SCHOOL VOUCHERS REVISITED
School Vouchers Revisited

How to clean up the public school mess

Warning... this page is REALLY under construction, it's going to be a bloody mess for a while until I've done the text entry and have time to go back and clean up the html code. Copyright Notice 1997,1999 by Reptilian Associates. Reproduction of this or any document on this site (http://www.ecis.com/~alizard) for non-commercial use is permitted except as otherwise specified as long as this notice is included and a pointer to this SCHOOL VOUCHERS REVISITED page is included. Reproduction of this document or sections thereof in the form of a ballot initiative or law requires permission. To reproduce this document for commercial use, whether for print or a for-profit Web site, request permission from alizard@ecis.com

This page is intended to present a way to implement a school voucher system in a fair and equitable way to serve all children, not just a favored few at the expense of all other taxpayers, as the last California voucher initiative was.

If you need to be convinced that this is a good idea, you're on the wrong page, start here or Voucher Impact or finally, at my Littleton, Censorship, and Gun Control page. A good part of the reason why Littleton happened is because "one size fits all" public education is NOT WORKING for everybody. Check out the Web-based anonymous school hot line program, complete with rewards for frequent kid visitors on this section of the Littleton page.

This is a how page, not a why page. Another place to check out is the new Badschools.Org site. My site is intended to tell you what I believe is needed to give educators and parents the tools needed to solve our educational problems.

As for why I think vouchers are the best answer, try The Educational Marketplace.

Summary

I believe a workable voucher program must:

  • Encourage experimentation in educational methodology, even allowing schools to try "wild" ideas so different that they are unlikely to be approved by a school district educational bureaucracy. A small organization can "turn on a dime", if they find something isn't working, they can stop doing it and do something else immediately. A large organization simply can't do this. Even small divisions within a large organization usually can't do this, too many layers of approval are required to start doing something, stop doing that something when it is a proven failure, and to get approval to do something else. In this context, schools will be required to document their activities so that other schools can have the information required to duplicate good results and avoid bad ones.
  • Level the playing field between publically supported private schools and public schools, both in funding and choice of students. If a private school can't deal with funding constraints and not being able to pick out only the "social elite" as students, parents have a right to send their kids there, but they have no right to expect us to pay for them. This also is intended to support educational experimentation, almost anything will work given enough money thrown at it, the results of experiments are only comparable if the conditions in which they are done are comparable, and the most important experimental variable is MONEY SPENT PER STUDENT.
  • Provide a workable method for monitoring the overall progress and results of the programs, teaching methods, and disciplinary procedures used at each school funded by the voucher program. This is so that we as taxpayers will know what we are paying for and what we are getting in exchange. This will also let parents and students know what is really going on in a school they are thinking of getting involved with. We need something better than whatever a school wants to use as propaganda to entice customers as a basis to decide whether it is any good or not.
  • Minimum curricular standards. We can get a consensus on what's needed in terms of measurable skills, on how much math is needed by a certain grade level, etc.. These need to be implemented in terms of what can be measured, in terms of definable information sets and definable skill sets.
  • Provide some of the oversight services ordinarily provided by school districts which would disappear after the initiative passes, e.g. archiving instructor personnel files.
  • Pay for the secular component of parochial school education. Many of these schools do a pretty good job of secular education. Why shouldn't they be able to collect public subsidy for this? (While this appears to conflict with the US Constitution, the people behind the last Calif. voucher initiative obviously thought there was a way around this...)
  • Prevent people and corporations from setting up for-profit schools to receive vouchers that does not deliver an education to students. I have no objection to seeing businesses collecting a profit in exchange for turning out students which have been given the education we asked them to provide. I do object to seeing students and taxpayers ripped off. That's why the monitoring (including financial audits) and the public access to school information has been explicitly specified.
  • Make it as difficult to cheat the intent of the measure as possible. I assume that there are going to be people who want to set up voucher schools for purposes for which no taxpayer can be rationally required to pay, from raking in a profit without delivering an education to teaching bigotry to setting up "social elite only" academies. This measure is designed to persuade these people to set up their businesses in some other jurisdiction, make them repay the funds they're trying to burn us for, or jail them,

    Sound obvious? Possibly, for someone with no axe to grind other than the desire to see kids graduate from school with the basic knowledge and informational skills needed to function in higher education and in the job market.

    California Voucher Initiative - early draft

    My comments, explanations within the following text are [bracketed]. [Don't pay too much attention to paragraph numbers, they'll be fixed later. Any reference in the form x or X means that a number will be substituted presently, in the form xx means a number between 10-99, xxx between 100-999. . .]

    1.00 This initiative shall be known as the "California Voucher Initiative". Its purpose is to improve education for California students in the K-12 grade/age range. It is the sense of the people of California that public education may improved by allowing parents the freedom to choose schools for this children. Heretofore, this was not realistically possible for most parents due to inability to afford payment of school tuition in addition to the taxes they pay directly and indirectly to support education. This initiative is intended to:

  • Place the funds raised by State and local public entities for educating students in the K-12 grade / age range under control of the parents in the form of a voucher for each student as provided for elsewhere in this initiative.
  • Provide an environment in which experiments in educational methodology may take place, with monitor and control mechanisms in place so that the public and other schools may get the information on what each school does well enough to be able to replicate success and avoid failure. To make these experiments meaningful, the funds expended per student will be the same except where supplemental funds are made available, e.g. for handicapped students.
  • Close schools which do not deliver their students an education according to the standards of this initiative.

