A better mousetrap? ....and he STILL misses the point!

Peter Bronson to John Curry, May 29, 2007
Subject: RE: A better mousetrap?

Thanks for the note. You make some good points. Yes, the monopoly is finally getting some competition, and that is a healthy thing, because monopoly thinking persists.

Best wishes,

Peter Bronson

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From John Curry, May 26, 2007
Subject: A better mousetrap?

Mr. Bronson,

I find your article below interesting and factual areas such as support for Cincinnati public schools' educators and the need for more magnet schools. We do, however, part when it comes to the concept of public schools and your use of the term "monopoly" when it applies to educating Ohio's youth. In the past, public schools have had a monopoly when it came to educating our youth with the exception of parochial schools.

Recently the concept of charter (community) schools and vouchers came into Ohio's educational picture as well as into the Ohio Revised Code. Charter schools in Ohio and elsewhere have also had a "mixed-bag" experience of success with the majority of them (as opposed to public schools) have been showing miserable results when it comes to proficiency test time -- even then the ODE has uncovered that a significant number of charters failed to adequately test all their students as required by the Ohio Revised Code.

Just recently, a minister and head of a charter school in Cleveland, Rev. Mark Olds, was sentenced to prison by a U.S. District Court for mail fraud, money laundering, and absconding with over 1.4 million dollars of an Ohio charter school's monies. These monies were our monies -- monies of Ohio taxpayers.This was all accomplished and discovered far too late thanks to the lack of accountability that is built into Ohio law when it comes to the lack of transparency that charter schools now enjoy -- all compliments of our Ohio legislature. This same lack of transparency allows charters to operate and elude many aspects of the Ohio Open Records Law that public schools are held accountable to. In addition, many charters are ruled by members of a "school board" who live nowhere in the district in which their students live AND are also members of other charter schools also miles away from their residences. Their title should really read "Board of Directors" rather than that of a school board. Charters are in business primarily to make money for the "company" and secondarily for the purpose of education. Charters are also in the business of political campaign contributions -- something (thank God) public schools are forbidden to do. The largest "chain" of charters in Ohio is headed by a major donor to the Ohio Republican Party, David Brennan of White Hat Managements. A quick visit to the Ohio Secretary of State's website will reveal his campaign donations should you be in doubt.

As for private schools, well.....they are just that. If some parents do want their children to go to private schools then they'd best be willing to pay the tab, the Entire Tab rather than have their desires subsidized by the public dole. Public schools in Cincinnati and many other areas of the state are suffering because too many politicians in this state have pandered to the wishes of a vocal minority who have had their way with their own personal wishes.... all at the expense of public schools.

Competition among all schools will be competition when the playing field is level. If public schools were allowed by law to file Chapter 11, they would have done so long ago which would have forced the Ohio legislature to deal with the educational funding problem far sooner 2007. Your "better (school) mousetrap" has yet to be discovered and won't be until taxpayer monies are totally dedicated to just education, for the sole purpose of education, and not to line the pockets of those who see education as a chance to make a fat profit off an institution that should remain totally and exclusively public. Mr. Strickland understands that, many educators and administrators understand that, and so did many voters who went to the ballot box last November 7, 2006 when they initiated wholesale change in the political landscape of Ohio. "Amalgamated Widgets" belong in the realm of the business world, not the world of education nor in the world of law enforcement, fire departments or other public services whose records and books remain open to the voting public.

John Curry

A retiree of Ohio's public schools

A member of CORE (Concerned Ohio Retired Educators)

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Cincinnati Enquirer, May 24, 2007

Competition makes a better mousetrap - so why not schools?

BY PETER BRONSON | PBRONSON@ENQUIRER.COM

Let's suppose Acme Widget builds a better mousetrap. People beat a path to their door and even sleep in lawn chairs overnight just to get on a waiting list.

Amalgamated Widget, meanwhile, spends millions to build new factories and gives raises to its workers - but they don't build better mousetraps. They tell customers they're stuck with the old ones and raise prices while sales drop 28 percent.

That's not from Bankruptcy for Dummies. Amalgamated Widget is Cincinnati Public Schools.

In April, Chris Kearney of Westwood waited all night to sign his son up for a popular magnet school, Dater Montessori. Kearney was first in a line of 60 parents, but he was told there was no place for his "non-black male" son, the Enquirer reported.

His son eventually got in, but Kearney said, "It makes no sense to ration something that is wildly popular."

Here's something else that makes no sense: While enrollment has dropped 28 percent in the past 10 years, CPS is spending hundreds of millions on new schools and will soon ask for a tax hike for more spending.

Obviously, CPS is not a business or it would be way past Chapter 11, somewhere in Chapter 23 of bankruptcy by now. Public schools were not created to make a profit. They were created to profit society by educating children. There are many dedicated teachers and good schools in CPS.

But Kearney's right: Why not respond to demand for more magnet schools that keep families in CPS and in the city?

Maybe it's because government monopolies don't have to care what customers want. And they don't want competition from vouchers and charter schools that do as well or better at 70 percent of the cost. So Gov. Ted Strickland is trying to give teacher unions what they want: kill vouchers and charters that give choices to poor families.

"I can't think of another government service that costs the same or less, people want it, and we're trying to take it away," said Ohio House Speaker John Husted. "The people who want to stop school choice are very well funded and in control."

Recently, state lawmakers were spammed by thousands of e-mails - all saying exactly the same thing: "I urge you to support Governor Strickland's plan to end Ohio's EdChoice private school voucher program and make sure that public money goes to public schools."

Sen. Gary Cates, R-West Chester, called it "massive intimidation" by state teacher unions.

But he and Husted said they were more impressed by a rally the same week in Columbus by 1,800 parents and children who want to save vouchers and charter schools.

"It's hard to look a child in the face who is succeeding and tell them you're taking that away," Husted said.

Maybe Ohio should borrow an idea from New Zealand: Choice for everyone.

New Zealand schools were failing 30 percent of their students, especially in poor neighborhoods. "We had put more and more money into education for 20 years and achieved worse and worse results," wrote former member of parliament Maurice P. McTigue.

So parents were allowed to choose any school - public or private - and the money would follow each student. "Again, everybody predicted there would be a major exodus of students from public to private schools, because the private schools showed an academic advantage of 14 to 15 percent," McTigue wrote. "It didn't happen."

Instead, public schools caught up academically in two years, because "teachers realized that if they lost their students they would lose their funding (and) their jobs," he wrote.

Enrollment in public schools actually increased, and student performance rose from 15 percent below international averages to 15 percent above.

Ohio is not New Zealand. But the kiwi solution could eliminate property-tax levies that superintendents and teacher unions hate, while giving families the ultimate in local control, equality and accountability.

Failing monopoly schools are mousetraps for students. Competition makes everything else better - why not education?