting to low-income families, but empirical evidence from existing voucher programs dispels this myth.
  • Voucher schools are unaccountable: Private schools are immediately and directly answerable to parents, government schools only indirectly to school boards elected every four years. There is no force more powerful than parents armed with a voucher.
  • Voucher schools are unregulated: Regulating private schools would turn them into the monstrosities families are desperately escaping. Parents are the best regulators.

 

The Case for Abolishing Government Schools

Abolishing public schools will reduce school shootings. As gun free zones, public schools are easy targets. They create hordes of disgruntled and disaffected students who are held there involuntarily; it is not shocking some of them turn to mass violence. With school choice, parents could select schools that provide strong security. No child would be there involuntarily, and troublemakers could be summarily expelled.

Because private schools are non-union and have few administrators, they cost roughly half that of government schools. The county where I live (Seminole) has 60,000 students and 125 administrators making $100,000 per year plus many more making less. In sharp contrast, the Catholic Diocese of Orlando has 15,000 students and only 3 administrators. Eliminating unions and unneeded administrators not only saves money, but it does away with all the mindless bureaucracy that stifles learning.

Abolishing public schools would result in better schools at half the cost

Schools should adapt to the needs and capacities of its students. For less capable students, public schools impede learning, while for bright students the incredible slow pace is a form of torture as they sit year after year in an inescapable miasma. Every student needs a school at his/her level taught by teachers at the same level.

Then there is the issue of values. Families should be able to have their children attend schools that reinforce, rather than contradict, parental values. Parents should not have children taught CRT, the 1619 Project and gender dysphoria without their consent. They needlessly scare the bejesus out of kids about the environment and climate change. Public schools take in carefree, joyous and eager children living in the most well-off, healthy and multicultural society ever known and indoctrinate them to believe they actually inhabit a horribly oppressive country of which they should be ashamed.

That public schools are necessary for maintaining American democracy is a canard that no longer exists and is actually perverse. Eons ago, it might have been possible for a laborer’s daughter to marry the banker’s son, but today there is no way they would attend the same school. Data show private schools produce superior civic outcomes. Public schools do not foster unity from diversity; they exacerbate diversity.

Government schools are a jobs program for adults; children be damned. They resemble public housing; only people with no other choice go there. Public schools, teachers’ unions and the blob of administrators suck the sustenance out of our children. Government schools are a destructive force that can’t be significantly reformed and that cause far more harm than good. America will be much better off without them.

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Next up on November 20th is our special Thanksgiving posting.

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Time to go all in on School Choice

George Noga

Force progressive school choice opponents to defend the indefensible.

Time to go all in on School Choice

By: George Noga – June 19, 2022

School choice is one of our signature issues about which we have written extensively. Last week’s post described my lifetime of experience with government schools as a student, teacher, parent and choice activist. I published a six-part “Back to School” series (7/25/21 to 8/29/21). All of these are available on our website: www.mllg.us.

The American school choice movement began 31 years ago with the first private voucher program in Indianapolis; in Florida, it began in 1994. Since the inception of the movement, there has been notable progress, with 40 states adopting some form of choice. Within the past year, largely in response to the problems with government schools exposed by the pandemic, 30 states expanded school choice programs.

Although the movement toward school choice has grown, it represents only a small part of total enrollment. Nowhere is it available to more than a small minority of students. Although Florida is often (justifiably) cited as a leader in school choice, it applies to only 200,000 students out of 3,000,000 or 6.7%. There is no US state or political subdivision with universal choice. This must change and the time is now.

School choice is demonstrably good politics. Ron DeSantis would not be governor and positioned to make a presidential run in 2024 without his strong support of choice, combined with his opponent’s vow to abolish vouchers. (His opponent was captive to unions.) Black voucher moms voted 18% for DeSantis while voting only 9% for other state GOP candidates and 7% for the GOP nationally. This resulted in 100,000 more votes for DeSantis, without which he would have lost. The same thing happened in Arizona where Governor Doug Ducey received a 15% boost from Latino voters.