    1.01. The adminstrative body responsible for implementing the terms of this initiative shall be called The California State Instructional Voucher Authority. (CSIVA) It shall have the authority to generate administrative regulations and enforce them as necessary to carry out the intentions of this initiative. It shall derive operating income from the Voucher Fund defined in Paragraph x.xx and capital expenditure from the Supplemental Capital Fund defined in Paragraph x.xx .
    [Composition of governing board, choice of director to be announced... one possibility is to designate the State Superintendent of Schools as the Director of CSIVA]

    1.02 All funds raised by the California State Governments, county governments, school districts and other local jurisdictions and entities for the purpose of current operation of general education at the K-12 level shall be directed to the "Voucher Fund" administered by the CSIVA. These funds shall be divided among individual students in the K-12 age/grade levels and paid in the form of vouchers drawn on the Voucher Fund as directed by the parent, guardian, or in the case of an Emancipated Minor, by that minor to the school in which each student is currently enrolled. While "Targeted Funding Programs" will not be affected by this, relevant jurisdictions are encouraged to terminate these programs and transfer their funding to the Voucher Fund where it is legally possible to do so. Entities of the State of California that administer these programs are directed to transfer these programs to the Voucher Fund. [Targeted Funding Programs are programs from Federal and State jurisdictions for specific groups within the educational system, i.e., the blind whose funding can only be used for the named groups for the specified program and associated bureacracy.]

    1.03 All funds raised by the State of California or local school districts for capital expenditures which are not being spent for projects in progress (i.e., construction in progress) and funds raised by the California State Lottery for educational purposes shall be turned over to the Supplemental Capital Fund (SCF) administered by CSIVA. The SCF shall be made available to Voucher Schools in the form of long-term low interest loans (any amount) and grants not to exceed $100,000. Additional funding may be appropriated by the Legislature or raised via the sale of bonds with voter approval. [this section really needs reworking] First priority for funding shall be given to accomodation of students with "Special Needs" as defined under the Admission section of this measure.

  • 30% shall be designated for non-structure capital expenditures, e.g. computer purchases, etc.
  • 70% shall be designated for land purchase, new construction or permanent modification to existing structures.

    Regulatory Document Length: The administrative regulations created and maintained by CSIVA under the authority granted by this measure must not exceed in total length one (1) uncompressed current (1997) generation CD-ROM, i.e. 650 megabytes in length. Any regulatory text that exceeds this length must be compensated for by the removal of an equivalent amount of text from the CSIVA regulatory document. This includes a usable document search engine, but does not include:

  • obsoleted regulations
  • software or formatted templates distributed by CSIVA for the purpose of assisting Voucher Schools with complying with state law and CSIVA administrative regulations.

    Personnel Records - Archiving: CSIVA will archive all personnel records from the school districts which will be terminated by action of this initiative. CSIVA will archive personnel files for each employee of a Voucher Schools upon the termination of that employee. Voucher Schools shall transmit to CSIVA these records in electronic form in a secure manner in a format approved by CSIVA to the publically announced CSIVA Internet address. Voucher Schools are required to transmit to CSIVA listings of their current employees, and transmit personnel records including "confidential" records on request of CSIVA representatives with proper authority, these requests to be made in electronic form. A register of persons temporarily or permanently forbidden employment in Voucher Schools along with the reasons for suspension or revocation of privileges shall be available online at the CSIVA Web site. The personnel record on any educational employee archived by CSIVA shall be made available as an online document to a Voucher School on a secure (https or successor) server upon verification of employment application by that specific employee.

    Secure: For the purposes of this measure, "secure" is defined as transmitted over public communications networks using an encryption methods permitted by CSIVA. The encryption method shall be one in common use that is commonly available to the general public via the Internet free of charge. This method shall not be the algorithm commonly known as 56 bit DES (Digital Encryption Standard) or methods of equal or lesser security. This secure communications means must allow for digital signature of plain-text documents [In other words, PGP or 128 bit secured Netscape, S/MIME meets this criteria IF it becomes an Internet standard and freeware to communicate this way becomes available.] Electronic document is defined as a file available in a commonly available format which can be read by commonly available graphics Web browser (e.g. Netscape, Opera, Internet Explorer) or by commonly available plug-in. (Adobe Acrobat)

    Publication: For the purposes of this measure, information regarding a Voucher School required to be published by CSIVA will be published in the following means:

  • As a Web site which shall be a portion of the CSIVA Web site used exclusively to publish information on each Voucher School. This site to be used to publish the information required by law about each Voucher School only plus links to any Voucher School Web site maintained by that institution to be added upon request by CSIVA as CSIVA deems appropriate.
  • On a yearly basis in a general-circulation newspaper within the attendance area of each Voucher School, space purchased by CSIVA for this purpose.
  • A reproduction of the CSIVA Web site specific to a Voucher School maintained by CSIVA in print or of the latest publication regarding a Voucher School in a general circulation newspaper to be sent to a member of the public free of charge upon request and provision of that person's name and address in the form of a physical electronic (e.g. floppy disk or CDROM) or paper document as requested by that member of the public.

