Report: North Dakota Number One In Nation For Public Education Support
From Forbes.com
Today the Network for Public Education released a new report, “Public School in America: Measuring Each State’s Commitment to Democratically Governed Schools.” The report seeks to measure the extent of privatization in each state “and whether charter and voucher laws promote or discourage equity, responsibility, transparency, and accountability.”
The report ranks all fifty states and the District of Columbia based on a score that considers voucher and charter expansion and protections, freedom to teach and learn, financial support for public schools, and protections for homeschooled students. The scores are intended to reward a focus on public over private solutions, and policies that protect the interests of students, parents, teachers, and taxpayers.
The five top-ranked states are, in order, North Dakota, Connecticut, Vermont, Illinois, and Nebraska. The bottom five are Arkansas, North Carolina, Utah, Arizona, and in last place, Florida.
Other findings in the report note that students with disabilities lose their rights under IDEA when they accept a voucher to attend a private school. Only DC requires students in voucher programs to take the same state tests that public and charter school students are required to take. Twenty-six voucher states do not require teachers in voucher-accepting schools to be certified.