The pandemic exposed many parents to the horrors of government schools for the first time and they were shocked by what they saw – including all the following.

  • School boards and PTAs that are 100% beholden to teacher unions
  • Mask/vaccine mandates that harmed children medically and emotionally
  • Unnecessary school closures that resulted in 1-2 years loss of learning
  • Pornography in grade school libraries
  • Indoctrination in values antithetical to those of the parents
  • Children as early as kindergarten encouraged to question their gender
  • Critical Race Theory – teaching that nothing matters except race
  • Dismal performance compared to private, parochial and foreign schools
  • Teaching the 1619 project that America’s founding was based on race

Universal school choice is a timely and potent issue for 2022, coming on the heels of parents’ revulsion of government schools. Republicans should make this their number one issue and ram it down the throats of their opponents. They should repeat it so often Democrats never again want to hear “school choice” uttered. Make them defend the indefensible. The GOP can make huge inroads in the Black, Hispanic, moderate Democrat and independent vote and scare the bejesus out of progressives. Note: MLLG is non-partisan; however, we support school choice and Democrats oppose it.

The school choice movement has come far in 30 years, but it still has a long way to go until that magical moment when every family in America has the power to choose. There are 50 million K-12 students in America and only about 3 million have the power to choose; that leaves 47 million American children at the mercy of the unions and the educational blob. We must empower every family so that the money follows the child. The most potent force on earth is parents armed with a school voucher!

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Next Sunday: More about Twitter and the search for truth in America.

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My Lifetime of Experience with Government Schools

George Noga

Immediately upon entering the classroom, I knew something was terribly wrong.

My Lifetime of Experience with Government Schools

By: George Noga – June 12, 2022

 

Readers have requested that I share some personal stories that have shaped my beliefs. Following is my story of a lifetime of experience with government schools.

 

I still vividly recall my third-grade experience in 1952 after we had moved to a town in Georgia. My mother enrolled me in the assigned government school and accompanied me to my assigned classroom where I was to remain. Although I was only 9 years old, I knew immediately something was terribly wrong. The scene that greeted us was straight from the movie Deliverance, not uncoincidentally filmed nearby. My mother, equally horrified, enrolled me in parochial school, even though our family couldn’t afford the cost. St. Theresa’s proved to be the polar opposite of the pathologically dysfunctional public school. This was a transcendental moment in my young life.

 

I attended either parochial schools or ones on military bases until ninth grade when I was relegated to government schools in our new home in Central Florida. This time there was to be no escape. These schools were educational cesspools; any learning that took place was purely coincidental. The teachers harbored delusions of adequacy. Most everyone understood these schools were educational wastelands, but no one cared.

 

Government school failure is endemic and incapable of reform.

 

It immediately became apparent what the priority was, in one word: football. Not that many decades ago, there were 150,000 school districts in the US; today that number is 15,000. Smaller schools and districts are much better for learning and parental control. So, why have 135,000 school districts disappeared? The answer, again in one word: football. Larger schools have a greater chance of having bigger and faster players.

 

The top priority of the high school I attended was to build its own football stadium. The entire community pitched in with fundraisers, building materials and labor. People know how to build a football field but not how to fix a badly broken school. Football has scores published each week in the newspaper, but no such thing exists for learning.

 

My next experience with government schools was in 1967 during a six-month hiatus between graduate school and active duty in the army. Ostensibly, I taught junior high math, but maintaining discipline required full time effort; teaching was incidental. The administration cared only about avoiding complaints from parents. I was told not to fail anyone. Ironically, the school was highly regarded; but it really was dysfunctional. It failed everyone: students, teachers, parents and the community. This was a dismal experience, and it has only gotten worse – much worse – in the ensuing 55 years.

 

Fast forward many years. We now live in the Florida county with the highest per capita income and which reputedly has the best schools in the state. Moreover, we reside in the best part of that county with reputedly the best government schools in that county. Despite living in an area with the best public schools in the entire state of 20 million people, the schools were only borderline adequate. We sent our children there only for a few years of elementary school; the junior high and high schools were unacceptable.

