Talk about the audacity of “nope.” “When parents recognize which schools are failing to educate their children,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote in a guest column in The Wall Street Journal, “they will demand more effective options for their kids.” Americans “must close the achievement gap by pursuing what works best for kids, regardless of ideology,” Duncan urged, echoing a theme of President Barack Obama’s address to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “In the path to a better education system, that’s the only test that really matters.” What about the …
Last week we helped detail how teachers unions were trying to kill the charter school movement in New York. Yesterday the New York Times profiled one teacher’s involvement in the big labor/school choice war: After months of soul-searching, Kashi Nelson left her career as an assistant principal in North Carolina at the start of 2008 to teach seventh- and eighth-grade social studies at a Brooklyn charter school, convinced that the freedom to innovate would translate into better education for students.
A month ago, Obama explored the notion of nationalizing the banks under the Swedish model. Instead of the Swedish banking model, Obama should look at the school voucher program in Sweden for inspiration. The Pacific Research Institute recently had a video Op-Ed on the New York times Web site explaining how well the voucher program works in Sweden. The voucher program in Sweden has broad bipartisan support and has defeated the “status quo” in education and the children, as well as parents, are reaping the benefits. In the video, Stockholm …
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 …
Two stories from the Washington Post today provide a perfect contrast to how states and Congress approach education reform. First, Jay Matthews reports from New Orleans: The storm that swamped this city three years ago also effectively swept away a public school system with a dismal record and faint prospects of getting better. Before Hurricane Katrina, educator John Alford said, he toured schools and found “kids just watching movies” in classes where “low expectations were the norm.” Now Alford is one of many new principals leading an unparalleled education experiment, …
The Center for Education Reform held a panel yesterday to discuss the status of charter school laws across the country. Leading experts from across the country offered insights about how to pass a strong charter school law that encourages innovation and greater parental choice in public education. Former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. discussed the challenges he faced in bringing charter schools to Maryland, including a lack of pubic awareness, opposition from teacher’s unions and their allies in the legislature, and continued resistance from opponents once a law had been …
This week is “National Charter Schools Week,” and the Center for Education Reform has a number of ideas for how you can celebrate. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools also released a new poll finding: “More than three out of four voters (77%) favor giving parents more options when choosing a public school for their children.” Charter schools are one of the growing options in American education. Today, 40 states and the District of Columbia allow charter schools. In all, more than a million children are attending one of …
Last month we blogged on the remarkable progress Georgia had recently made in advancing equal opportunity in school choice. But now it appears that Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) is becoming a barrier to successful reform. Redstate‘s Erick Erickson reports: Georgia House Bill 881 is legislation in Georgia to help improve the conditions in which charter schools grow. Given the mess in Clayton County, Georgia, the first school district in the nation to lose its accreditation in over a decade, and the kids who are stuck down there, I am really …
This week is “National Charter Schools Week,” an opportunity to educate communities about the opportunities the charter school movement provides and celebrate the success of charter schools nation wide. Heritage scholar Dan Lips writes on charter schools in his paper School Choice: Policy Developments and National Participation Estimates in 2007–2008: The proliferation of charter schools across the country is a primary reason for the increase in the percentage of children attending chosen public schools. Charter schools are publicly funded schools that agree to meet certain performance standards set by governing …
