Public Schools
Commentary
Suburban schools not always great
A prominent California legislator from an inner-city district recently told a friend of mine that there were no poor-performing schools in the wealthy suburbs. This is a common perception among legislators, the media and parents, but it stands at odds with the facts. In 2008, there were 528 schools where ...
Commentary
My Word: Awful school funding formula plagues Alameda County
Bay Area News Group (Oakland, CA), December 23, 2009 CA Political News, December 23, 2009 CALIFORNIA’S FISCAL outlook continues to worsen. Concern is mounting over the impact the state’s budget deficit will have on education funding. The California Teachers Association (CTA), along with state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, ...
Commentary
California Students Need the Gift That Keeps on Giving
The holiday season finds Sacramento legislators scrambling for $700 million in Race to the Top money from the federal government. In the midst of the chaos, policy makers, parents and taxpayers should take time to reflect on what Californias six million public school students really need, starting with high expectations. ...
Business & Economics
2010 initiatives: good, bad and silly
Any reform that will actually help fix the ongoing California government’s fiscal mess (serious spending limits, pension reform, limits on union power, cutbacks in the size of state government, educational privatization, etc.) cannot possibly pass, given political realities. Anything that can actually pass will not fix anything or might ...
Commentary
Health care reform taking stubborn path to huge debt
Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI), December 19, 2009 Wisconsin Democratic Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold are almost never in the headlines on health care reform. Hands over eyes and ears, they are marching forward in lockstep with President Barack Obama toward some kind of a muddled conclusion. They remain committed ...
Education
Scrooging Schoolchildren
The U.S. House passed a $447 billion omnibus spending bill on Thursday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claims all that spending will help restore long-term prosperity. In reality, the bill is a windfall for bureaucracies that leaves thousands of the District’s most disadvantaged students out in the cold. In a move ...
Charter Schools
Massachusetts Works to Expand Charter Schools
On November 18 the Massachusetts State Senate passed a much-anticipated bill to expand charter schools. The bill, S. 2216, sent to the House in the late hours of November 17, lifted the many caps hindering charter school expansion in the Bay State. Essentially, Massachusetts has two types of charter schools: ...
Education
Still Not As Good As You Think: 2009 Update on Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice
In 757 California public schools with predominantly non-disadvantaged, mostly middle-class students, 50 percent or more students in at least one grade level performed below proficient on the 2008 state tests. This is an update of Pacific Research Institute’s groundbreaking book Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class ...
Commentary
New Report Finds that Many Students at California’s “Middle Class” Public Schools Are Not Proficient in English or Mathematics
In 757 California public schools with predominantly non-disadvantaged, mostly middle-class students, 50 percent or more students in at least one grade level performed below proficient on the 2008 state tests. San Francisco–-The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in San Francisco, released an update of its groundbreaking ...
Business & Economics
Plundering California
The economy is struggling, the unemployment rate is high, and many Americans are struggling to pay the bills, but one class of Americans is doing quite well: government workers. Their pay levels are soaring, they enjoy unmatched benefits, and they remain largely immune from layoffs, except for some overly publicized ...
Suburban schools not always great
A prominent California legislator from an inner-city district recently told a friend of mine that there were no poor-performing schools in the wealthy suburbs. This is a common perception among legislators, the media and parents, but it stands at odds with the facts. In 2008, there were 528 schools where ...
My Word: Awful school funding formula plagues Alameda County
Bay Area News Group (Oakland, CA), December 23, 2009 CA Political News, December 23, 2009 CALIFORNIA’S FISCAL outlook continues to worsen. Concern is mounting over the impact the state’s budget deficit will have on education funding. The California Teachers Association (CTA), along with state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, ...
California Students Need the Gift That Keeps on Giving
The holiday season finds Sacramento legislators scrambling for $700 million in Race to the Top money from the federal government. In the midst of the chaos, policy makers, parents and taxpayers should take time to reflect on what Californias six million public school students really need, starting with high expectations. ...
2010 initiatives: good, bad and silly
Any reform that will actually help fix the ongoing California government’s fiscal mess (serious spending limits, pension reform, limits on union power, cutbacks in the size of state government, educational privatization, etc.) cannot possibly pass, given political realities. Anything that can actually pass will not fix anything or might ...
Health care reform taking stubborn path to huge debt
Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI), December 19, 2009 Wisconsin Democratic Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold are almost never in the headlines on health care reform. Hands over eyes and ears, they are marching forward in lockstep with President Barack Obama toward some kind of a muddled conclusion. They remain committed ...
Scrooging Schoolchildren
The U.S. House passed a $447 billion omnibus spending bill on Thursday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claims all that spending will help restore long-term prosperity. In reality, the bill is a windfall for bureaucracies that leaves thousands of the District’s most disadvantaged students out in the cold. In a move ...
Massachusetts Works to Expand Charter Schools
On November 18 the Massachusetts State Senate passed a much-anticipated bill to expand charter schools. The bill, S. 2216, sent to the House in the late hours of November 17, lifted the many caps hindering charter school expansion in the Bay State. Essentially, Massachusetts has two types of charter schools: ...
Still Not As Good As You Think: 2009 Update on Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice
In 757 California public schools with predominantly non-disadvantaged, mostly middle-class students, 50 percent or more students in at least one grade level performed below proficient on the 2008 state tests. This is an update of Pacific Research Institute’s groundbreaking book Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class ...
New Report Finds that Many Students at California’s “Middle Class” Public Schools Are Not Proficient in English or Mathematics
In 757 California public schools with predominantly non-disadvantaged, mostly middle-class students, 50 percent or more students in at least one grade level performed below proficient on the 2008 state tests. San Francisco–-The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in San Francisco, released an update of its groundbreaking ...
Plundering California
The economy is struggling, the unemployment rate is high, and many Americans are struggling to pay the bills, but one class of Americans is doing quite well: government workers. Their pay levels are soaring, they enjoy unmatched benefits, and they remain largely immune from layoffs, except for some overly publicized ...