 

Fast forward to 1994 when I started the first school voucher effort in Florida. The program I started and ran for its first ten years, now called Step Up For Students, today funds private school scholarships for 103,000 children from low-income families at a cost of $700 million. During the time I ran this program, I heard countless stories from grateful parents of our scholarship recipients about the horrors they experienced in government schools and how well their children now were doing in their new schools.

Read my post of 7/25/21 at www.mllg.us for a history of school choice in Florida.

 

The USA is a big country and there still are some good public schools. One such place is our summer home in NW Montana where schools are highly regarded and reinforce, rather than contradict, parental values. A family we know recently moved there from Florida and is ecstatic about their children’s public schools. There are no closures, masks or vaccine mandates. When school is out, children are on their own. Kids proudly bring to class photos of game they bagged during hunting season. Some, as young as 8, participate in youth bull riding. PTAs raffle AK-47s to raise money.

 

The lesson of my lifetime of experience with government schools as a student, teacher, parent and school choice advocate is that they are jobs programs for adults; children are afterthoughts. However bad you may believe government schools are, the reality is much worse. And it is not just about education; it is about values, safety and culture.

 

As with any government program, school failure is endemic and incapable of reform. The only solution is universal school choice; the money must follow the student thereby empowering families to be free to choose. Absolutely nothing else will work. There is no force on earth more powerful than parents armed with a school voucher!

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Next – We continue with school choice and its role in the upcoming election.

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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part V Welcome to This Failed Government School

George Noga

This post is a letter public school principals should be required to send annually to all parents.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part V

Welcome to This Failed Government School

By: George Noga – August 29, 2021

Dear Parents:

As principal of the government school your child will attend, there are some hard truths I must tell you. This school has failed for many years, but it never will close. Most of our teachers graduated in the bottom deciles of their class; they are marking time until their mega-pensions begin; however, a few harbor delusions of adequacy.

I can’t fire bad teachers due to the public sector unions which exert Herculean efforts defending the worst teachers, even those who pose an imminent danger to your child. I can however get a few placed in rubber rooms where they draw full pay and benefits for doing nothing, but at least they can do no further harm. If there should be a pandemic or other emergency, we will immediately shut down the school and hold your child hostage until we shake down and extort everything we possibly can.

Our unionized teachers bargain for work rules at your child’s expense; that’s why our school day begins at zero dark thirty, even though that is detrimental to learning. Always remember that government schools are a jobs program for adults; your child is an afterthought. Our teachers and staff are anti-competitive government workers who oppose pay based on merit or results; they are overpaid for what they produce. Our problem is not just a few bad apples, but that the barrel contains mostly bad apples.

Regardless of your family’s religion or values, we indoctrinate your child in a secular religion that is pro-government, anti-business and politically correct. We scare the bejesus out of your child about the environment and climate change. We teach your child Critical Race Theory, i.e. America is a racist country and the only thing that matters is your child’s race. We teach America was founded in 1619 when slavery was introduced. We encourage your child to question the gender that was assigned at birth.

Perish any thought about escaping this failed school; you have no choice. Your family must be low-income because no children of affluent families (who have choices) will attend this school. School choice may be the civil rights issue of our time, but our teachers will stand in the schoolhouse door if necessary to stop your child from escaping. We are unaccountable to parents, but live in constant fear that if you had a free choice your child would escape the clutches of our government monopoly.

Most students at this school are minority. Even though we know it is systemic racism, we force children of color to attend this failed government school. We throw poor black and brown kids under the school bus with an assist from the NAACP, public sector unions and the Democratic Party. These groups each made a devil’s bargain with teachers unions. They support public sector unions over your child in exchange for campaign funding and votes – despite the great harm this inflicts on your child.

