Lance Izumi

Charter Schools

Lance Izumi Featured in EdSource, “California Voices: budget reactions 2021-22”

EdSource asked leaders representing all segments of California’s education system to comment on Gov. Newsom’s 2021-22 budget proposal. This year, we’ve presented their responses in reverse alphabetical order, which seemed apt for these topsy-turvey times. . . . What stands out in the governor’s proposed budget for education? There is ...
Blog

A New Year, A Promising New Education Model

With the disastrous education landscape of 2020 now in the rear-view mirror, the New Year offers the opportunity to consider new ways of delivering effective learning to America’s children.  Portal Schools is one such promising model. Confronted with student-learning catastrophes during the COVID crisis, some states, according to a new ...
Coronavirus

PRI’s Lance Izumi Talks About the Need to Reopen Schools on Newsy

Watch Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss the debate over school reopenings and the resignation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Newsy, the national cable news network. https://www.pacificresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Newsy-7_00-PM-8_00-PM-Lance-Izumi-interview-NT-1.8.2021.mp4
Charter Schools

NEW BRIEF: New Obstacles Hinder Students Trapped in Failing Schools From Escaping to Charter Schools

Political interests, teachers unions and legislators are thwarting new and existing charter schools, and parents and students must use every available tool to fight back, argues a new research brief released today by the Pacific Research Institute, a California-based, nonpartisan think tank.   Click here to download the brief   ...
Blog

We Need More Educational Choice Options for Special Needs Children

With the education world in flux because of the COVID pandemic, it is time to push for the broadest range of education options possible for all children, including those with special needs. My new book A Kite in a Hurricane No More, which I co-authored with Mia Giordano, tells the ...
Commentary

Would-be Education Secretary Lily Garcia Should Meet Mia Giordano

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, the former teachers union boss who wants to be Joe Biden’s education secretary, has been slammed for her disparaging comments about learning-disabled children. Garcia should meet Mia Giordano, a young woman who overcame her learning disabilities outside of the conventional public school system. Garcia, who headed the ...
Charter Schools

LA, Oakland receive “F” for funding disparity between regular public schools and charters

It is well known that regular public schools receive more funding than public charter schools, but a just-released study finds that this gap becomes massive when all sources of revenues are included, and this yawning chasm can be seen especially in Oakland and Los Angeles. The University of Arkansas study, entitled ...
Blog

Patriotism and Veterans Day

I was honored to give the Veterans Day address at John Adams Academy charter school.  I focused on the connection between patriotism and military service.  The following is an abridged version of my speech. Dr. Gary Houchens, an education professor at Western Kentucky University, recently wrote a great essay on ...
Charter Schools

State lawmakers hurt charter schools, online learning with funding deal

The 2020-21 state budget signed back in June by Gov. Newsom glaringly failed to fund regular public schools and public charter schools with growing enrollments. A purported “fix” to this problem, pushed by the governor and Democratic legislators, turns out to be just more Sacramento smoke and mirrors. The budget ...
Charter Schools

During COVID-19 pandemic, blue states defund online charter schools

As the COVID-19 pandemic keeps many regular public schools closed, it should be a no-brainer that states would fund online public charter schools, which specialize in delivering instruction through distance-learning tools. Shockingly, however, some blue states are actually defunding these online charters. In California, the legislature’s Democrat-supermajority passed an education ...
Charter Schools

Lance Izumi Featured in EdSource, “California Voices: budget reactions 2021-22”

EdSource asked leaders representing all segments of California’s education system to comment on Gov. Newsom’s 2021-22 budget proposal. This year, we’ve presented their responses in reverse alphabetical order, which seemed apt for these topsy-turvey times. . . . What stands out in the governor’s proposed budget for education? There is ...
Blog

A New Year, A Promising New Education Model

With the disastrous education landscape of 2020 now in the rear-view mirror, the New Year offers the opportunity to consider new ways of delivering effective learning to America’s children.  Portal Schools is one such promising model. Confronted with student-learning catastrophes during the COVID crisis, some states, according to a new ...
Coronavirus

PRI’s Lance Izumi Talks About the Need to Reopen Schools on Newsy

Watch Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss the debate over school reopenings and the resignation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Newsy, the national cable news network. https://www.pacificresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Newsy-7_00-PM-8_00-PM-Lance-Izumi-interview-NT-1.8.2021.mp4
Charter Schools

NEW BRIEF: New Obstacles Hinder Students Trapped in Failing Schools From Escaping to Charter Schools

Political interests, teachers unions and legislators are thwarting new and existing charter schools, and parents and students must use every available tool to fight back, argues a new research brief released today by the Pacific Research Institute, a California-based, nonpartisan think tank.   Click here to download the brief   ...
Blog

We Need More Educational Choice Options for Special Needs Children

With the education world in flux because of the COVID pandemic, it is time to push for the broadest range of education options possible for all children, including those with special needs. My new book A Kite in a Hurricane No More, which I co-authored with Mia Giordano, tells the ...
Commentary

Would-be Education Secretary Lily Garcia Should Meet Mia Giordano

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, the former teachers union boss who wants to be Joe Biden’s education secretary, has been slammed for her disparaging comments about learning-disabled children. Garcia should meet Mia Giordano, a young woman who overcame her learning disabilities outside of the conventional public school system. Garcia, who headed the ...
Charter Schools

LA, Oakland receive “F” for funding disparity between regular public schools and charters

It is well known that regular public schools receive more funding than public charter schools, but a just-released study finds that this gap becomes massive when all sources of revenues are included, and this yawning chasm can be seen especially in Oakland and Los Angeles. The University of Arkansas study, entitled ...
Blog

Patriotism and Veterans Day

I was honored to give the Veterans Day address at John Adams Academy charter school.  I focused on the connection between patriotism and military service.  The following is an abridged version of my speech. Dr. Gary Houchens, an education professor at Western Kentucky University, recently wrote a great essay on ...
Charter Schools

State lawmakers hurt charter schools, online learning with funding deal

The 2020-21 state budget signed back in June by Gov. Newsom glaringly failed to fund regular public schools and public charter schools with growing enrollments. A purported “fix” to this problem, pushed by the governor and Democratic legislators, turns out to be just more Sacramento smoke and mirrors. The budget ...
Charter Schools

During COVID-19 pandemic, blue states defund online charter schools

As the COVID-19 pandemic keeps many regular public schools closed, it should be a no-brainer that states would fund online public charter schools, which specialize in delivering instruction through distance-learning tools. Shockingly, however, some blue states are actually defunding these online charters. In California, the legislature’s Democrat-supermajority passed an education ...
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