    Information general to all Voucher Schools, e.g. required curriculum standards, teacher qualifications, application forms for those wishing to organize a Voucher School, administrative regulations promulgated by CSIVA, etc. shall be placed on the CSIVA Web site and published yearly in general circulation newspapers whose coverage is sufficient to provide access to this information to the entire California public, except for administrative regulations, which need only be placed on the CSIVA Web site and mailed on request as a physical electronic document as provided elsewhere. This information or sections thereof will also be sent to members of the public via mail free of charge as an physical electronic document.

    [Anybody who can't read an electronic document as defined herein has no business trying to run a modern school.]

    2. Admission:

    2.1 Admission of students to be on the same basis as public schools, i.e., all students within age-grade range of school who apply within a defined attendance area, students outside it on a first come, first served basis if space is available, if school is virtual, attendance area is anywhere in state. The exception to this is for Specialized Schools as defined elsewhere in this measure, for which any form of screening reasonably relevant to the purpose for which the school specializes in may be used as long as this screening is not used to discriminate against students on the basis of race and other criteria specifically forbidden by this measure.

    Children of persons involved with the founding or operation of the school may be given priority for admission. Schools below XX students are exempt from having to admit handicapped students with special access requirements. [use ADA as basis] Specialized Schools specializing in study that is contra-indicated by the Special Needs of a student are not required to admit a student with these Special Needs. Examples include a school specializing in an accelerated curriculum isn't required to admit the mentally retarded, a dance school isn't required to admit the wheelchair bound, etc. Specialized schools may not discriminate against students on the basis of race and other criteria specifically forbidden by this measure. Schools may not specialize in order to evade the non-discriminatory requirements of this measure. Supplemental funding will be made available for handicapped students as provided in the Supplemental Funding section of this measure.

    The attendance area and grade-age range of these schools shall be published as specified in the Publication paragraph of this measure.

    2.2 Specialized Schools: Schools may designate themselves as "Specialized Schools. To qualify for this category, they must demonstrate special capabilities, e.g., expert instructors and/or specialized physical plant and/or specialized technology and/or . . . in the area they wish to specialize in. These schools may draw students from anywhere in California. These schools may screen applicants using testing or any other means, but must select applicants at random from a pool created of students found acceptible via these tests except as provided elsewhere in this measure. Testing or other screening criteria used must be rationally related to the announced speciality of the school. General education or equivalent purposes is not an acceptable purpose for a "specialized school". The speciality of each of these schools and their qualifications in the claimed specialities shall be published as specified in the Publication paragraph of this measure. Schools may not specialize in order to evade the non-discriminatory requirements of this measure.

    2.21 Religion is an acceptable purpose for a specialized school, but voucher funds may not be used for religious instruction, religious instruction must be optional and funded by "enrichment funds" supplied by parents or others, student applying may not be screened by religion. [May not be constitutional as written... fix later if possible... it's obvious that the people who wrote the previous CA voucher initiative thought they had a way past this! I'm now not sure that not allowing religious screening for a religious school is a good idea, but I suspect that allowing it would be illegal.]

    2.3 Discrimination in admissions against defined groups (e.g. race / religion / gender / sexual preference / handicapped) may not be practiced by voucher schools except in the context of not admitting students incapable of profiting from the instruction provided in a Specialized School. Under no circumstances may race be used as a screening criteria for any voucher school.

    2.4 Students in voucher schools may not be taught hatred directed against minority groups specified in this measure or their individual members. These minority groups include but are not limited to either sex, gender preference, race, religion.

    School funding

    Non-voucher schools: No school is required to participate in the Voucher Program. The provisions of this measure do not apply to schools choosing not to participate except as specifically provided herein regarding public schools.

    Voucher funds must cover entire cost of books plus tuition and for the entire academic program. In the case of a "virtual school", students may be required to own a personal computer which meets or exceeds performance and operating system required by a school as prerequisite for admission. This shall be limited to requiring computers required to run software reasonably related to by the school educational program and commonly available at retail vendors accessible to any member of the public. [In other words, an "elite" school can't require that only students who have a specific brand of computer only available to the students they actually want to see can attend, or that students have computers that run multiple Xeon or other high-end processors unless the school is actually teaching courses relating reasonably to their announced educational using software that *only* can be run this way and for which there is no other reasonable alternative, i.e. a word processor that only runs on high-end computers used as a prerequisite for acceptance is against the rules.] Parental monetary contributions towards regular curricular program prohibited, except as otherwise provided in this measure. Discrimination against students whose parents do not make non-regular contributions (e.g. capital expenditures, contributions towards "enrichment programs", etc.) prohibited. User fees may be charged to defray the cost of enrichment activities. Enrichment activities may not be a required part of the curriculum and may not be charged for programs required by students to complete the course of study at a voucher school. Certain exceptions to this are permitted within the intent of the initiative. One example is that of a school given on a cruise ship, in which purchase of a ticket is obviously required in order to benefit from the educational program. CSIVA is permitted to make case-by-case exceptions to this law, but must publish a full report on why this exception was justified on the portion of the CSIVA Web site allocated to that school. [The reasons for this are twofold, the first is to prevent this from becoming a subsidy for "elite" schools whose primary purpose is to reinforce social class distinction, the second is to allow a basis for comparison of different schools, to foster innovation instead of using the "throw money at the problem" approach to improving the learning process. ]

    Supplemental Charges to Parents:
    The school may charge individual parents for extra services to students as follows:

  • Transportation to school provided by that school outside a local radius, e.g. within the range of a single fare trip (including transfers) on a public transit system serving that school.
  • Meals provided at school. [Federal School Lunch Program?]
  • Day care.
  • Residential Care (e.g. boarding schools)
  • Optional field trips, i.e., excursions for the purpose of supplementing the curriculum.
  • Religious instruction
  • Other optional enrichment programs

    If Supplemental Charges are collected by a Voucher School, money raised must be segregated from academic operating funds and spent only for the purposes stated. CSIVA must be informed of the purpose and amount of these charges in a timely manner, and this information will be published on the portion of the Web site allocated to that school. Students may not be required to use these extra services as a condition for acceptance, continuing study, or graduation at a Voucher School except as otherwise provided in this measure. If schools wish to provide these programs without extra charges to parents, separate accounting is not required.