By the time your child leaves this school, he/she will be several grade levels behind. It is not about money. We spend nearly as much per pupil as the most elite private schools in our area, but the spending is wasted on a gaggle of administrators and union inflated salaries. We are lucky if half the money ever sees the inside of a classroom. We have a constant police presence and metal detectors reminiscent of prisons. Nonetheless, we cannot promise your child will be safe here. To the contrary, violence is endemic and our school is a petri dish for every possible dysfunction and social pathology. It is good if your child plays sports as we value that above education.

Graduation is a testament to perseverance, not learning. Your child won’t be able to attend college – even community college – without extensive remedial work. Your child will be ill prepared for any desirable job. Any awards or honors your child receives at this school are cruel hoaxes intended to beguile you into believing learning actually is taking place. Even if your child becomes our valedictorian, don’t get your hopes up. None of the past several valedictorians here was accepted at any university.

I did not sugarcoat what you and your child can expect here. If you ever have any complaints, I will listen politely but nothing will change because I am not accountable to you. Welcome to this failed government school.

Next: Capitalism’s success has sown the seeds of its own destruction

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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part IV Teachers In America Are Overpaid – Not Underpaid

George Noga

Teachers claim to be underpaid; all the evidence points in the opposite direction.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part IV

Teachers In America Are Overpaid – Not Underpaid

By: George Noga – August 22, 2021

If you missed the prequel (July 25) or any of the prior posts in this series, they are easily viewed here on our website: www.mllg.us. Next week is the must-read series finale: a letter every government school should be required to send to all parents each year.

It is possible that at some time in the distant past (50-60 years ago), teachers truly were underpaid. This belief has persisted to the present, no doubt with much encouragement from teachers. Nonetheless, all the available evidence (which is presented in this post) leads to the opposite conclusion, i.e. teachers in America today are overpaid.

Every child in America should be entitled to a voucher to attend a school chosen by his/her parents. Teachers should be paid based on merit as determined by free markets and not by tenure or public sector unions.

Compelling Evidence Proves Government Teachers Are Overpaid

Objective Surveys: The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) shows no underpayment. Forbes magazine listed the 25 most underpaid jobs in America; teaching was not among them. The same is true of every other job survey that has been published.

Public Sector Unions: Teacher pay is determined by bargaining between public sector unions and governments which have symbiotic relationships. Teachers are paid via tax dollars, not free markets. No scient person can believe that, after decades of highly coercive union bargaining, teachers (and only teachers) somehow are underpaid.

Private School Pay: If unionized government school teachers truly were underpaid, we should expect to see teachers in private schools earning more. Instead, nonreligious private school teachers earn 15% to 20% less than their public school counterparts.

Logic: No other job in America has been so consistently asserted to be underpaid. Such an imbalance simply cannot persist for many decades in a market economy.

Post-teaching Pay: When teachers leave to accept non-teaching jobs, their pay does not increase; this is a prima facia case they were not underpaid while teaching.

Benefits: Teachers receive guaranteed lifetime employment (they cannot be fired), lifetime health care for their family, uber-generous pensions and lots of vacation and holidays. When factoring in these benefits, their total compensation skyrockets.

Overpaid Government Workers: Study upon study shows public sector workers are compensated about 25% more for the same work compared to the private sector. Since teachers are government workers, it is logical they are overpaid by the same amount.

Apples to Apples: Teachers (who should know better) use false pay comparisons. They disingenuously compare those with STEM degrees who graduated in the upper deciles of their class to teachers with education degrees mostly from the lower deciles.

Not Merit Based: Teacher pay is based on tenure – not on merit or on any objective metric of job performance. In fact, basing pay on results or merit is anathema to teachers. Union rules reward the worst teachers at the expense of the best ones.

Lingering myths about low teacher pay are fueled by elites, liberal media, pubic sector unions and government. Outstanding teachers undoubtedly are underpaid; however, all objective data and logic leads inexorably to the conclusion that teachers in America today (taken in the aggregate) are overpaid by somewhere between 15% and 25%.

