Today’s Morning Jolt spotlights two new studies that might trigger good questions for tomorrow night’s debate — i.e., how do you get fewer Americans dependent upon food stamps? And what is the single most important way to change our nation’s school systems?
If You Want to See Better Schools, Take a Hard Look at New Orleans
Meanwhile, down in Louisiana, the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans at Tulane University completed a comprehensive review of the school reform efforts exacted in New Orleans after Katrina – and walks away impressed. If you’ve forgotten, “Within the span of one year, all public-school employees were fired, the teacher contract expired and was not replaced, and most attendance zones were eliminated. The state took control of almost all public schools and began holding them to relatively strict standards of academic achievement. Over time, the state turned all the schools under its authority over to charter management organizations (CMOs) that, in turn, dramatically reshaped the teacher workforce.”
New Orleans probably pulled off the biggest, most consequential, and fastest improvement of its schools in recent history:
For New Orleans, the news on average student outcomes is quite positive by just about any measure. The reforms seem to have moved the average student up by 0.2 to 0.4 standard deviations and boosted rates of high school graduation and college entry. We are not aware of any other districts that have made such large improvements in such a short time.
The effects are also large compared with other completely different strategies for school improvement, such as class-size reduction and intensive preschool. This seems true even after we account for the higher costs. While it might seem hard to compare such different strategies, the heart of the larger school-reform debate is between systemic reforms like the portfolio model and resource-oriented strategies.
That’s the good news. Here are the caveats, and they’re fair points:
There was nowhere to go but up. Pre-Katrina, the New Orleans public school system was highly dysfunctional, and student test scores made it the second-lowest-ranked district in the second-lowest-ranked state in the country.
New Orleans is an attractive city for young educators. The national response to the hurricane aftermath was heartening, and for many young people, contributing to the rebuilding effort became a calling. Later, as the reform effort took hold, New Orleans also became the nation’s epicenter of school reform, an ideal place for aspiring reform-minded educators. Because the city is smaller than many urban districts, school leaders could be very selective in choosing from the pool of educators who wanted to come and work there.
When I was working on my 2011 piece on Jindal, I went with him when he visited Sci Academy in New Orleans. There were a million little signs of the strictness and high expectations cultivated in every student; one I remember was a map of the country in the hallway with every teacher’s college marked. There were probably three dozen schools and universities listed, including several Ivy League ones. I think at the top was a question, “WHERE WILL YOU GO?” I remember thinking how great it was that these students – about 90 percent poor enough to qualify for lunch assistance, poorer neighborhoods, partially the Ninth Ward – were being treated as if college attendance was a given, a natural expectation of their lives after college.
The report continues:
The effects might also be smaller, at least in the short run, if the reforms were adopted on a statewide basis, because the reform is dependent on a specific supply of teachers. It seems difficult enough attracting effective teachers and leaders to work long hours at modest salaries in New Orleans; doing it throughout Louisiana is unrealistic without a major change in the educator labor market.
If you’re predisposed to liking Bobby Jindal, like I am, this seems like a big deal. But I realize a lot of folks aren’t.
Is It Unfair to Ask Food Stamp Recipients to Work?
For four years, the number of Americans receiving food stamps has exceeded 45 million. There’s a smidgen of good news; the number dropped from to 47.7 million at the end of 2012 to 45.4 million in May.
A new report from the Foundation for Government Accountability calculates food stamp spending is growing ten times as fast as federal revenues. They point the finger at governors who keep requesting and granting exemptions from work requirements:
One key cause of this out-of-control spending is the recent explosion of enrollment among able-bodied childless adults. Although federal law requires these adults to work in order to receive food stamps, the Obama administration has awarded an unprecedented number of waivers to states, allowing able-bodied childless adults to receive taxpayer-funded food stamp benefits without working at all.
They calculate about 5 million able-bodied childless adults are collecting food stamps; about 1 million were collecting them in 2008. It will probably not surprise you that people are staying on food stamps a lot longer now than a decade ago:
In the early 2000s, most childless adults receiving food stamps exited the program within a year. Nearly a third of those childless adults exited within the first six months. For comparison, fewer than six percent were enrolled for eight years or more. But able-bodied childless adults are staying on food stamps far longer now that work requirements have been waived in many states. Most childless adults now stay on food stamps for more than two years. Just 14 percent of childless adults receiving food stamps exit within the first six months. Nearly a quarter of able-bodied childless adults receive food stamps for more than eight years. Restoring work requirements would go a long way toward getting able-bodied adults out of government dependency and back to self-sufficiency.
You know who’s expressing concerns about Americans becoming excessively dependent upon welfare programs? Caitlyn Jenner.