When the fight for control over what is taught in American schools is won, Utah will be remembered for having fired the shot heard ’round the country’s classrooms and statehouses. In a move that should inspire other state leaders concerned with the Obama Administration’s push to nationalize standards and tests …
Public school students in poor performing Pennsylvania schools will now be eligible to receive scholarships to attend a private school of their choice. Late Saturday night, Governor Tom Corbett (R) signed into law a provision that will make private school scholarships available for students assigned to the lowest-performing 15 percent …
Gallup has just released its annual “Confidence in American Institutions” poll, which the company has conducted since 1973. This year’s results revealed that just 29 percent of Americans have confidence in our nation’s public schools. That number has declined from 33 percent since 2008 and is down from 58 percent …
President Obama has begun “evolving“ his positions on various policy issues as polls show him neck and neck with Mitt Romney. His latest about-face restores a popular school voucher program for needy children in Washington, D.C.—after he had yanked its funding. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) …
“Teachers unions have a popularity problem,” according to a recent Harvard study. Harvard professor Paul Peterson writes that while approval ratings for education unions remained stable between 2009 and 2011, 2012 saw a significant dip: In our polls from 2009 to 2011, we saw little change in public opinion. Around …
Yesterday, the Obama Administration announced that eight more states will receive waivers to opt out of the onerous provisions of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). As Education Week’s Alyson Klein reported on Tuesday, “The U.S. Department of Education today granted waivers to eight of the 26 states (plus the District …
President Obama’s latest budget request was completely rejected by Congress, failing to receive even a single vote. Yet Obama’s budget—universally rejected by Congress—is taking educational opportunity away from low-income children in the nation’s capital. President Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget request cuts funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a …
Earlier this month, schools across the country celebrated National Charter Schools Week. This commemoration comes 20 years after Minnesota passed the first state charter school law and City Academy in St. Paul became the first charter school to open its doors. Since then, 40 more states and the District of …
Alabama has joined a growing number of states opposing the Common Core national education standards. Last week, the state senate adopted a resolution to “encourage the State Board of Education to take all steps it deems appropriate, including revocation of the adoption of the initiative’s standards if necessary, to retain …
