G.I.’s Ladner once again proclaims: Public schools are a success

by David Safier

It does my heart good to see Matthew Ladner of the Goldwater Institute has such faith in the possibilities of traditional public schools. This is the second or third time in recent months he's praised the schools for raising student test scores, and especially for increasing the scores of Hispanics.

Ladner is talking about Florida, of course. No surprise there. He loves those Florida schools. But the important thing is, he accepts the idea that traditional public schools can be successful.

That even goes for schools with what he would refer to as an "almost 1-to-1 teacher to bureaucrat ratio."

He's never used that phrase about Florida — of course. But the state has the same ratio of teachers to non-teachers as Arizona. So, unless bus drivers aren't bureaucrats in Florida for some reason (Matthew, please let me know if G.I. has granted them special dispensation), I guess having all those "bureaucrats" isn't as big a deal as he claimed it was in the past.

Until I hear different, I'm going to assume Ladner is saying, traditional public schools with an "almost 1-to-1 teacher to bureaucrat ratio" can be successful.

Even more encouraging is that he hasn't come forth with statistics showing Florida's charter and private schools are doing a better job with their students than traditional public schools. I'll take the next logical step here and say there is clearly no reason to promote vouchers or tuition tax credits, because traditional public schools can get the job done, and private schools don't appear to get it done any better.

I have to admit, though, I am troubled Ladner actually thinks one of the essential parts of Florida's success is giving schools A through F grades for their students' achievement. We already have a five step school rating system here in Arizona. Why changing the name of the steps will somehow make our schools better is a mystery to me.

But listen, I've found an important area of agreement here — that traditional public schooling can be a success — and I don't want to make too much of our differences right now. I'll save that for later.