As the single mother of a child who received a scholarship for disadvantaged children to attend a private school, I’ve seen how school choice can influence and change the life of a child. Not only have I seen it in my own son’s life, I’ve seen it in the lives of countless other children. However, those of us who support school choice see it as part of a broader school reform effort. And now growing evidence shows that school reforms that incorporate school choice can deliver real progress. One place …
President-elect Barack Obama is set to nominate Chicago Public School CEO Arne Duncan to be the next Secretary of Education. Mr. Duncan is known as one of a handful of innovative, reform-minded big city schools chiefs. How that will translate to the national level remains to be seen. Conservatives should be heartened that Mr. Duncan recognizes the need for local leadership and innovation. And that he supports amending federal policy to grant states greater flexibility and autonomy. Yet given his support for sharp federal spending increases, it is unclear how …
Twelve years ago a Republican Congress and a Democrat president came together in a bipartisan fashion and passed one of the nation’s strongest charter school laws for the Washington, D.C., school system. The charter schools are publicly funded on a per-pupil basis and must accept any student who applies (if there are more applicants than spaces, a lottery system decides who the school can take). While each school must take everyone, they are also free to set their own rules for expelling students. More importantly, the charter schools are free …
After D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee met with both John McCain and President-elect Barack Obama during the campaign, both candidates tried to claim her as his own. Obama even called her a “wonderful new superintendent.” But since taking over the D.C. school system in June 2007, Rhee has battled the Washington Teachers’ Union for the right to fire ineffective teachers and reform the unions cumbersome tenure rules. While Rhee is a Democrat, she also knows which party has always favored teachers’ interests over students’ education. Explaining why she ended up …
Over the weekend, the Washington Post editorial page continued its support of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program—comparing President-elect Obama’s position on school vouchers with his family’s experience of choosing a school in the nation’s capital: Let’s hope the experience of moving his girls and finding the place where they will flourish resonates with Mr. Obama so that he reexamines his stance on the District’s voucher program. How is it right to take away what little choice there is for needy D.C. children? The scholarship program wasn’t intended to replace Washington’s …
Blogging at The New York Times, Pacific Research Institute senior fellow Lance Izumi writes on the future of conservative education policy: Republicans have always favored, at least philosophically, decision-making at the most practical and effective level of government closest to the people. They abandoned this concept during the Bush years, especially in education with the mandate-heavy federal No Child Left Behind Act. Republicans need to get back to their original principles and push for decentralizing education policymaking back down to the state and local level. … Dan Lips, an education …
Following Wall Street and Detroit, the nation’s governors have joined the growing line on Capitol Hill—begging Congress to save their states from looming fiscal shortfalls. The National Governors Association sent a letter to Congressional leaders asking states to be included in the next economic stimulus package. New York Governor David Patterson made the plea in person before the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday: “As part of a comprehensive second economic stimulus package, states need direct and immediate fiscal relief.” But not all governors are looking for a federal handout. …
On Google’s Knol site, Heritage senior policy analyst Dan Lips and Joydeep Roy, Lawrence Mishel and Sean Corcoran from the Econimc Policy Institute and New York University are debating whether there is a place for performance-based teacher compensation in our public school system. Roy, Lawrence and Mishel argue that it’s difficult to measure a teacher’s role in the outcomes, standardized tests represent only a small fraction of what students know, and that few agree on what the output of education should be. Lips replies: First, policymakers should provide incentives for teachers that …
The Los Angeles Times has a great story out today about how a team of public school teachers hand selected three students from low-income immigrant families and created their own nonprofit to help get the students into prestigious private high schools. The teacher’s principal, Scott Schmerelson, told the Times: “The LAUSD has great magnet high schools these kids can go to if they wish, and if their parents wish to send them to private schools it’s OK with me too. It’s a wonderful opportunity to go off to a prestigious …
Why does the left keep insisting that the only people qualified to talk to teenagers about sex is the government? Attacking Sarah Palin in today’s Washington Post Amy Schalet writes: American teenagers grow up in environments that inhibit them from making conscious choices about sex and using contraception effectively. Sarah Palin supports programs that contribute to that environment, favoring policies that prohibit teachers from explaining the benefits of contraception and condoms and that require teaching that sex outside of marriage is unacceptable. Schalet seems to believe that the only way …
