Earlier today, President Obama delivered a commencement speech to students graduating from Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis, Tennessee. Booker T. Washington high school won the president’s Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, designed to have high schools demonstrate their commitment to college readiness as part of a competition …
Over the past few months, the House Education and the Workforce Committee has been conducting a series of hearings to examine the impact of the federal role in education on local schools. Presentations by school superintendents, education policy experts, and charter school operators painted a picture of the burden of …
Opposition to the Obama Administration’s push for national standards and tests is growing. Yesterday, more than 100 education leaders—professors, policy leaders, public policy heads, former Members of Congress, and others—released a manifesto opposing Washington’s unprecedented overreach into what is taught in local schools. Closing the Door on Innovation charges that …
On Thursday, the Indiana Senate approved what could become the nation’s largest school voucher program. If signed by Governor Mitch Daniels (R), the plan will allow Indiana children throughout the state to use a scholarship to attend a private school of their choice. The proposal, which has already made it …
Nearly a half-century ago, Washington took a deep dive into education policy, increasing federal intervention in local schools. The idea at the time was to improve outcomes through compensatory education—spending federal dollars through federal programs—in an attempt to narrow the achievement gap between low- and upper-income children. This intervention began …
Friday night, Speaker John Boehner secured a huge win for D.C.’s schoolchildren. In a vital triumph for low-income families in the nation’s capital, Speaker Boehner succeeded in reauthorizing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program in the long-term continuing resolution. Over at National Review Online, Kathryn Lopez writes that “John Boehner just …
The Supreme Court has reversed the Ninth Circuit Court’s ruling in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, which sought to end the Arizona Tuition Tax Credit Program. The program allows individuals to receive tax credits of up to $500 ($1,000 for married couples) for contributions made to scholarship-granting organizations, …
Florida is widely recognized as the state leader in education reform. Students in the Sunshine State have made the strongest academic achievement gains in the nation since 2003, and they are one of the only states that have been able to narrow the achievement gap between white and minority students. …