Whatever you do – don’t miss the series finale next week!
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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part III

George Noga

Accountability of Private vs. Government Schools

By: George Noga – August 15, 2021

Accountability is the go-to argument of those opposed to school choice.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part III

Accountability of Private vs. Government Schools

By: George Noga – August 15, 2021

Since the founding of the school choice movement 30 years ago, opponents in government, unions and the media have tested many arguments against vouchers. They first claimed private voucher schools could be used as witches covens or Ku Klux Klan klaverns. When that failed, they argued vouchers would drain funds from public schools – even though per pupil funding actually is increased. Next, they asserted religious voucher schools are anti-LGBTQ. When that failed, they screeched private schools are unaccountable and that has been their go-to mantra ever since. In this post we contrast accountability of private schools versus government schools.

Accountability in the Private Sector

Private sector businesses compete to provide accountability to consumers; there is no such thing as an unaccountable free market. Von Mises said it best, “Markets are a daily plebiscite in which every penny confers the right to vote”. The private sector is accountable from the bottom up, with consumers exercising control directly by what they buy. Consumers register their choices about one specific product at a time.

Markets, including for private schools, deliver safety, quality and value in many ways. The primary method is branding; when you buy an Apple computer, the company’s reputation is on the line. Another method is franchising; when you eat at Olive Garden, you know what to expect. A third method is independent rating services like Consumer Reports, BBB and Underwriter’s Laboratories. Another powerful method is social media and online ratings, where even a few lousy reviews can torpedo any business.

A good example of market accountability is Uber. With Uber, consumers get location, name, photo, driver rating, fare and arrival time. They get a spotless car, prepay via credit card, get an email receipt and rate the driver. Uber drivers are solicitous of the customer’s comfort and safety; many even offer complimentary bottled water.

Government Accountability (Oxymoron Alert)

Government (including public schools) doesn’t compete and is accountable to the consumer (voter) only indirectly and infrequently. Government schools do not have branding, franchising or independent ratings and are oblivious to social media. To the limited extent it may exist, accountability is from the top down. Consumers can exercise limited control only through the political process once every four years. Voters must select among candidates with positions on numerous issues; they cannot register a choice about any one product or service. Further, in many jurisdictions accountability is impossible due to political dominance by interest groups or voting blocks.

Let’s contrast Uber with government-regulated taxis. With taxis you get no information about location, the driver, fare or arrival time. What you do get is an unkempt driver with poor English who drives aggressively. The taxi has a musty odor, blares obscene music and costs triple Uber – and no credit cards accepted. Complaints are futile. Which is more accountable, the private sector (Uber) or government (taxis)?

In one school district (Providence, RI) with 25,000 students, an independent review found peeling lead paint, brown water, leaking sewage, rats, frigid temperatures, classroom chaos, bullying, no discipline and rampant violence. Only 5% of students were at grade level. And they spent $18,000 per student – 50% above the national average. These horrors have been going on for decades with no accountability.

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Private schools are immediately and directly accountable. If parents are unhappy for any reason (educational quality, cost, safety, values), they can switch to another school; if enough parents are unhappy, the school must improve or go out of business. Contrast this with the Providence, RI schools which have failed for decades, will continue to fail and will never close. If Providence parents are unhappy, they cannot change schools. Complaining to elected officials is pointless because one party (Democratic) controls all elections. How much of that kind of accountability do you want?

The next time you hear voucher schools are unaccountable, remember the parents of Providence, Rhode Island. Teachers unions, government and media claim they want to regulate voucher schools to make them accountable to politicians who will promptly turn them into the same veritable hell holes parents are desperately trying to escape.

Next week in Part IV we take on the issue of teacher pay.
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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part II Pandemic Exposes Appalling Behavior of Teachers Unions

George Noga

Government schools are jobs programs for adults; children are mere afterthoughts.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part II

Pandemic Exposes Appalling Behavior of Teachers Unions

By: George Noga – August 8, 2021

During the pandemic teachers unions and government apparatchiks shut down public schools. They shamelessly held children hostage to shake down and to extort every conceivable benefit possible. Their greed may come back to haunt them as their contemptible behavior revealed their true nature to a great many Americans.