    Supplemental Payments by CSIVA:
    CSIVA will develop categories for supplemental reimbursement for voucher schools who have students with "Special Needs" based on the average amount spent per students by California schools on students with each defined "Special Need". These include but are not limited to students who suffer handicaps as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act. In the case of students whose Special Need(s) are sufficiently unique not to fit into a defined category or categories, CSIVA shall make decisions on a case-by-case basis on what extra compensation is reasonable.

    Public Schools: Schools defined in the State Education Code () as "public schools" have the option of either becoming private non-voucher schools or becoming voucher schools. Public schools shall have no access to public funds other than via the voucher program or through "Targeted Program Funding", "Targeted Program Funding" may not be used for school operation. This provision to take effect not more than 2 semesters or their equivalent from the effective date of this Constitutional Amendment.

    School Liquidation

    Public School Liquidation

    Public School District School Boards: All publically elected school boards will be terminated within 9 months of the effective date of this measure. They will turn over all district assets, including property, bank accounts, records, etc. to CSIVA. These assets will be controlled by a District Liquidator for each School District, which will be appointed by CSIVA. This District Liquidator may be an individual or a government or non-governmental entity, including private businesses.

    The District Liquidator will be a caretaker of School District properties, will receive property tax monies in the name of the School District for transfer to the CSIVA voucher fund, will collect rents on School District properties as defined below, pay all remaining obligations of School District and will administer the termination procedures for former employees of the School District as prescribed elsewhere in this initiative. Obligations connected with employee termination shall have first call on District assets held by the District Liquidator.

    Property held by the District Liquidator shall not be sold for two calendar years from the effective date of this initiative unless the income from sale is required to pay the remaining obligations of the District. After this time, property not used by a Voucher School may be sold and the proceeds to be turned over the the CSIVA Supplemental Capital Fund. [this is a fallback position in case this program fails catastropically and public schools have to be revived]

    School properties held by District Liquidator shall be rented whenever possible to Voucher Schools as defined in this measure.

  • First priority for rental shall be given to educational organizations owned or operated by individuals who were formerly employed by the District as certificated teachers at the location they are requesting to rent as a school. [Some public schools are worth keeping. This is one item intended to make this possible.]
  • Second priority for rental shall be given to educational organizations owned or operated by individuals who were formerly employed by the District as certificated teachers but not at the location they are requesting to rent as a school.
  • Third priority for rental shall be given to all other qualified applicants.
  • Last priority for rental shall be given to non-educational uses.

    These facilities, if rented for voucher school use, will be rented at a price per square foot not to exceed the square foot price paid for office space in the lowest 1/3 of the local office market plus 2% to cover maintenance of grounds and common spaces. Spaces rented for non-educational use shall be rented at the market rate. CSIVA may modify specifics in this paragraph via administrative regulation to carry out the intent of this measure.

    District Employee Retirement and Severance

    [hopefully, a mandated decent severance package / retirement package closeout will defuse much of the opposition to this among public school teachers, especially those who'd either rather be doing something else for a living or those who think they'd like to run their own schools... several teachers who've just received a lump-sum retirement plan payout would be in a very good position to start a Voucher School. Also, it'll make retirement attractive to the teachers most likely to be obsolete.]

    Long-Service Teachers (20 years or over) within 5 years of early retirement age shall have their employer contributions to their retirement plans funded immediately upon their termination as School District employees, or may elect to take a lump sum settlement of their pension accounts including the employer contributions which ordinarily would have been made between their leaving their former school and retirement. This also includes contributions toward medical coverage during that time period, which they may elect to use to continue their former employer-provided medical coverage as otherwise provided by law.

    Other teachers will receive a lump-sum payment closing out their pension plan accounts.

    Severance Pay shall be paid to employees on termination at the rate of a minimum of 2 weeks plus 1 week for every year of service up to 24 years, the maximum payment under this paragraph shall be 26 times the employee's highest regular weekly rate of pay for a minimum 4 week period from that school employer within a 2 year period of termination. [This precludes a school in liquidation suddenly deciding to save on a severance payout by cutting a teacher's pay just before school closure. This also precludes a teacher making massive profit based on doing a high-pay consultant position for the school or district to solve a special problem of some sort.]

    Any employee receiving more than $5,000 as a total of both pension plan payout plus severance pay may recieve up to 2 hours advice from a Certified Financial Planner of his/her or District's choice at School or School District expense.

