Public Schools
California
A School Choice Week lesson for Gov. Brown
Gov. Jerry Brown eliminated the office of the state secretary of education, but aside from that symbolic and inconsequential act, his proposed education budget for 2011-12 contains no real reform ideas. California’s new chief executive should use National School Choice Week, the last week in January, to consider innovative ways ...
Education
NEW BOOK! Short-Circuited: The Challenges Facing the Online Learning Revolution in California
Government red tape and inertia, plus union opposition, have prevented widespread student access to K-12 online learning according to the new book Short-Circuited San Francisco—Government red tape and inertia, plus union opposition, have prevented widespread student access to K-12 online learning according to the new book Short-Circuited: The Challenges Facing ...
Business & Economics
Is Brown dodging pension reform?
At a League of California Cities event in Sacramento, Gov. Jerry Brown promised local officials struggling under the weight of pay and benefit costs that he would, indeed, put forward pension-reform proposals in the coming weeks. Yet I see little evidence so far that the new governor is interested in ...
Commentary
Lessons for California from National School Choice Week
National School Choice Week kicks off on January 23, and California should be leading the country in student-centered, parent-driven reform. In the Golden State, unfortunately, system-centered education prevails, and parents empowered to choose their children’s schools are the exception, not the rule. Last year, California adopted the “parent trigger.” If ...
Commentary
Scholarship programs are gifts that keep on giving
During this season of giving, imagine if California taxpayers could give the gift of a better education to thousands — even tens of thousands — of deserving children. Today a variety of parental-choice scholarship programs across the country, including tax-credit scholarships, empower parents to send their children to the schools ...
Business & Economics
Jerry Brown’s game of chicken
SACRAMENTO – We’re about to witness a new twist on Sacramento’s annual high-stakes budget game. Many Capitol observers believe that incoming Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats, who no longer need GOP budget support thanks to the Nov. 2 passage of Proposition 25, which allows budget approval with a ...
Commentary
Tax Credit Scholarship Programs are Gifts that Keep on Giving
During this season of giving, imagine if California taxpayers could give the gift of a better education to thousands—even tens of thousands—of deserving children. Today a variety of parental-choice scholarship programs across the country, including tax-credit scholarships, empower parents to send their children to the schools of their choice—regardless of ...
Education
Florida Shows California that Demography is Still Not Destiny
The latest fourth-grade NAEP reading results reveal how California’s failure to reform its public schools is putting students at an alarming disadvantage. Experts note that through third grade children must learn to read, but beginning in fourth grade they must read to learn. If students cannot read at grade level ...
Commentary
Florida’s lesson: School choice builds success
Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, and retired administrator Larry Aceves want to be California’s superintendent of public instruction. Voters should ask the candidates why Florida, though demographically similar to California, continues to trounce the Golden State in student achievement. Two years ago, significant numbers of Florida’s low-income and minority fourth-graders outscored ...
Business & Economics
Brown’s Tax-the-Rich Mantra Won’t Work
The “w” word used by a Jerry Brown strategist to describe Meg Whitman’s alleged sellout on her pension reform proposals to public safety unions that are endorsing her dominated much of the coverage of the Oct. 12 debate. But far more important to California’s future was Brown’s own sellout to ...
A School Choice Week lesson for Gov. Brown
Gov. Jerry Brown eliminated the office of the state secretary of education, but aside from that symbolic and inconsequential act, his proposed education budget for 2011-12 contains no real reform ideas. California’s new chief executive should use National School Choice Week, the last week in January, to consider innovative ways ...
NEW BOOK! Short-Circuited: The Challenges Facing the Online Learning Revolution in California
Government red tape and inertia, plus union opposition, have prevented widespread student access to K-12 online learning according to the new book Short-Circuited San Francisco—Government red tape and inertia, plus union opposition, have prevented widespread student access to K-12 online learning according to the new book Short-Circuited: The Challenges Facing ...
Is Brown dodging pension reform?
At a League of California Cities event in Sacramento, Gov. Jerry Brown promised local officials struggling under the weight of pay and benefit costs that he would, indeed, put forward pension-reform proposals in the coming weeks. Yet I see little evidence so far that the new governor is interested in ...
Lessons for California from National School Choice Week
National School Choice Week kicks off on January 23, and California should be leading the country in student-centered, parent-driven reform. In the Golden State, unfortunately, system-centered education prevails, and parents empowered to choose their children’s schools are the exception, not the rule. Last year, California adopted the “parent trigger.” If ...
Scholarship programs are gifts that keep on giving
During this season of giving, imagine if California taxpayers could give the gift of a better education to thousands — even tens of thousands — of deserving children. Today a variety of parental-choice scholarship programs across the country, including tax-credit scholarships, empower parents to send their children to the schools ...
Jerry Brown’s game of chicken
SACRAMENTO – We’re about to witness a new twist on Sacramento’s annual high-stakes budget game. Many Capitol observers believe that incoming Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats, who no longer need GOP budget support thanks to the Nov. 2 passage of Proposition 25, which allows budget approval with a ...
Tax Credit Scholarship Programs are Gifts that Keep on Giving
During this season of giving, imagine if California taxpayers could give the gift of a better education to thousands—even tens of thousands—of deserving children. Today a variety of parental-choice scholarship programs across the country, including tax-credit scholarships, empower parents to send their children to the schools of their choice—regardless of ...
Florida Shows California that Demography is Still Not Destiny
The latest fourth-grade NAEP reading results reveal how California’s failure to reform its public schools is putting students at an alarming disadvantage. Experts note that through third grade children must learn to read, but beginning in fourth grade they must read to learn. If students cannot read at grade level ...
Florida’s lesson: School choice builds success
Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, and retired administrator Larry Aceves want to be California’s superintendent of public instruction. Voters should ask the candidates why Florida, though demographically similar to California, continues to trounce the Golden State in student achievement. Two years ago, significant numbers of Florida’s low-income and minority fourth-graders outscored ...
Brown’s Tax-the-Rich Mantra Won’t Work
The “w” word used by a Jerry Brown strategist to describe Meg Whitman’s alleged sellout on her pension reform proposals to public safety unions that are endorsing her dominated much of the coverage of the Oct. 12 debate. But far more important to California’s future was Brown’s own sellout to ...
