Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #schoolvouchers

Most recents (24)

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So many different Right-$ groups inflating evidence for #schoolvouchers it’s impossible to ✋🛑 all of them. #txlege #gapol #neleg #INed #ksleg

But here’s the general pattern, using this EdChoice table as an example (there are many more):
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First is the absence of abysmal negative OH, and IN results by teams led by Figlio and Berends, respectively.

Those studies use panel data and methods and find terrible statewide at-scale voucher effects—hugely relevant to legislation today.
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chalkbeat.org/2018/8/9/21107

But #schoolvouchers advocates drop them from tables like the 👆 because they’re not lottery-based studies. It’s true that lotteries are gold standard evaluation tool—but have well-known limitations re: scale and generalizability—key issues today.

Any case, you don’t drop them
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Read 13 tweets
There’s a #schoolvouchers link to the #January6thReport. It centers around attorney Cleta Mitchell who led Trump’s GA pressure efforts after the vote. #BigLie

Mitchell is all over the final report:
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january6th.house.gov/sites/democrat

Mitchell is also Board Secretary for the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a huge #schoolvouchers backer out of Wisconsin that’s given $millions to voucher research and advocacy.

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archive.jsonline.com/newswatch/2037
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The Bradley Foundation is also financially the “extraordinary force” behind #BigLie efforts, per @JaneMayerNYer reporting @NewYorker.

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newyorker.com/magazine/2021/

Read 10 tweets
AđŸ§” on why the #KYed ruling last week against #schoolvouchers tax credit scheme matters @NPEaction @Network4pubEd @PV4PS @BadassTeachersA @edvoters

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First: a win’s a win. It’s good to see #schoolvouchers stopped anywhere. The push to privatize is so relentless, so well-funded by such a narrow swath of backers, it can feel like swinging in the dark against it.

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But more concretely: the KY Court found that #schoolvouchers tax credit shell game was a budget commitment even though it’s not a direct appropriation. Reducing revenue by $10 is the same as spending $10.

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Read 21 tweets
The push for #education privatization #schoolvouchers is now a cruel update to longer efforts to separate single out and separate children. @carolburris @Network4pubEd @NPEaction

Heritage announced its #EducationFreedom strategy early in 2022:
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heritage.org/education/repo

And Heritage has been branching out on this tactic by adopting itself as a pseudo sex-science shop

The goal here is to underscore differences as “choice” and “values” #lgbtqia #LGBTQ
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heritage.org/gender/event/t

With longstanding antipathy to #DEI baked into an #EducationFreedom agenda that in their telling is good for kids of color

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heritage.org/educationrepor

Read 5 tweets
Don’t let the Right define opposition to #SchoolVouchers

It’s their way of setting up targets to shoot down. @DianeRavitch @rweingarten @Network4pubEd @NPEaction @PV4PS @palan57 @BadassTeachersA

The problems are:
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❌ Tax-giveaways for those already in private school
❌ Horrific academic outcomes for kids who actually do switch to #schoolvouchers

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❌ A revolving door of children in and out of private schools promising long term academic stability

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dianeravitch.net/2022/12/12/jos

Read 7 tweets
Another glaring gap between the actual Fordham #ohioed #schoolvouchers results and the spin from its Forward is on student achievement.
@NPEaction @Network4pubEd @PV4PS @OhioPEP @StephenODyer @CLub_edu @SchlFinance101
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The actual researchers clearly say their results are due to changes in student composition—with #schoolvouchers by design drawing more lower income students (ie also lower ave test scores) away from districts.

So districts didn’t actually improve #education due to vouchers
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They just lost lower scoring kids.

“But wait!” #schoolvouchers activists may say, “that shows vouchers are admitting poorer kids!”

True enough but there’s no evidence voucher programs know how to *serve* those kids.

Quite the opposite:
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Read 6 tweets
It’s the #schoolvouchers two-step playbook:

❌ set up a bar they know they’ll pass by saying “critics say
”
❌ barely pass and celebrate.