    Voucher School Liquidation

    In the event that CSIVA requires a voucher-funded school to be liquidated, new vouchers for the next semester will be issued to parents of students at that school, bank accounts relating to the operation of the school will be frozen, and a CSIVA representative will be appointed to oversee the liquidation of the school assets and payment of that school's obligations, herein called the "School Liquidator". School obligations shall be met in the following order of priority:

  • Employee pay, defined as payment for the last period in which the employee worked for the school. These obligations will be met operating the school within 2 weeks of the closure of the school. Contractual issues regarding the validity of severance pay and other payments to the employee required by contract between the school or parent organization and the employee will be resolved by decision of an Administrative Law Judge.
  • Vendor payments for goods purchased and delivered and services rendered shall be made in order inverse to the amounts invoiced.
  • Amounts advanced by CSIVA via the SCF shall be returned to CSIVA when possible in cash. If SCF funds have been used for purchasing real estate or building construction, these funds are a financial obligation of the "School Operator" which formerly operated the school, constituting a lien against the property. If CSIVA funds have been used to purchase portable property, (computers, etc.) these funds are a financial obligation of the organization which operated the school, constituting a lien against the property. These liens may not be paid by the organization until its obligations as defined elsewhere in this document are met.
  • If funds within the former control of "School Operator" in connection with the operation of the school are not adequate to meet school obligations as defined herein, CSIVA will pay these obligations. This does not relieve "School Operator" of these financial obligations, it merely transfers the ownership of debts incurred to CSIVA. CSIVA may implement collection procedures, including civil action against "School Operator" to recover these debts. In the event that the School Liquidator believes that these obligations were incurred fradulently by "School Operator", CSIVA may implement civil action or make criminal complaint to law enforcement authorities against any individuals or organizations comprising "School Operator".
  • The School Liquidator's duties end when the school's obligations as defined herein have been met. The School Liquidator's last duty will to provide a report to CSIVA on the liquidation in a CSIVA-mandated format.
  • School Operators and the individuals [including the officers of any corporation which is an organization comprising a School operator] and organizations comprising them whose school has been liquidated by CSIVA may not apply for new CSIVA voucher school status for the period of 2 years from when the school's obligations have been met. Individuals and organizations comprising a School Operator of a liquidated school may continue to operate existing schools under existing authority which CSIVA has not found it necessary to liquidate.

    Monitoring the schools and students

    Standardized aptitude and knowledge tests will be given to all students at voucher schools every semester. The results will be furnished to the State Board of Education and published as specified under the Publication paragraph of this measure. If more than __% of students at a grade level or more than __% of the student body as a whole fall below acceptable standards as defined by test results, the school is on academic probation. CSIVA may notify a school of this status, but is not required to do so. If a school fails to improve by the next test period, CSIVA will hold an administrative law hearing presided over by a CSIVA representative in which representatives of that school will be ordered to show cause why CSIVA should continue funding that school through vouchers. If no adequate cause can be shown, that school will be liquidated as provided in the section titled "Voucher School Liquidation".

    Auditing: Voucher schools are required to make financial records available to CSIVA inspection on demand. They are also required to make attendance records available and to allow physical verification that students claimed as being enrolled are actually physically present. These reports and records must be in a CSIVA approved format. They will be published as specified in the Publication paragraph of this measure. [financial records-Excel or Excel-compatible file type, for instance]

    Attendance: Voucher Schools will furnish to each student computer readable ID documents in a CSIVA-approved format with photographs. Schools with more than (xxxx) students enrolled must make availble secure on-line access to relevant attendance records to CSIVA, law enforcement, and parents. Schools with fewer students must have a voice phone number with a competent person who can provide relevant attendance information to a properly identified CSIVA / law enforcement / parent available when the school is in session.

    School Operating Dates: In order to make verification of attendance easier, Voucher Schools shall operate during some or all of the following periods:

  • Spring Quarter:
  • Summer Quarter 1:
  • Summer Quarter 2:
  • Fall Quarter:
  • Winter Quarter:

    If a Voucher School requires a different schedule, it may make application in writing to CSIVA stating its reasons. (e.g. school session is going to be held on a cruise ship with a defined schedule) CSIVA may not withhold consent for this unnecessarily.

    [The reason for a 5 quarter year is to allow for the operation of year-round schools.] [The purpose here is twofold. Since it's quite possible that any city could have dozens or hundreds of different schools with different schedules, there will be some difficultly in seeing if a school-age student wandering the streets is supposed to be in school or not. Also, CSIVA needs to be able to verify that students attending a school actually go there, as do parents. Proper ID (including digital) is required to protect student privacy, e.g. from pedophiles.]

    Summary numbers on attendance (e.g. average percentage of students enrolled actually in attendance) will be derived by CSIVA from numbers reported by each school. They will be published as specified in the Publication paragraph of this measure.

    Budget information is to be provided in a standardized format authorized by CSIVA by each voucher school, both in an itemized format and a summary format broken out by, for example:

  • Profit
  • Administrative Expenses
  • Instructional Personnel Labor (Salary+benefits)
  • Textbooks, Expendable Instructional MateArials
  • Facilities Maintenance
  • Rent / mortgage
  • Capital Expenditures
  • Ownership [who REALLY owns this business. . . a parent should be able to figure out what axes the owners have to grind from this]

    This information will be published as specified in the Publication paragraph of this measure.

    Curriculum Standards - Skill and knowledge sets

  • Math
  • English
    ....reading
    ....writing

    [I don't know enough about what skills match each grade level well enough to write an intelligent grade-by-grade specification for the above.]