It has been crystal clear for well over a year that there is no basis in science for failing to resume traditional classroom teaching. Children are highly unlikely to get Covid or to pass it on. Per the CDC, “There is scant evidence of significant virus transmission among grade school age children.” Schools in Europe, Japan and other places demonstrated schools could safely reopen with proper protocols. Catholic schools in the USA, with over 1.6 million students, stayed open through the pandemic providing yet further evidence that schools could safely remain open for in-person learning.

Teachers in government schools and their unions didn’t care about the horrors that resulted from their greed and disregard for the children entrusted to them. There was at least a year of lost learning that never will be recovered. There was widespread depression and increased family pathologies. There was lost earnings as many parents could no longer work and were forced to remain home to care for children. Meanwhile, unionized teachers went on vacation in a flagrant display of selfishness and contempt.

Parents Lose Faith in Government Schools

The avarice of teachers unions is coming back to bite them. Government schools have been failing for many decades, but the pandemic brought this into sharp focus for many parents. They have lost faith in the public system and are deserting it in droves. Private schools and home schooling both report skyrocketing increases in enrollments, as do Catholic schools. Many more parents are searching for alternatives.

50 school choice bills have been introduced this year in 30 states.

Meanwhile, the failure of government schools to open has led to astounding advances in school choice throughout America. West Virginia just enacted its first educational savings account; Georgia is increasing its voucher program; South Dakota expanded its tax credit vouchers. Arizona, Indiana and Florida are in the process of expanding school choice. Altogether, 50 school choice bills have been introduced in 30 states.

The pandemic unleashed tectonic forces; one can viscerally feel the ground shifting beneath support for government schools run by and for educrats and public sector unions as jobs programs for adults – the children be damned. Thanks to lessons learned in the pandemic, a rapidly expanding cohort of Americans now wants to end the evils wrought by the monopoly of government schools and public sector unions.

Although the pandemic inflicted great harm, it may have hastened the day when every child in America will have the ability to attend the school chosen by his/her family.

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Next is part III in the series – Accountability and School Choice.

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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Introduction and Universal School Choice

George Noga

Every child in America deserves educational choice; the money must follow the child.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America

Introduction and Universal School Choice

By: George Noga – August 1, 2021

This month is the 30th anniversary of Patrick Rooney’s founding of the school choice movement in America. In observance and celebration, we present a six-part (counting the prequel) series dissecting critical issues pertaining to educational choice. This post presents a summary of each part. First however, a few words about teachers.

This series is highly critical (perhaps even brutal) toward teachers in government schools and their unions. We unapologetically call them as we see them. Nonetheless, we are mindful many readers and/or family members teach in government schools. There are 3.5 million K-12 teachers in America; many are excellent – like those related to our readers. It would be wrong however to ascribe the problems with our schools to “just a few bad apples” when, in reality, the barrel contains mostly bad apples.

Our goal is for every child in America to receive a government voucher sufficient to attend the K-12 school chosen by his/her family – including private, public, religious, home and virtual.

30th Anniversary of School Choice – Summary

School Choice Movement in America (Prequel – July 25): This was published last week; if you missed it, please read it on our website: www.mllg.us. That post presented the history of the school choice movement in the USA and Florida. Yours truly founded the Florida movement in 1994; today, it provides educational choice scholarships each year to 103,000 children from low-income families at a cost of $700 million. I also served on a national board that started private voucher programs in 100 US cities.

School choice is the civil rights issue of our age. Forcing children of color

to attend failed government schools is the worst systemic racism extant.

Covid Unmasks Teachers Unions (Part II – August 8): The pandemic opened a window for Americans to see teachers in government schools and their unions for what they really are. Teachers shutting down schools unwittingly put support for school choice on steroids, as parents lost all faith in government schools and public sector unions.