But there’s never discussion of relative effects:

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For example there is vastly more and stronger evidence that funding public schools has substantial and long-term effects that dwarf the tiny “competitive effects” on public schools that some #schoolvouchers studies find
#schoolfinance @SchlFinance101 @dsknight84

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And Fordham glaringly ignores its own previous study showing that students who actually use #schoolvouchers had test score drops ~ 4x the test gains by competition in the new study @Network4pubEd @OhioPEP @PV4PS

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Read 4 tweets
A few general comments on this new Fordham report on #ohioed #schoolvouchers:
@Network4pubEd @PV4PS @NPEaction @NEPCtweet @pfpsorg @OhioPEP

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fordhaminstitute.org/ohio/research/

First and most important: the study presents a ton of zero impacts and tiny effects. Mostly this is #schoolvouchers report about statistical noise, packaged as a win. The beauty of null results is one can see what one wants.

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But in what’s become a trend for Fordham, its house-written Forward makes way more of the externally done results than it should.

Basically the argument goes

“#schoolvouchers” critics say vouchers hurt but we find no evidence of vouchers doing anything! Critics are wrong!”

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Read 11 tweets
Imploring #edchat journalists to ask these data questions of current/proposed #SchoolVouchers schemes.

It’s how we know the so-called #COVID19 exodus for private/#homeschool will come back.

5-year voucher exit rates *before* COVID were near 💯

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dianeravitch.net/2022/12/12/jos

There are 3 groups of #schoolvouchers users—each giving lie to #EducationFreedom:

đŸ€‘ long-standing #privateschool parents cashing in—far the largest group

đŸ€” voucher-curious kids leaving soon after (most of the rest)

đŸ˜”â€đŸ’« some stray sorters—often susceptible to recruiting

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There is NO evidence that #schoolvouchers give long-term “lifelines” out of so-called failing schools. They’re a tax-giveaway to parents already sending kids private



and for the rest a crypto-like short-term gamble that they usually back out of soon after enrolling.

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Read 4 tweets
Why have #schoolvouchers programs persisted and expanded despite a more lopsided base of objective evidence against them than nearly any other current #edpolicy #education initiative?

A few reasons đŸ§”đŸȘĄ

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First is that today #schoolvouchers activists are directly part of the larger #trump-style revanchist and anti-democratic turn in American politics since Obama’s second term.

Politically their success is intertwined.
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But as a policy matter too we see #schoolvouchers linger around even as #education research has tried to place itself in an #evidencebased position to inform policy.

If evidence were all that informed #edpolicy then vouchers would have been dead a decade ago.

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Read 13 tweets
One reason #schoolvouchers are still described as having “mixed” outcomes is the success of advocates propping up shoddy studies to flood the zone and offset quality evaluations showing dreadful impacts.

But it’s also because few people know what “mixed” truly looks like.

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But another reason is non-researchers don’t know what “mixed” truly looks like. #SchoolVouchers outcomes are mixed compared to a standard of “all results show bad outcomes.”

Most do—and all recent do—but not all studies ever show negative.

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But that’s not the question. Relative to other #edpolicy questions #schoolvouchers research over the last decade is entirely one-sided.

I could tell a data-driven story on either side of many #edpolicy questions. Where you have to decide the general tendency not an absolute

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Read 6 tweets
"#ALEC’s proposed Free Speech in Higher Education Act debated by members this week would ban public universities from using bias reporting systems to prevent or punish “offensive” or “unwanted” speech by students, faculty, staff, or guests." exposedbycmd.org/2022/11/30/ale
 #HigherEd Image
#ALEC’s FORUM Act "has passed in multiple states with the help of the hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, aims to address the manufactured free speech “crisis” being hyped by the Right, often by sending extremist provocateurs to speak at colleges and universities." #HigherEd Image
The real reason for the attack on libraries dailykos.com/stories/2022/1
 This "has always been about keeping people uneducated and ignorant. Suppressing diverse ideas has always been the hallmark of conservatism, and free libraries stand in the way of their goal."
Read 43 tweets
The #schoolvouchers crowd loves to site my decade old PSJ paper using matched Milwaukee data to show small positive effects on attainment.