  • Science
  • Social Studies
  • Computer Technology

    By 2005, a high school graduate must be adequately proficient in using: [at MS Works level of complexity]
    ....1)Word Processor
    ....2)Spreadsheet
    ....3)Database
    ....4)E-mail
    ....5)ftp
    ....6)Web Search
    ....7)Personal Computer Security
    .......a)e-mail access (who can read it)
    .......b)encryption (how to use it, where to get it)
    .......c)viruses (what they are, when to use scanners, where to get
    .........scanners, how to tell good from bad)
    .......d)what to do about obscene, offensive, or advertising-related incoming mail

    By 2010, a student must have this level of proficiency to enter high school. The current revision of these specifications shall be published as specified in the Publication paragraph of this measure, The results of CSIVA-approved standardized tests covering the prescribed grade level mateArial will be published as specified in the Publication paragraph of this measure.

    Mandated Textbooks: CSIVA shall not mandate specific textbooks or provide them to Voucher Schools. CSIVA shall create and maintain a "Recommended Textbook" list as a service to Voucher Schools, the information in the collection of texts shall be adequate to allow the passage of subject tests mandated by CSIVA at the different grade levels of schools.

    Teacher qualifications:

    Standard and CBEST test based emergency credentials or their equivalents until something better is devised. CSIVA is directed to study better methods for qualifying teachers and to implement these methods by 3 calendar years after this initiative becomes law.

    It is widely known that the supply of certificated teachers in certain subject disciplines (e.g. computer science) is virtually nonexistent. Upon a finding by CSIVA that this type of shortage exists in a field, instructors may be hired to teach without standard teaching credentials upon demonstration of skills within the subject discipline under the supervision of a certificated teacher.

    Discipline:

  • 1. Zero-tolerance laws requiring expulsion or suspension for alleged drug or weapons offenses are repealed. It is the finding of the People of California that these laws have been abused so egregiously that they have no place in a learning situation and that the handling of these situations is better left to the discretion of instructors and school administrative personnel. [if events prove that these people can't handle the problem well enough to guarantee student safety and treat students with fairness at the same time, parents can move their kids to another school, or CSIVA can close the school if things get out of hand and stay that way.]
  • 2. Discipline Policies are to be reported to CSIVA for publication as otherwise provided in this initiative. CSIVA will devise a method for monitoring how these policies are enforced in practice.
  • 3. The number of personal and property crimes reported to the school administration shall be reported to CSIVA using a reporting format similar to the following:

    Murder xx per 1,000 total yearly occurences

  • Rape " "
  • Robbery " "
  • Assault " "
  • Property Crimes " "
  • Hate Crimes " "

    and published as provided in the Publication paragraph of this measure. [Something along the lines of the FBI Serious Crimes reporting criteria]

    Student rules of conduct and a description of how those codes of conduct are enforced are to be transmitted to CSIVA for publication as provided for elsewhere. Complaints about rules, a specific disciplinary action, etc. may be addressed to CSIVA by students, parents, or teachers. If desired by the complainant, a complaint may be published by CSIVA as provided for in the Publication paragraph of this measure. This shall be published in the format of :

  • the complaint,
  • a reply from the school
  • the results of the CSIVA investigation if CSIVA believes one is warranted.

    CSIVA will take no action as a result of discipline complaints unless

  • violation of law or public policy are found
  • threats to student health and safety or public safety are found.Limitation of Voucher School Liability: Included as part of each agreement by parent to transfer voucher funds to a voucher school is an agreement to hold harmless this school for damages as a result of school disciplinary actions unless they constitute violations of law or threats to the student's health and/or safety.

    Each Voucher School agrees in exchange for receiving CSIVA funding to hold harmless CSIVA for any statements published by CSIVA about said Voucher School, particularly on the Internet or in space purchased in general-circulation newspapers. CSIVA's sole responsibility shall be to correct any verifiable errors in fact at the next opportunity, e.g. on a Web pages allocated to that school within 5 working days, and in the next regular publication of printed information mentioning a school as provided elsewhere in this measure.

    [The idea here is to keep the legal liability burden on schools, especially small one believable but to provide a workable relief mechanism, i.e. if CSIVA says that a school disciplinary program is unjust, unfair, and indicates the school is run by a bunch of nuts... parents probably won't be sending their kids there. This is also intended to give CSIVA investigators the freedom to say what they think]

    Transfer of Students: Parents may transfer their students at any time given 4 weeks notice, the unused portion of student voucher funds will be returned to the Voucher Fund for payment to the school the student will transfer to and where the student has been accepted. Voucher schools are directed to accept transfer students fitting the school admission criteria (see Admission section of initiative) on a space-available basis and will accept the portion of voucher funds unused by the previous school as payment for this student's educational services. In the event of an emergency, notice can be waived by the school student was originally enrolled in. Waivers of notice shall not be unnecessarily withheld and shall not be used as a punitive measure.

