The Foundry

Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

• Secluding Schools and Restraining States: Congress Prepares to Regulate Private Schools

  Posted March 12th, 2010 at 4:00pm in Education with 6 comments

  The Keeping Children Safe Act might sound laudable in name, but it represents the most recent intrusion of the federal government on local public and private schools. H.R. 4247, which passed the House last week by a vote of 262 to 153, prescribes federal regulations on seclusion and restraint disciplinary procedures used by teachers [...] More

• College is about to Cost You Even More

  Posted March 12th, 2010 at 2:00pm in Education with 3 comments

  The New York Times and Washington Post are reporting that an agreement has been reached to include a federal takeover of student loans as part of the forthcoming reconciliation package. The New York Times reports: Democratic Congressional leaders struck a tentative agreement on Thursday that breathes new life into President Obama’s proposed overhaul of federal [...] More

• Dropout Crisis Prompts Federal Reach into Schools

  Posted March 11th, 2010 at 4:00pm in Education with 1 comments

  President Barack Obama announced Monday that $900 million in federal grants in the proposed FY 2011 budget would be available to school districts and administrators who work to transform roughly 5,000 failing school across the nation. While the proposal encourages transformation of the few thousand schools that produce half of America’s yearly 1.2 million high [...] More

• Federal Preschool Programs Waste Taxpayers’ Money, Limit School Choice

  Posted March 11th, 2010 at 1:00pm in Education with 1 comments

  The alphabet is expensive. The Obama administration’s FY 2011 budget includes $9.3 billion in new spending on an Early Learning Challenge Fund, a new federal preschool program contained within the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA). The SAFRA, a higher education bill, has passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate. Heritage [...] More

• Morning Bell: The Up or Down Vote Our Country Really Deserves

  Posted March 10th, 2010 at 10:03am in Education with 46 comments

  President Barack Obama is touring the country asking for an up-or-down vote on his health care plan. Forget for a second that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) can schedule an up-or-down vote on the Senate health care bill any time she wants, and keep in mind that while Democrats are trying to create the legislative text [...] More

• The Cartel: The True Nature of Teacher Unions

  Posted March 5th, 2010 at 2:44pm in Education with 11 comments

  The problem of continual academic mediocrity that plagues America’s public school system can be laid at the door of union monopolies. That’s the message of The Cartel, a new documentary that will show this Sunday at 12 pm at the Washington, D.C. Independent Film Festival. The film documents the abuses of power exercised by teacher [...] More

• I’m from Washington, and I’m Here to Disappoint You

  Posted March 4th, 2010 at 6:04pm in Education with 7 comments

  The Department of Education today released the names of the 16 finalists in the competition for federal Race to the Top (RttT) grants. The finalists include the District of Columbia and 15 states: Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In all, [...] More

• Possible Action Today on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program

  Posted March 4th, 2010 at 5:00pm in Education with 2 comments

  Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has filed an amendment to a tax extenders bill expected to be considered by the Senate today. The amendment would reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program and, according to a press release from D.C. Parents for School Choice, would “preserve the program for current and future students”. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), [...] More

• What Are Our College Students Learning?

  Posted March 2nd, 2010 at 2:00pm in Education, First Principles, Ongoing Priorities with 4 comments

  The recent CPAC conference showed us that the conservative movement is powered, in part, by the students and young leaders who keep important political issues front and center on their respective campuses. A majority of the people who attended the conference were young people, and it was clear they took home a great wealth of [...] More

• Will 2010 Be a Landmark Year for Education Reform?

  Posted March 2nd, 2010 at 12:00pm in Education with 5 comments

  While China rings in 2010 as the year of the tiger, American families and taxpayers might soon be able to refer to 2010 as the year school choice became the norm. Five states in particular are worth watching: Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Virginia and New Jersey. Ironically perhaps, Illinois is home to the most notable opponents of [...] More