Accountability and School Choice (Part III – August 15): We once and for all demolish the myth that private schools are not accountable. Free markets always are accountable and government accountability is an oxymoron. The most potent force on earth is a consumer armed with a free choice. Private schools are accountable through branding, franchising and social media, where even a few bad reviews can sink any business.

Shattering Myths About Teacher Pay (Part IV – August 22): This post provides compelling reasons why the shibboleth that teachers are underpaid is false. The facts show teachers are overpaid by about 15%-25%. Teacher pay should be determined by markets based on merit, not by public sector unions based on tenure.

Welcome to this Failed Government School (Part V – August 29): The not-to-be-missed finale in our series is a letter the principal of every government school should be required to send to parents of students prior to the start of each new school year.

Next on August 8th – How Covid unmasked teachers unions.

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I Was Present at the Creation of the . . . School Choice Movement in America

George Noga

“Mother, I have to go to school today; my teachers are counting on me.”

I Was Present at the Creation of the . . .

School Choice Movement in America

By: George Noga – July 25, 2021

August is “Back to School” month for MLLG; we will publish a multi-part series on school choice throughout the entire month for which today’s posting is a prequel.

Next month marks the 30th anniversary of the school choice movement, which began in 1991 when the late J. Patrick Rooney used his own money to fund a private voucher program in Indianapolis for children from poor families. It was an instant success. The Wall Street Journal published a glowing front page story in 1993 which led to others starting similar programs in Milwaukee and San Antonio later that year.

I was in Hawaii vacationing with my family in the summer of 1993 when I read the WSJ article. My first thought was, “I can do that too“. I was not wealthy enough to fund the program by myself and would need to raise money. Fortunately, I was well positioned to shake the money tree by virtue of owning an investment firm that had some of the wealthiest people in our area as clients and also due to my erstwhile fund raising for local arts organizations while serving as head of the Orlando Opera.

I had raised enough (including $50,000 from Betsy DeVos of the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation) by the end of 1993 to fund 250 scholarships. I decided to begin in time for the 1994 school year and our Orlando program thus became the fourth one in the USA. To get the word out, we ran an ad in the Sunday paper and distributed applications at predominantly black churches. We had no idea what response to expect.

The first week after our ad, I was expecting 10-20 applications and would have been ecstatic with 50. Two days after our ad appeared, we received 250 applications and they flooded in until there were 2,500. We awarded scholarships by lottery with only 1 in 10 applicants selected. We urgently needed to raise money to help more kids.

Jeb Bush, the keynote speaker at our inaugural banquet, came up afterward and asked me if he could help. He committed a day of his time to help raise money and we soon spent a day meeting with business leaders throughout our area. Later, Jeb was able to get a corporate tax credit scholarship bill though the legislature, which provided money to foundations such as ours. The organization I founded in 1994, now called Step Up for Students, last year awarded 103,000 scholarships for $700 million to enable children from low-income families to escape failed government schools. Wow!

Because of the astounding success of our efforts in Orlando, I was invited to join the board of Children First America, the leading school choice organization in the USA. The board included Patrick Rooney, John Walton, Betsy DeVos and Ted Forstmann. During the years I served on this board, we raised many millions of dollars and were instrumental in starting private scholarship programs in over 100 American cities and our efforts led to 33 states (today) enacting educational choice voucher programs.

Each year in Orlando, we held a picnic for the scholarship children and their families. Near the end of the picnics, we invited parents, who wished to do so, to step up to the mic and share their personal journey. The stories we heard were heart rending. The scholarships truly changed countless lives. I recall one such story in particular.

One of our scholarships went to a middle school boy who had been in constant trouble at his government school. His mother told us he hated going to school and often feigned illness to avoid going. One morning, a few months after he began attending his new school, he awoke sick with a 102 degree temperature. Nonetheless, he insisted on going to school. Taken aback, his mother asked why he wanted to go. He replied, “Mother, I have to go to school today; my teachers are counting on me.”

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For the entire month of August, we address educational issues.

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More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us