    Observation:

  • Members of the public, not to exceed one per classroom in person may observe classes at a voucher school in session at any time without notice. In this context, members of CSIVA or news media are "members of the public".
  • Any number of members of public are allowed as observers with permission of the school administration.
  • Felons or ex-felons with a history of crimes involving children (child molesting, etc.) violent crimes, membership in criminal organizations as defined in the RICO (Racketeering Criminal Organizations) or persons with a history of school disruption are NOT "members of the public" in this context.
  • On-duty employees of law enforcement authorities are NOT members of the public in this context, they may be admitted with the permission of the School Operator or without permission given the presentation of a warrant from a court with competent authority or if an employee is a parent of a student at that school or in the event of an emergency involving serious threat to the health and safety of students.
  • Observation under the terms of this section must be as unobtrusive as possible, but students and teachers must be informed that observation is taking place. The number of such observers in a classroom without specific permission of a School Operator is limited to two per classroom or 5% of the number of students in classes at the time persons wish to observe. Video or computer network monitoring facilities are recommended but not required for this purpose.
  • The preceding does not apply to CSIVA staff members undertaking an investigation, these persons may go anywhere on a Voucher School facility at any time without permission of the school administration, but notice is required which may be prior or given within 5 minutes of when CSIVA staff members arrive on campus. Verbal notification of any employee of that Voucher School shall be deemed as adequate notice. A "member of the public" falsely reporting an emergency situation within a Voucher School to CSIVA or to law enforcement may be permanently excluded from any and all Voucher Schools, and civil action or criminal complaint may be made by that Voucher School or CSIVA with respect to that false report.
  • Non-disclosure: Visitors with or without permission may be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with respect to educational methods, etc., term not to exceed 1 year from the date of signing or until the school is liquidated. Non-disclosure provisions do not apply to members of the public providing information to CSIVA, if they do so, CSIVA becomes party to the non-disclosure agreement. Information gathered by CSIVA under the terms of a secrecy agreement may not be disclosed by CSIVA to third parties for the duration of the agreement unless the information involves emergencies involving immediate threat to the health and safety of students. Non-disclosure provisions do not apply to visitors who witness emergencies involving immediate threat to the health and safety of students and wish to disclose them to law enforcement. [??? Proprietary Information??? We do want new educational technologies developed... but how to handle? - probably via secrecy agreement... with a review mechanism should the observer have probable cause to believe that the educational procedure witnessed by observer is an actual threat to student health or safety.]

    Virtual Schools: A Virtual School is defined as a school that delivers the majority of its education to students online, via the Internet, the public telephone network, or other interactive electronic means of delivering digital data to computer(s) used by the student. These schools are exempt from any attendance requirements requiring that students be present. CSIVA may write administrative regulations covering attendance and other requirements appropriate to the circumstances (e.g. hours of online connection to the school per week, etc.) of a Virtual School. CSIVA may require in-person examinations to determine the learning progress of students, monitored by CSIVA staff investigating a Virtual School for reasons allowable within this measure. CSIVA may not require this action more than once per academic year at any Virtual School. However, students using this form of education must not fail more than two consecutive grade-level examinations prescribed by CSIVA or CSIVA is not compelled to provide voucher funds for this student at any facility the failing student does not attend in person. CSIVA personnel must be allowed access to all learning materials provided by a Virtual School online or provided to its students by other means.

    Truth in Advertising

    Voucher Schools deliberately and knowingly making false statements to CSIVA for publication or to qualify themselves for Voucher School funding may be disqualified for receiving Voucher Funds and/or may be forced to repay any Voucher Funds. This is notwithstanding any penalties resulting from civil or criminal actions such as fraud or fraud-by-wire that may be imposed on these entities or responsible officers of these entities.

    Penalties for non-compliance

    Voucher Schools found out of compliance with this measure or relevant portions of the State Education Code not superceded by this measure or by other laws or public policies or administrative regulations devised by CSIVA may receive any of the following penalties:

  • temporary or permanent cutoff of Voucher Fund and the requirement that all Voucher Funds advanced to the school for educating students be immediately repaid
  • temporary or permanent cutoff of access to the Supplemental Capital Fund and the requirement that previous loans or grants from the SCF be immediately repaid
  • orders to cease accepting new students
  • liquidation of the school as provided for in the section titled "Liquidation of Voucher Schools".
  • orders to cease advertising for new students
  • administrators or other employees, including instructors may be forbidden employment in Voucher Schools or their parent organizations temporarily or permanently.

    Voucher Schools agree that any disputes with CSIVA not involving violation of law not resolvable by CSIVA administrative processes are to be resolved via arbitration with one member of the arbitration panel selected by CSIVA, one member selected by the Voucher School, and one member selected by the other two members, or via other forms of dispute resolution agreed upon by CSIVA and the Voucher School. Voucher Schools are required to waive the right to civil suit against CSIVA in the context of this measure. [While the American Arbitration Association is as good as anything else, personally, I don't care if the disputants resolve their differences via trial by combat as long as they are resolved swiftly]

    Student Unable to Graduate from High School

    Subject Deficiency: In the event that a high school student who regularly attends a Voucher School is unable to pass the tests required for graduation in 2 or fewer subject areas after 4 years of full-time high school classes in the absence of a handicap as defined by the ADA, CSIVA will pay for up to 1 year of a curriculum intended to make up student's subject deficiencies.

    General Deficiency: If a high school student after 4 years of full-time attendance in school is deficient in more subject areas than allowed in the "Subject Deficiency" paragraph, CSIVA will examine the student. If CSIVA determines that the school is responsible for not properly educating the student, the voucher school will pay the cost of educating the student properly at the educational institution prescribed by CSIVA as the best place to correct the student's deficiencies. If the school is not held responsible, CSIVA will pay the cost of educating the student at the institution chosen by CSIVA. Neiter CSIVA nor the Voucher School will be liable for paying for more than 2 extra years of education under the provisions of this section.

