Liberty lost one of its finest advocates this morning. Rose Director Friedman died of heart failure in Davis, Calif. She was thought to be 98. Rose was best known as the wife of Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, who died in 2006. But Rose, an economist herself, was Milton’s intellectual partner. Together, they co-authored the international best-seller “Free to Choose” and other books. Together, they taught the world important lessons about economics and policy. Their life’s work improved the lives of millions around the world, and their lessons will …
Today, Education Secretary Arne Duncan unveiled the regulatory guidelines for his so-called “Race to the Top” Fund, the administration’s $4.3 billion incentive fund for state reforms. Like previous federal education reform efforts, including No Child Left Behind, American parents should be skeptical that new federal incentives will really encourage the kind of reforms that American students urgently need. For starters, it’s naïve to think that $4 billion in funding will provide a real incentive that will have transformative effect on the $600 billion elementary and secondary education sector.
Support for school choice in Washington, D.C. continues to grow. The latest national voice to call for saving the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program is MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. Check out this Hardball interview with RNC Chairman Michael Steele: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFUyqr6QsFY[/youtube] Mr. Matthews says: “These opportunity scholarships should be maintained.” Later in the interview, Mr. Matthews makes an interesting point about how the opportunity to attend a private school made a big difference in the life of Judge Sotomayor: “Cardinal Spellman high school is one of the reasons why this woman, Sotomayor got …
Soon, critics of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program won’t have any arguments left. For years, opponents have argued that the scholarship program wasn’t working. But a recent federal evaluation found that scholarship students have made “statistically significant” improvement in reading compared to their peers who didn’t get scholarships. The report confirmed what parents have been saying for years: the program is improving students’ educational opportunities. Another common criticism is that Congress and the Bush administration somehow imposed this program on an unwilling District government. Of course, this ignores that former …
Last night, the House Appropriations Committee marked-up the spending bill that included funding for the D.C. government. The package included $12 million in funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program to allow current scholarship recipients to continue in their private schools. But the appropriations bill included language preventing any new students from receiving scholarships. Republicans proposed two amendments: one stripping out the “no new student” language, another to at least allow the siblings of current recipients to receive scholarships. The majority on the Committee voted them down.
Writing in Forbes yesterday, the Goldwater Institute’s Clint Bolick argues that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Ricci v. DeStafano should result in renewed attention to education reform and the need to improve educational opportunities for all people: “[The ruling] also brought the nation closer to an important day of reckoning. When blacks and Hispanics flunk examinations, the cause is less likely to be discrimination than the appalling educational conditions to which most economically disadvantaged black and Hispanic children are consigned. “Affirmative action” programs that leap-frog less-qualified minorities over more-qualified non-minorities …
Yesterday, state lawmakers in Indiana passed a scholarship tax credit program—making the Hoosier state the latest to offer private school choice. Under the plan, people or corporations who make donations to non-profits that award tuition scholarships will be eligible for a 50-percent tax credit off their state bill. A total of $2.5 million in tax credits will be awarded. The program has the potential to help hundreds of families choose the best school for their children. A recent analysis by the Friedman Foundation found that this program also has the …
Hoosier State Governor Mitch Daniels included a $5 million school choice tax credit program in his budget, which will be considered in the state legislature’s special session. According to The Brazil Times: The Indiana School Scholarship Tax Credit program would provide a 50 percent state tax credit for charitable contributions to qualified scholarship programs serving lower-income families. Children in grades kindergarten-12 could qualify for scholarships to help attend the public or private school of their choice. The program passed the Indiana Senate with bipartisan support earlier this spring on two …
Today’s committee hearing on charter schools illuminated the powerful impact charters are having on student achievement, and their particular ability to close achievement gaps in states throughout the country. Despite the existence of over 4,600 charter schools in 40 states – with an estimated enrollment of 1.4 million students – the news on the charter school front is not all positive. Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) reported that there are overwhelming barriers to the expansion of charter schools due to hostile state legislatures and arbitrary caps, and that 26 states now …
May is national foster care month. In Arizona, the state legislature marked the occasion by passing emergency legislation to rescue an education program that helps foster children from being terminated. Since 2006, Arizona has provided tuition scholarships to students who have been placed in foster care to attend private school. Research shows that foster children are among the most at-risk groups in our society, and they often face challenges in the classroom. Among the challenges that foster children often face are instability (with frequent home placements leading to school transfers) …
