When the first National School Choice Week began just one year ago, the prospect of educational opportunity for hundreds of D.C. school children hung precariously in the balance. In January 2011, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship (DCOSP)—a voucher program for low-income schoolchildren in the nation’s capital—had for two years been at risk of being completely phased out by liberals in Congress, right under the nose of the complacent Obama Administration. And for two years proponents of school choice had been fighting to ensure that D.C. children would have greater hope for …
On Thursday, the Indiana Senate approved what could become the nation’s largest school voucher program. If signed by Governor Mitch Daniels (R), the plan will allow Indiana children throughout the state to use a scholarship to attend a private school of their choice. The proposal, which has already made it through the Indiana House once, must now go back to the House of Representatives since the Senate enhanced the bill’s school choice options by adding a $1,000 tax deduction to the measure to help parents pay for private school or …
Friday night, Speaker John Boehner secured a huge win for D.C.’s schoolchildren. In a vital triumph for low-income families in the nation’s capital, Speaker Boehner succeeded in reauthorizing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program in the long-term continuing resolution. Over at National Review Online, Kathryn Lopez writes that “John Boehner just walked Barack Obama into being a civil-rights leader.” For the past two years, low-income families in D.C. have been fighting to regain access to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program after it was placed on life support by Senator Richard Durbin. …
In a sweeping victory for school choice, a bill to reauthorize and expand the successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) passed in the U.S. House last Wednesday. During what turned out to be an at times intense debate on the House floor prior to the vote, legislators spoke passionately about the DCOSP. Unfortunately, some Democrats who stood in opposition to the program didn’t seem to get their facts straight. For example, Representative George Miller (D–CA) proclaimed: “There are a number of concerns about this [DCOSP] bill. First, and most importantly, …
In the shadow of the U.S. Capitol, children suffer in a public education system rife with violence and ranked among the worst in the nation. Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives took action to give those students some hope when it voted to reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (D.C. OSP), which provides scholarships to low-income children, allowing them to attend their school of choice. It was one of the most consequential education votes that Congress will make this year. The program empowers parents, and it rejects the notion that …
This Friday, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush will join President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan at Miami Central High School to discuss President Obama’s education agenda. Bush, whose sweeping education reform agenda led to monumental gains in student achievement in Florida, told the Miami Herald that he plans to promote the Florida reform model to the Administration during the visit: Because of high expectations for students, hard-edge policies that focus schools on learning and an array of choices for families, the Sunshine State is leading the nation in rising …
Heritage Chat: Education Reform feat. Lindsey Burke We invite you to join us here on Friday, October 8th at 12PM EDT for a special live online chat with Education Policy Analyst Lindsey Burke. She will field your questions about what is currently going on in education reform and the historic federal overreach into education by the Obama Administration. Lindsey has written several policy papers on the shortcomings of federal involvement education and the power of the education unions. Teacher’s unions have thwarted meaningful education reform initiatives and Lindsey will talk …
Our friends at ReasonTV have put out a great new video highlighting the strides that have been made towards school choice in New Orleans following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. As ReasonTV Editor Nick Gillespie says in the video, few people could have predicted the improvements in education that would result, but “sometimes things get so bad that radical change can happen.” Before Katrina, the New Orleans school system was in terrible shape. As one mother explains, when they were displaced to Baton Rouge during the cleanup, she found much better schools …
Everyone has speculated about why LeBron James chose Florida as his next home court. Maybe it was the lower tax rate, perhaps the sunny beaches, or perhaps to join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in pursuit of countless championships. Here’s another possibility: LeBron wants to be in a state that wins both on the court and in the classroom. In Cleveland, 58 percent of eighth-grade students are below basic in math, compared to just 36 percent of students in Miami. Similarly, 27 percent of 8th graders are below …
Congress and the Obama administration seem to want to ignore the issue of school choice and let the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program die of neglect. But across the nation, school choice is on the march and isn’t going away any time soon. Last week, the Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate passed a voucher bill for Chicago. And last Wednesday, in the largest rally for school choice in the nation’s history, more than 5,500 students and parents, as well as supporters from across political lines and an all-star team of speakers, gathered in …
