If you think McKay vouchers are working because of a recent analysis by researchers Jay Greene and Marcus Winters, think again, another researcher says. John T. Yun of the University of California at Santa Barbara says the pair's report is based on "vague and flawed statistical analyses" and "should be viewed with extreme skepticism."
Greene and Winters concluded McKay vouchers for special education students – which served nearly 19,000 students in Florida this year - were having a positive, academic effect on disabled students who remain in public schools. Here's their report. Here's Yun's response.
Yun reviewed the report for the Think Tank Review Project, which you can read more about here.
- Ron Matus, state education reporter
Get inside the world of Florida education with St. Petersburg Times staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek and the rest of the Times education reporting team. We'll bring you up-to-date information about the latest education trends, fads and news and dig deep into Tampa Bay area school issues.
It's time that the news media started doing their job: analyze the press releases before printing them! Newspapers get to choose what to print. Just because some right wing "organization" puts out a press release on a "study" by their "think tank" there's nothing that says a newspaper has to call it news an print it.
Government policy by press release. Which amendment granted that special Republican party privelege?
Posted by: jo | May 23, 2008 at 02:51 PM
Maybe the paper should actually do an unbiased analysis of the performance of these vouchers. Reporting the findings of researchers paid for their results should not amount to news for either side of this debate.
I suspect that these vouchers DO help some kids, but overall, I don't believe that the program improves the system for the majority. In fact, I think that the point is to pick at the system because of a belief that a fully voucherized system is automatically better. I am far from convinced that a fully private system is better especially for those who are hard to serve.
I am a product of the public schools. I make a six figure salary and run two businesses. My children go to the public schools even though I could afford something different. My experiences with my local school have been fantastic. It really upsets me when I watch politicians who clearly want to destroy the institution without regard to the outcomes.
Posted by: | May 23, 2008 at 02:23 PM