Early last Thursday Washington Policy Center published results for the state’s 2014 School Achievement Index, which ranks schools for their ability to teach students. By that afternoon, more than 120 parents and grandparents had jammed the phone lines of KXLY Radio in Spokane to find out how their school was doing.
Over the past four years, Mike Fitzsimmons of KXLY Radio has worked with Chris Cargill, WPC’s Eastern Washington Director, to provide Index results for 2013-14 to the KXLY audience.
Here is a typical phone call to KXLY:
“Hello Mike. My daughter goes to Freeman Elementary in the Freeman school district. What grade did her school get?”
As statewide results show, only about half the parents and grandparents calling KXLY Radio learned their school is rated good or better by the state:
Category | Rank | Number of Schools | Percentage of Schools | Student Enrollment |
Exemplary | A | 91 | 4% | 40,186 |
Very Good | B | 272 | 13% | 137,016 |
Good | C | 546 | 26% | 266,104 |
Fair | D | 547 | 26% | 273,198 |
Underperforming | F | 253 | 12% | 125,815 |
Lowest 5 Percent | F- | 121 | 6% | 53,873 |
Not Rated | - | 267 | 13% | 142,433 |
Many parents expressed gratitude to Mike Fitzsimmons, KXLY and WPC for publicizing the Index. Parents said they wouldn’t know the Index existed if KXLY and WPC did not publicize its results every year.
Over the course of the three-hour radio show, several parents asked Mike and Chris:
“Why aren’t schools required to report their Index scores to us directly?”
Indeed. Why not? The state is very quick to promote schools achieving high marks on the Achievement Index. Schools with A and B grades often display large banners celebrating their results. But if a child attends a school ranked only Fair or worse, his or her parents are unlikely to know.
This is unfair and inequitable. Public transparency and accountability for school performance requires letting all parents know how their schools perform on the state Achievement Index.
Nevertheless, families assigned to low-performing schools deserve more than a report in the mail detailing their school's failings. They need a way to get a better education for their children.
In Nevada there is a better way. Lawmakers there recently gave all parents an Education Savings Account (ESA), which is a bank account funded with 90% of the amount the state provides to educate their students. Parents unsatisfied with their public school can use their ESA account to send their children to a private school, or to buy other educational services.
Lawmakers in Washington could give parents of the 179,688 children attending F and F minus schools an ESA, funded with the money the state provides for their child, or $8,333 in 2016, and $9,004 in 2017. Lawmakers here could help these children get a better education by giving their parents Education Savings Accounts.
