As we enter a new year, education reformers will look back on 2010 as the year when education in the United States began to return its focus to the needs of students instead of to the demands of adults. During this past year, public attention to the barriers of educational opportunity created by special interests groups grew, and educational opportunities made possible by school choice made significant strides. An array of movies—including Waiting for Superman, The Cartel and The Heritage Foundation’s own Let Me Rise—not to mention the courage of …
Waiting for Superman has left moviegoers rightfully outraged at the state of America’s education system. It’s an accurate portrayal. In many of the nation’s largest cities, fewer than half of all children graduate high school. Academic achievement and graduation rates have largely stagnated since the 1970s while countries around the world now outpace the United States. Producer Davis Guggenheim rightly lays the blame squarely at the feet of organized labor. Education unions consistently stand in the way of promising education reforms such as school choice, which they view as a …
The Values Voter Summit, September 17-19 in Washington, DC, is a premier event where prominent conservatives come together to discuss important issues in America (click here to sign-up). As a cosponsor, Heritage is proud to have many of our policy experts featured on the schedule. Highlights include: A Constitution Day discussion on our founding principles with Matthew Spalding, author of We Still Hold These Truths. An education panel moderated by Lindsey Burke, featuring a screening of Let Me Rise. A panel on the interdependence of social and economic conservative viewpoints …
The decline of public education stands out as a subject ripe for the lens of a documentary filmmaker. In Waiting for Superman, to be released by Paramount this fall, the producers do just that, pointing a critical eye to the plight of public education in America. The film’s name comes from the idea of a child wishing to be rescued from a bad situation–in this case, from a school system that often leads to nowhere but failure. Other recent documentaries on this topic–such as The Heritage Foundation’s Let Me Rise, …
Last week the leftist majorities in Congress again rejected a bi-partisan attempt to save the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program from annihilation thanks to pressure from powerful teachers unions. The left is desperate to kill this school choice program because it is already showing proven success at improving academic achievement. To help raise the profile of the issue, The Heritage Foundation is sponsoring a four-week ad campaign featuring 42 chalkboard-themed ads showcased along the Metro platform at Union Station. You can help spread the word by directing your family and friends …
On April 6, 2009, Secretary Arne Duncan’s Department of Education sent letters to the families of 216 low-income children in the District of Columbia informing them that the $7,500 scholarships they had been awarded by the Department are now being rescinded. Instead of being able to send their children to the school of their choice, these DC parents now have no other option but schools that they believe are too violent and too disorganized to properly educate their child. Education Secretary Arne Duncan simply did not care what the parents …
It’s turning out to be a lousy Christmas for D.C. children. Late last night, the House dealt a hefty blow to the future of school choice in the District of Columbia. House leadership passed an omnibus appropriations bill which includes language to phase-out the successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships of up to $7,500 to low-income children to attend a private school of their choice. The omnibus prohibits any new students from receiving scholarships, phasing it out in the coming years. The omnibus now moves on to the …
Speaking on education this past March, President Obama told Americans that he believes in only “one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars: It’s not whether an idea is liberal or conservative, but whether it works.” OK, great! Here’s something that works: the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. It’s a federal initiative that is currently giving 1,715 extremely disadvantaged children a reprieve from the infamously awful and dangerous public schools in the nation’s capital. It’s supported by many local Democrats and Republicans. Previously near-illiterate children now …
Early this morning, the President and first lady attended parent-teacher conferences at the Bethesda and Northwest D.C. Sidwell Friends School campuses for their daughters, Sasha and Malia. The exclusive school boasts a strong academic program in a safe and nurturing learning environment. Upon arriving in D.C. last winter, the First Family carefully weighed their options and chose to have the girls attend private school in the district – a preferable alternative to the unsafe and ineffective D.C. public schools. And like the Obamas, nearly 40 percent of members of Congress …