But they ignore my 3 other studies in far better journals that look awful for vouchers and are more informative to policy today

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First up in @EEPAjournal: in “Life After Vouchers” we show low-income and Black students exit #schoolvouchers at higher rates and DO BETTER once returning to Milwaukee Public Schools @DianeRavitch

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journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.31

Next up in @aerj_journal in “Going Public” we deep dive into those kids who give up #schoolvouchers and show they are historically underserved and come from “pop up” voucher schools founded to take tax $

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journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.31

Read 6 tweets
The folks I mention here are already pushing back on this piece @DianeRavitch so in lieu of direct social media battles I’m going to just “reply all” with a new point:

Let’s talk “peer review.” The #schoolvouchers crowd has made use of this fuzzy term for years.

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“Peer review” can mean a lot of things. For example this paper by Corey DeAngelis in something called the “Journal of Free Enterprise” is “peer reviewed.”

Sorry but that’s just not JPAM or AEJ: Policy or EEPA and anyone credible knows that. đŸ€Šâ€â™‚ïž

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And a number of “peer reviewed” studies come from the working paper series at UArk that Jay Greene founded, which—at least when I reviewed for them years ago—paid $250-500 a pop.

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Read 11 tweets
🚹A new front has opened up in the push to privatize #schools.🚹

At Fox News Jeb Bush explicitly cited #soldastory as a reason we need #AZEd #schoolvouchers. @edvoters @BadassTeachersA @Network4pubEd @PV4PS 👇

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foxnews.com/opinion/our-ch

#Reading is going to be the new wedge issue to pitch #schoolvouchers /ESAs to parents understandably frustrated at #scienceofreading issues but who were turned off by the voucher culture war pitch.

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Just days before writing this Fox column and citing #reading as a reason states need #azed style #schoolvouchers Bush was honoring voucher hero @DougDucey at the annual ExcelInEd meeting

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Read 6 tweets
And #schoolvouchers activists exploit parent frustration over what’s often real inadequacy of some public districts to meet special needs.

But vouchers as a fix are based on a theory of action assuming district neglect—when really districts themselves are under-resourced.

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#schoolvouchers advocacy organizations stand up parents of these kids like other Right-wing groups go plaintiff-shopping in legal cases. Promising them vouchers as a cure-all.

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The name of the game for political #schoolvouchers activism is to build coalitions of support based on false promises, when the reality delivered will be a narrow constituency of families already in private school.

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Read 6 tweets
đŸ§”đŸȘĄđŸ§¶
Hey 👋 #educators and defenders of #publicschools:

Got an angry #MAGA family relative at your #Thanksgiving 🩃 table who likes to yell at you about #publiceducation?

Here’s a short “well actually” sheet to 👏 back:
@Network4pubEd @NPEaction @PV4PS
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“I’m sick of just throwing money at #schools that just waste it!”

Well, actually, Aunt Betsy, investing in #publiceducation is one of the best things taxpayers can do—more $$, better outcomes. @KiraboJackson
chalkbeat.org/2018/12/17/211


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“And all this crime you damn liberals have going around too!”

Well, actually, spending more $$ on #schools helps reduce long term #crime rates too! @fordschool @BrittanyEdPol @JasonBaron4

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fordschool.umich.edu/news/2022/inve

Read 12 tweets
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Before he was peddling #schoolchoice as a “solution” to woke:

Jay Greene/Heritage less than a year ago explicitly argued the Right should fuel culture wars to advance a fringe agenda—mainly #schoolvouchers
@Network4pubEd @NPEaction @PV4PS @pastors4txkids @BadassTeachersA

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Greene also pushed pseudo-science arguing against health care for #LGBTQ+ kids.

Using as a flimsy an evidence base as the #schoolvouchers data he’s flooded the zone with for 20+ years

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It’s critically important to understand the links between shoddy #schoolvouchers research showing positive impacts, and these pseudo-studies.

Two sides of the same @BetsyDeVos -based agenda.

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Read 6 tweets
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So much of edu-Right is cult-like.

