“Will the unions help keep poor teachers from returning to the classroom?” asked Saturday’s Washington Post, reminding us that union intransigience stretches from Madison,WI to Washington, D.C. An independent arbitrator recently ruled that D.C. Public Schools will be required to hire back 75 teachers fired during Michelle Rhee’s tenure. On …
The results are in: The majority of Americans continue to agree that children should be raised by both parents. In a nationally representative study by the Pew Research Center, researchers found that most people still believe that “the growing prevalence of mothers who have no male partners around to help …
Wednesday, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) was the subject of a hearing held by Senators Joe Lieberman (I–CT) and Susan Collins (R–ME). Although the program is boosting the graduation rates of students who use a scholarship to attend private school and is overwhelmingly popular among parents and D.C. residents, …
Most people know that eating well and exercising regularly leads to better health. What some people may not know, however, is that marriage is also good for their health. And its benefits extend across gender, race, and income levels. Furthermore, both married adults and children from married-parent families are more …
Education reform is taking shape across the nation, and for many states, the next wave of change is coming as state leaders push for teacher tenure reform. Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, and New Jersey have proposed to eliminate or dramatically restructure the current form of teacher tenure. Additionally, New …
On the heels of President Obama’s State of the Union address last night, which was fairly heavy on education policy, this morning Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) announced that they will introduce a bill – the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act …
It’s National School Choice Week, and school choice advocates across the country are coming together to promote educational opportunity for the nation’s children. But just what is “school choice,” and why is it so important? School choice takes a variety of forms: private school choice, pubic school choice, charter schools, …
In the latest efforts to promote school choice for the nation’s children, Pennsylvania state Senators Anthony Williams (D–Philadelphia) and Jeffrey Piccola (R–Dauphin and York) have introduced a plan to provide opportunity scholarships for low-income Pennsylvania students to attend a school of their choice. Said Senator Piccola: We know we have …
Treating teachers like professionals, giving parents school choice, and using education dollars wisely: these three priorities frame the agenda of Students First, the newly established nonprofit headed by former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. The plan, released Tuesday on StudentsFirst.org and outlined by Rhee in The Wall Street Journal and …
