"Where's the Choice" by Secretary Rod Paige appeared in The Wall Street Journal on July 29, 2003.
The results of the first-ever analysis of how the nation's largest urban districts fare in reading and writing brought bad news last week. The numbers, showing large disparities in achievement, probably reinforced prejudices about the country's largely-minority urban school districts. Here in Washington, the analysis should spark serious discussion—if not soul-searching—among folks who have closed their eyes to the plight of children literally in their own back yard. Too many are standing in the way of scholarships that would give these children a chance to attend private schools.
Until now, the National Assessment of Educational Progress has only measured academic achievement state to state, including the District of Columbia in those measures. This year, to see how they stack up against other districts with similar demographics and to establish a benchmark for themselves, several of the other large city school districts volunteered to have their NAEP data collected and reported. Now, for the first time, the performance of the District of Columbia can be compared with that of similar districts.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, local district report cards must now be disaggregated to see how certain subgroups of students perform. This annual breakdown and assessment of the data will allow school officials and teachers to focus their resources, ensuring that the children who need help the most will get it. The disaggregated results from NAEP for the District of Columbia are particularly striking.
White D.C. 4th graders score the highest of any subgroup tested, while black D.C. 4th graders score 60 points lower—an achievement gap roughly double the average for both the country and for almost all the other measured cities. All the participating urban districts also scored below the national average in reading and writing.
Worse, we can't track this gap over time since by 8th grade there aren't enough white students in the D.C. public schools to constitute a statistically significant subgroup. That's likely because parents with the means to get their kids out of D.C. public schools choose to do so. Parents who want to give their children a better education but can't afford to pay for it are left without choices. These students are forced to attend poorly performing schools because they can't afford to live in neighborhoods with good public schools.
The president and I believe education is a civil right—there should be equal access for all, not just the privileged few. Last week's scores illustrate the challenge confronting us all.
The Senate is expected to take up a measure soon that will appropriate $40 million in new funding for the District's schools. The bill is supported by Democratic Mayor Anthony Williams, D.C. School Board Chair Peggy Cooper Cafritz and D.C. Councilman Kevin Chavous. It includes $7,500 scholarships for about 2,000 District students. Recent polls show that all parents, rich or poor, black or white, would like to have a choice about where to send their children to school. This bill would offer some of the neediest parents such a choice.
The NAEP results should be a wake-up call to all who care, or say they care, about the children living in the nation's capital. Instead, union leaders and others who favor the status quo of mediocrity are fighting D.C. parents' freedom to choose the best school for their children. They are defending a system that has one of the nation's highest per-pupil expenditures and one of the lowest achievement levels.
Opportunity scholarships alone will not solve the crisis in the schools. But they would allow two crucial things to happen: In the immediate term, they would let thousands of kids escape a debilitated—and debilitating—system, and in the longer term, they would force the entrenched local education establishment to reform and improve, as has occurred in other choice cities. Until that happens, we will continue to fail the kids in the system.
We must not shut the door on these kids. Every one of them can learn to read and write proficiently—they deserve a quality education. Poor parents deserve the same freedom to make educational choices for their children that wealthier parents have.
All the urban districts that volunteered to be scrutinized for NAEP should be applauded. They recognize that they have a lot of work to do to raise not only overall performance but to erase the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged students and their peers. Let's respond to them with outstretched hands. Parents, educators and political leaders must all roll up their sleeves and work together to meet the moral obligation of educating every single child in America.
Mr. Paige is the secretary of education.
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