Public Schools
Commentary
Race to the Top Finalists Announced, Some Reforms Ignored
School Reform News, March 15, 2010 The nation’s largest state was not among the 15 states and the District of Columbia chosen to advance in the competition for a share of Race to the Top funds, the Obama administration’s $4.35 billion pot of education-stimulus gold. School reformers in California said ...
Commentary
Federal Money Should Empower Parents, Not Failing Public Schools
Last week, in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President Obama laid out plans for improving Americas dropout rate. Some of the ideas are worthy of praise, but a pattern is becoming increasingly predictable. The president promised federal money in exchange for reform. Specifically, Obama promised $900 million ...
Agriculture
Unraveling the Achievement Gap on Campus
For the first time ever, women outnumber men at all levels of higher education. More women than men apply, enroll, and graduate with bachelors and advanced degrees. The response from feminist groups has been drearily predictable. Female enrollment at some schools approaches 60 percent, a gap of 10 percent in ...
Commentary
Milwaukee School Choice Program Sets Example for California, Nation
Low-income Milwaukee students using vouchers to attend independent schools have a graduation rate 18 percent higher than students in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), according to Graduation Rates for Choice and Public School Students in Milwaukee, 2003-2008, a new report by John Robert Warren of the University of Minnesota. California would ...
Education
Garden State Ripe for Tax-Credit Scholarships
So what changed? The study doesn’t say, but the Wall Street Journal notes that taxes on incomes starting at $500,000 increased 40 percent, from 6.37 percent to 8.97 percent beginning in 2004. Today, New Jersey faces a $2.2 billion budget deficit. Governor Chris Christie proposed freezing some spending and coming ...
Commentary
Tax-credit scholarships could ease school funding burden
Gov. Chris Christie has proposed freezing $475 million in education spending to help shrink New Jersey’s $2.2 billion budget deficit, focusing on school districts with budget surpluses. (“Deep budget cuts carry economic risk for N.J.,” Feb. 14.) This plan raises concerns about punishing fiscally responsible school districts. It also raises ...
Education
Taking the “Public Option” in Schooling to Task
For anyone still unconvinced that a single-payer (i.e. government-run) healthcare system is a good idea, try looking at the government-run schooling sector. The average per-pupil expenditure in government-run schools nationwide is nearly $11,000 compared to average private school tuition that’s less than $8,600. In spite of a 20 percent funding ...
Charter Schools
Performance Not Population: Why Charter Schools are an Educational and Civil Rights Solution
Last week researchers at UCLAs Civil Rights Project released Choice Without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards. The authors contend that charter schools are more racially segregated than traditional public schools and that charter schools therefore represent a civil rights problem and should be shut ...
Commentary
State meddling hamstrings schools
SACRAMENTO To show the results of union dominance of the public education system, John Stossel, host of Fox News’ “Stossel,” on a recent show held up a convoluted chart that detailed, in small print, the amazing lengths to which New York school administrators must go to fire an incompetent teacher. ...
Education
Will the Senate Save the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program?
Sens. Lieberman and Collins will hold a press conference this morning on the importance of saving the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) and their plans to offer a bipartisan reauthorization proposal as an amendment to legislation that is moving in the Senate. Last summer, Sens. Lieberman and Collins, along with ...
Race to the Top Finalists Announced, Some Reforms Ignored
School Reform News, March 15, 2010 The nation’s largest state was not among the 15 states and the District of Columbia chosen to advance in the competition for a share of Race to the Top funds, the Obama administration’s $4.35 billion pot of education-stimulus gold. School reformers in California said ...
Federal Money Should Empower Parents, Not Failing Public Schools
Last week, in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President Obama laid out plans for improving Americas dropout rate. Some of the ideas are worthy of praise, but a pattern is becoming increasingly predictable. The president promised federal money in exchange for reform. Specifically, Obama promised $900 million ...
Unraveling the Achievement Gap on Campus
For the first time ever, women outnumber men at all levels of higher education. More women than men apply, enroll, and graduate with bachelors and advanced degrees. The response from feminist groups has been drearily predictable. Female enrollment at some schools approaches 60 percent, a gap of 10 percent in ...
Milwaukee School Choice Program Sets Example for California, Nation
Low-income Milwaukee students using vouchers to attend independent schools have a graduation rate 18 percent higher than students in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), according to Graduation Rates for Choice and Public School Students in Milwaukee, 2003-2008, a new report by John Robert Warren of the University of Minnesota. California would ...
Garden State Ripe for Tax-Credit Scholarships
So what changed? The study doesn’t say, but the Wall Street Journal notes that taxes on incomes starting at $500,000 increased 40 percent, from 6.37 percent to 8.97 percent beginning in 2004. Today, New Jersey faces a $2.2 billion budget deficit. Governor Chris Christie proposed freezing some spending and coming ...
Tax-credit scholarships could ease school funding burden
Gov. Chris Christie has proposed freezing $475 million in education spending to help shrink New Jersey’s $2.2 billion budget deficit, focusing on school districts with budget surpluses. (“Deep budget cuts carry economic risk for N.J.,” Feb. 14.) This plan raises concerns about punishing fiscally responsible school districts. It also raises ...
Taking the “Public Option” in Schooling to Task
For anyone still unconvinced that a single-payer (i.e. government-run) healthcare system is a good idea, try looking at the government-run schooling sector. The average per-pupil expenditure in government-run schools nationwide is nearly $11,000 compared to average private school tuition that’s less than $8,600. In spite of a 20 percent funding ...
Performance Not Population: Why Charter Schools are an Educational and Civil Rights Solution
Last week researchers at UCLAs Civil Rights Project released Choice Without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards. The authors contend that charter schools are more racially segregated than traditional public schools and that charter schools therefore represent a civil rights problem and should be shut ...
State meddling hamstrings schools
SACRAMENTO To show the results of union dominance of the public education system, John Stossel, host of Fox News’ “Stossel,” on a recent show held up a convoluted chart that detailed, in small print, the amazing lengths to which New York school administrators must go to fire an incompetent teacher. ...
Will the Senate Save the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program?
Sens. Lieberman and Collins will hold a press conference this morning on the importance of saving the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) and their plans to offer a bipartisan reauthorization proposal as an amendment to legislation that is moving in the Senate. Last summer, Sens. Lieberman and Collins, along with ...