    Drop-out: If a high school student 16 years of age or above chooses to leave a voucher school and does not promptly enroll in another one, the portion of his/her voucher fund that remains from that allocated for paying for her/his high school education (defined in this context as 4 years total) shall be available to him/her when he/she wants to resume his/her education. If a student at any grade level fails to attend the last school he/she was registered in as necessary as defined by the school he/she was last enrolled in, the student will be considered to have dropped out, the school is required to notify CSIVA that the student is no longer attending, and these funds shall be made available to the school that enrolls that student when this student resumes her/his education. Note that regular attendance can be defined as completing a home study program under the supervision of a certificated instructor in the event of some situation outside student or parental control. (e.g. prolonged illness or injury) Students under 16 who leave school may be reported to local authorities responsible for administering the truancy laws. (e.g. law enforcement) The use of these funds shall be limited to remedial courses required to bring this student's education to high-school level proficiency as defined elsewhere in this measure.

    Graduation by examination: A student may take high school graduation examinations as prescribed by the State of California, e.g. the High School Equivalency Test or GED at any age or grade level. If the student passes, the student shall be awarded a high school diploma by the last school she/he attended, or by CSIVA. All public agencies, including but not limited to college-level educational institutions operated by the State of California, including but not limited to public agencies acting as employers, all employers doing business with the State of California, and all organizations receiving funding of whatever nature from the State of California are required to accept this diploma as they would a diploma awarded for students in residence at any other accredited 4 year high school. The money unexpended that is allocated from the voucher fund for her education through high school shall be paid out as follows:

  • 1. 40% allocated to the student educational account described elsewhere in this section for use in student college education or vocational training programs or release without restriction to the student upon the age of majority.
  • 2. 10% paid directly to the student without restriction immediately regardless of age. [A student who educates herself deserves a tangible, immediate reward.]
  • 3. 10% to the school in which the student was last enrolled.
  • 4. 40% reverts to the Voucher Fund

    Students below the high-school grade-level may elect to take graduation examinations for grades as prescribed by the State of California in advance, e.g. a student enrolled in the 4th grade may take the 4th grade or higher graduation examination, and receive graduation credit for any grade for which the student passes the examination. This credit must be accepted by any voucher school. If the student passes, the money unexpended that is allocated from the voucher fund for her education for each grade that he/she passed by examination is distributed provided elsewhere in this section.

    Student funds held in trust for a student by CSIVA shall be kept in an educational account for the student at CSIVA, to be expended for any purpose reasonably related to education while a student is a minor unexpended funds to be paid directly and without restriction to the student at the age of majority. Within the context of student fund allocation, unless a student has met high school graduation requirements, including by examination, a student shall be treated as a minor even if that student is an Emancipated Minor.

    Homeschooling: [haven't figured out what to do with this yet... other than requiring regular examinations of educational progress as provided elsewhere in this measure.]

    Voucher School Qualifications

    Application Package:

    Entities which wish to apply to CSIVA for authority to become a voucher school School Operator must submit the following information to CSIVA via electronic means with digital signature in format acceptable to CSIVA:

  • An electronic mail address at which CSIVA can communicate with the Entity applying to become a School Operator.
  • Teachers: There must be not less than a 40:1 student/teacher ratio, teacher in this case means certificated (including CBEST) teacher. Names of instructors may be submitted with the application or a week or more before the school is intended to open.
  • Facilities:
  • Equipment:
    -----library
    -----science lab
    -----computers, networking
    -----
    -----
  • Instructional plans; what subject areas does the school intend to cover at each grade level, what textbook and instructional materials the school intends to use, etc. [40:1 is specified to allow the use of parent volunteers and non-certificated teachers in subject disciplines, e.g. the Internet for which certificated teachers aren't available.]

    The reports on the above instructional plans, disciplinary procedures, financial reports, . . . in CSIVA approved formats must be transmitted to CSIVA at their publically announced Internet address. [Anyone thinking that this is intended to provide a barrier to entry to the educational market to the computer / network-illiterate is absolutely correct.] An individual or organization(s) who receives permission from CSIVA to operate a voucher school within the meaning of this initiative will be called a "School Operator" for the purpose of this document.

    If the school makes significant changes to any of the information involved in the application, updates must be submitted to CSIVA in a timely manner, not to exceed 10 working days (days in which the school is in session) of when the changes are made.

    Proprietary Information Content: If the school develops significant in-house curricular content, it will submit copies in electronic form to CSIVA to the published Internet address or to other Internet addresses as requested by CSIVA. If this content is considered proprietary, it may be submitted under non-disclosure agreement, otherwise it may be published on the portion of the CSIVA Web site allocated to the school. If the content is of a type that electronic (digital) form isn't cost-effective to submit, the content may be submitted as video in the format most commonly used by the public at the time of submission or in other formats announced as acceptible to CSIVA.

    However, since the one of the intents of this measure is to ensure that effective teaching methods are disseminated to all educational institutions in California and that ineffective teaching measures are made known to all educational institutions as ineffective:

    1. No institution may have a monopoly on the use of educational methods or instructional materials or technology lasting more than 5 years.
    2. If patents and copyrights are granted on such educational methods / materials, the institution developing them agrees to make these materials available for sale at a reasonable price to other educational institutions, including homeschool, i.e. cost of reproduction plus a reasonable profit.
    3. Institutions that do not wish to comply may leave the voucher program, but are required to repay the subsidies provided by CSIVA that were used to develop these proprietary materials.
    4. If a voucher school is liquidated, these technologies, methods, and materials must be made available for publication on the CSIVA website within 30 days of the closure of the school.

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