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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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 – …
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. …
