Parent: School Choice Voucher is Changing My Son’s Life

The following is the final post in a week-long series of blogs in support of National School Choice Week (Jan. 26 – Feb. 1). This is authored by Patty Scheitler, whose son has benefited from Indiana’s school choice voucher program. (This blog was submitted via Hoosiers for Economic Growth.)

The School Choice Indiana voucher program has opened up many doors for my son. He is able to attend a private high school (Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis), which has already provided him with the tools to succeed. He has very high hopes and dreams of becoming a doctor one day and it would be difficult to reach these goals at the public school he was to attend.

He is now able to take advanced classes, participate in community service projects throughout the city and travel through Brebeuf’s enrichment programs. He has already grown educationally and is challenged appropriately. He has been recommended for a self study program during his sophomore year and is so very excited about it. This opportunity will enable him to qualify for summer programs focusing on medicine and will enhance his chances of being accepted.

The teachers have been amazing and are available, caring and invested in the learning of each student. They take the time to meet and get to know each student on an individual basis and really want to see the student succeed. The voucher program also allows my son to grow as a person. He is exposed to more diversity at his new school and meeting students from all over the Indianapolis area. He has made friends with kids from different backgrounds, religious beliefs and educational experiences.

The main mantra at Brebeuf is “Men and Women for Others” — this quote really explains the feeling my son has at his new school. They really allow the students to reach out to their community and serve in many ways. They feel it is important to grow each student, spiritually, emotionally, physically and educationally. I love this approach and have never experienced anything like it in the public school setting. My son is also given the opportunity to participate in many sports and extracurricular activities. His school really encourages all to participate and most clubs meet during the day instead of after school, which provides more opportunities to participate.

We are so blessed to have received the choice voucher. Every day, my son says how much he loves Brebeuf and is so lucky to be able to attend such a wonderful school!

The Great Teacher Conundrum

The Los Angeles Times recently reported on the troubling difficulty of firing tenured teachers, even when it would seem warranted. For instance, they cite a teacher who allegedly told a student who had attempted suicide that he needed to "carve deeper next time" and "Look, you can’t even kill yourself."

The Los Angeles school board, citing (the teacher) Polanco’s poor judgment, voted to fire him.

But Polanco, who contended that he had been misunderstood, kept his job. A little-known review commission overruled the board, saying that although the teacher had made the statements, he had meant no harm.

It’s remarkably difficult to fire a tenured public school teacher in California, a Times investigation has found. The path can be laborious and labyrinthine, in some cases involving years of investigation, union grievances, administrative appeals, court challenges and re-hearings.

Not only is the process arduous, but some districts are particularly unsuccessful in navigating its complexities. The Los Angeles Unified School District sees the majority of its appealed dismissals overturned, and its administrators are far less likely even to try firing a tenured teacher than those in other districts.

Obviously, it’s a complicated issue — and I’m the last guy to blast public school teachers on the whole (not only because I had several great ones, but also because my father and step-mother have made careers out of public teaching — and doing it well). But it’s unnerving that, according to an Indianapolis Star story, Indianapolis finds itself disposing of teachers who have actually excelled simply because they haven’t been there long enough.

The district’s youngest and most enthusiastic teachers are on the chopping block, including nine of the 32 recently announced as nominees for IPS teacher of the year. Two of the laid-off teachers were among 10 finalists for the districtwide honor

"IPS claims it wants to become a world-class school system," Rick Henss, a father of two boys attending Sidener Academy, wrote in an e-mail to School Board members. "Nothing makes that claim ring more hollow than watching world-class teachers emptying their desks."

Henss criticized the district’s planned layoff of fifth-grade teacher Lori Feliciano, a finalist for teacher of the year.

"She has made for my son what school was intended to be: a place of higher learning, where learning for the sake of learning is encouraged and enjoyed," Henss said. "There could be no greater travesty or injustice than for a highly qualified, proven, driven, vibrant and talented teacher like Ms. Feliciano to lose her job to satisfy the ridiculous and ineffective practice of seniority."

Make of these situations what you will, but the findings are not encouraging.

Hat tips to Chamber staffer Jonathan Wales and Reason Magazine’s blog.

UPDATE: Mike O’Brien also has a post on this matter over at the WRTV6 Capitol Watchblog. He makes a terrific point:

Imagine a company that makes a decision to cutback by firing their top salesman because he’s been there for five years instead of the company’s worst employee who has been there for thirty years.  That’s education in Indiana.  It’s the biggest business in Indiana and it’s run on a patronage system.