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No Choices Le\ue001t Behind 7
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Milwaukee Schools 10
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Who, What, Where 16

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In response to public criticism over state competitive sourc- ing initiatives, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist directed the state\u2019s Council on E\ue001\ue000cient Government to undertake a review o\ue001 privatization in state government, starting with the nine-year, $350 million \u2018\u2019People First\u2019\u2019 contract with Convergys \ue001or online personnel services, the largest o\ue001 \ue001ormer Gov. Jeb Bush\u2019s privatization initiatives.

\u2018\u2019The review will serve as a start- ing point \ue001or evaluating how to reap the most value \ue001rom the system, whether privatization has merit\u2014i\ue001 it does, we should use it, i\ue001 it doesn\u2019t, we should not,\u2019\u2019 Crist said at a Feb- ruary 2007 news con\ue001erence with Chie\ue001 Financial O\ue001\ue000cer Alex Sink.

Council on E\ue001\ue000cient Government, codi\ue000ed into law by the 2006 legislature a\ue001ter \ue000rst being established by \ue001ormer Gov. Bush to develop and review contracting procedures and dis- seminate best practices among state agencies. Besides review- ing Convergys\u2019 People First contract, the Council will also review the MyFloridaMarketplace purchasing contract with Accenture and the Project Aspire inter-agency accounting services contract.

According to a March 26th Houston Chronicle article, Houston\u2019s Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro) is consid- ering a public-private partnership to operate \ue001our bus rapid transit (BRT) lines. Metro\u2019s board is reportedly negotiating a long-term contract \ue001or a private team led by Washington Group International to design, build, operate, and maintain the \ue001our BRT lines.

Risk sharing is a signi\ue000cant advantage o\ue001 the public-private partnership approach, according to Metro consultant Frank Russo: \u201cThe public sector takes the risk \ue001or the income side o\ue001

Geo\ue000\ue000rey F. Segal(geo\ue001\ue001rey.segal@reason.org)
Lisa Snell(lisa.snell@reason.org)
Samuel R. Staley(sam.staley@reason.org)
Adam B. Summers(adam.summers@reason.org)
Steven Titch(steven.titch@reason.org)

Frequently cited by journalists and sought a\ue001ter by policymakers, Moore is one o\ue001 privatization\u2019s lead- ing authorities.

Reason Foundation, a national organization
dedicated to advancing a \ue001ree society through
the promotion o\ue001 choice and competition.

Policymakers, unlike scientists, don\u2019t have the luxury o\ue001 conducting controlled experiments to test competing solutions to social problems. But when it comes to re\ue001orming \ue001ailing public schools,

The districts, comparable in many respects, are opting \ue001or completely di\ue001\ue001erent approaches to \ue000xing their schools. And so \ue001ar, Oakland\u2019s policy o\ue001 giving parents more choice is showing \ue001ar more success than Compton\u2019s strategy o\ue001 micromanaging classrooms.

Oakland and Compton are not identical, o\ue001 course. Comp- ton, located in the outskirts o\ue001 Los Angeles, does not have the gorgeous San Francisco Bay scenery o\ue001 Oakland. It has a quarter o\ue001 Oakland\u2019s population and no wealthy neighbors. But they are both high-crime inner cities. Both have a large Hispanic and black population, and a small Asian and white population. Average \ue001amily incomes are comparable\u2014about $40,000 \ue001or Oakland and $33,000 \ue001or Compton.

They both became targets o\ue001 a state takeover and a large \ue000nancial bailout in the last decade. And the \ue001ederal No Child Le\ue001t Behind Act \ue001or two years in a row has ranked them both among Cali\ue001ornia\u2019s 162 districts \u201cin need o\ue001 improvement.\u201d

In short, the two districts have similar student bodies, simi- lar challenges, and\u2014until now\u2014a similar history o\ue001 \ue001ailure. But Oakland is beginning to break away \ue001rom this history, and the reason is the weighted-student-\ue001ormula program it embraced some years ago and \ue001ully implemented last year.

Under this program, children are not required to attend their neighborhood school, especially i\ue001 it is \ue001ailing. Rather, they can pick any regular public or charter school in their dis- trict and take their education dollars with them; more students there\ue001ore means more revenues \ue001or schools. Furthermore, as the name suggests, the revenues are \u201cweighted\u201d based on the di\ue001\ue000culty o\ue001 educating each student, with low-income and special-needs kids commanding more money than smart, well-to-do ones. Schools have to compete \ue001or \ue001unding, but the upside is that they have total control over it.

Compton has stuck to a completely di\ue001\ue001erent approach that does not involve empowering parents, or decentralizing control to schools. Instead, it has tried to \ue000x its \ue001ailing schools by mandating \u201cclassroom inputs.\u201d To this end, all Compton schools over the last \ue001ew years have been ordered to reduce class size by 12 percent, improve teachers\u2019 credentials, adopt a tougher curriculum, and even clean up bathrooms.

What are the results so \ue001ar? Oakland schools have shown a remarkable fexibility in responding to student needs, while Compton has stagnated. In 2003-04, \ue001or instance, Oakland\u2019s high schools o\ue001\ue001ered 17 Advanced Placement classes. Last year, they increased this total to 91, or about one AP class \ue001or every 143 students. By contrast, Compton\u2019s AP o\ue001\ue001erings went up by two that year, to one class \ue001or every 218 students. Oakland students also are taking high-level math and science courses more \ue001requently. About 800 high school students studied \ue000rst-year physics last year\u2014nearly triple the number taking the course in the 2004 school year.