❌ First is the weird hero-worship of figures like Bush, @BetsyDeVos, @DougDucey even lesser names like Rhee, and collection of Broad-supts #education #privateschool @DianeRavitch @NPEaction @PV4PS @mrobmused

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❌ Second are the villains, which every extremist group/cult needs to project its weird grievance on

For the edu-Right it’s
✔#teachersunions specifically @rweingarten
✔”government”
✔#woke/#DEI / #CRT “agenda”
✔ Trans-kids/ #LGBTQ adults
✔ who the hell knows what else

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❌ Third, related to villains is stoked fear:
✔ perceived threat to way of life
✔ fear of “the other”
✔ imagined threats to own children coupled with willingness to actually put them at risk

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Read 9 tweets
đŸ§” for #MIpol reporters: all fall I called Ducey MVP of #schoolvouchers and here he’s getting that actual award from Jeb Bush’s ExcelInEd

That group damage to #miched is huge. They’re behind 3rd Grade Fail modeled on #FloridaEd. Snyder gave them literal seat at the table

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ExcelInEd will lead the fight against repeal of 3rd Grade Retention in the new #mileg. @PaulaMEAPres @mrobmused

Expect bogus “inside” stories like this one, which got started pre-Whitmer #migov and then released early in her term to keep foot on gas

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excelined.org/wp-content/upl

ExcelInEd *seems* safe because they’re moderate relative to crazy Dixon-type book ban howls today and have impressive array of moderate funders you’d expect from a Bush-led org.

And as an org in many ways they are. I’d take them over @BetsyDeVos any day.

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Read 6 tweets
đŸ§”đŸȘĄ
It’s a big edu/policy research conference week (#APPAM2022 #ASHE2022 #UCEA22) and here’s a short thread on ideological diversity in edu-research and edu-journalism #edchat using the Greene/Heritage studies as a hook

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Some formal edu research/journo communities have tolerated increasingly far-Right stuff for years, in part because of a genuine commitment to multi-perspectives, and also out of fear of being labeled ideological or against free speech themselves

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And in the #edchat journalism space there is some of the notorious #bothsides pressure too, to give voices to the Heritages and Catos if the world.

This is why people like Corey DeAngelis routinely are quoted as expert researchers when they’re really political activists

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Read 10 tweets
đŸ€ŹđŸ€ŻđŸ˜ĄđŸ™„

đŸ§”đŸȘĄ
NO the evidence for #schoolvouchers isn’t “mixed.”

Voucher “empirical” research showing positive academic effects are no less a political tactic than this piece of garbage here—and by the same organizations.

#edchat
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Heritage, Goldwater, Cato and EdChoice form the entire favorable base of evidence for #schoolvouchers.

No reporter would consider a study like this a neutral “study”

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No reporter would consider this anything but a politically motivated “study”

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Read 10 tweets
QuickđŸ§” on vouchers and fringe campaigns:

The common link between @gretchenwhitmer @katiehobbs is both ran against fringe #schoolvouchers candidates #Election2022

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Whitmer ran against @BetsyDeVos handpicked avatar @TudorDixon who made #schoolvouchers and “parents” the centerpiece of her campaign

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Hobbs ran against @BetsyDeVos choice Kari Lake, who made AZ’s recent #schoolvouchers expansion—the largest in the US—her own centerpiece

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Read 9 tweets
For non-MI folks:

A Sunday thread đŸ§” on the history of Let MI Kids Learn, the pre-packaged name for @BetsyDeVos #schoolvouchers in #miched

@DianeRavitch @saribethrose @vicpasquantonio @Network4pubEd

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Among the dozens of #schoolvouchers plans I’ve seen, this was the worst in terms of transparency—alongside #azed and #floridaed.

In particular no failsafe against Chatfield-style allegedly abusive schools.

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bridgemi.com/guest-commenta

Whitmer actually vetoed the plan originally a year ago. And as early as then, the state GOP didn’t expect to win the #migov (save for a more recent post-primary fever dream) in #Election2022

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detroitnews.com/story/news/pol

Read 19 tweets

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