Education

Business & Economics

California’s Textbook Case

Governor Schwarzenegger last month announced a first-in-the-nation plan to offer free digital math and science textbooks for high school students. Facing a $24 billion budget deficit, the governor touts the need for “such innovative ways to save money and improve services.” Shifting the curriculum online might help reduce the state’s ...
Commentary

Want Better Teachers? Improve Working Conditions

New research finds that compared to their public school counterparts, private school teachers are much more satisfied with their jobs. Why? Private schools hire based on talent and empower their teachers with decision-making about classroom discipline, curricula, and standards. In contrast, public schools often squander teacher talent, with only 68 ...
Commentary

10 Questions State Legislators Should Ask About Higher Education

ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) is a small group of legislators, which more than 30 years ago, joined together with the common goal of creating a nonpartisan association for conservative state lawmakers with similar governmental beliefs. The core of their belief system was that “government closest to the people was ...
Commentary

New Documentary Exposes Public Education’s Underbelly

“With spending as high as $483,000 per classroom…New Jersey students fare only slightly better than the national average in reading and math,” according to Bowdon, adding that less than half of Garden State students are ready for college. As the title suggests, “The Cartel” is a gloves-off exposé of what ...
Commentary

Florida proves what real education stimulus is

Orlando Sentinel (FL), June 1, 2009 Twenty-six years ago this May, the National Commission on Excellence in Education published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. It warned that “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our ...
Commentary

Not As Good As You Think: The Myth of the Middle Class School

Lance Izumi was a guest on Radio America, with host G. Gordon Liddy. Lance discusses the recently released documentary called, Not As Good As You Think: The Myth of the Middle Class School, which exposes the many failing public schools in California and the misallocation of funds by school board ...
Commentary

Report: Milwaukee Voucher Program Serving Students, Taxpayers Well

A new study shows children receiving vouchers from the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program—the nation’s oldest voucher program—are getting at least as good an education as their peers in public schools, at half the cost. “The Comprehensive Longitudinal Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program,” released by the University of Arkansas’ ...
Commentary

Obama’s Voucher Plan Isn’t Enough

In order to head off a public-relations catastrophe, Barack Obama has spun a partial about-face in his opposition to the school-choice voucher program for low-income students in Washington, DC. The president’s move, however, falls far short of truly saving the program and helping the legions of disadvantaged children in the ...
Commentary

Giving Failure a Pass

SACRAMENTO – The Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in California, spends $10 million a year to “house,” with full pay and benefits, about 160 teachers deemed unsuitable for the classroom, according to “Failure Gets a Pass,” a recent series in the Los Angeles Times. “If I had my ...
Commentary

Options are the Best “Alternative” Education Policy for Parents

(This post was co-authored by Evelyn B. Stacey, Education Studies Policy Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in Sacramento, California. Located about an hour north of San Francisco, Santa Rosa is a gateway city to California’s renowned Wine Country in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys. This “jewel of Northern California” ...
Business & Economics

California’s Textbook Case

Governor Schwarzenegger last month announced a first-in-the-nation plan to offer free digital math and science textbooks for high school students. Facing a $24 billion budget deficit, the governor touts the need for “such innovative ways to save money and improve services.” Shifting the curriculum online might help reduce the state’s ...
Commentary

Want Better Teachers? Improve Working Conditions

New research finds that compared to their public school counterparts, private school teachers are much more satisfied with their jobs. Why? Private schools hire based on talent and empower their teachers with decision-making about classroom discipline, curricula, and standards. In contrast, public schools often squander teacher talent, with only 68 ...
Commentary

10 Questions State Legislators Should Ask About Higher Education

ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) is a small group of legislators, which more than 30 years ago, joined together with the common goal of creating a nonpartisan association for conservative state lawmakers with similar governmental beliefs. The core of their belief system was that “government closest to the people was ...
Commentary

New Documentary Exposes Public Education’s Underbelly

“With spending as high as $483,000 per classroom…New Jersey students fare only slightly better than the national average in reading and math,” according to Bowdon, adding that less than half of Garden State students are ready for college. As the title suggests, “The Cartel” is a gloves-off exposé of what ...
Commentary

Florida proves what real education stimulus is

Orlando Sentinel (FL), June 1, 2009 Twenty-six years ago this May, the National Commission on Excellence in Education published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. It warned that “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our ...
Commentary

Not As Good As You Think: The Myth of the Middle Class School

Lance Izumi was a guest on Radio America, with host G. Gordon Liddy. Lance discusses the recently released documentary called, Not As Good As You Think: The Myth of the Middle Class School, which exposes the many failing public schools in California and the misallocation of funds by school board ...
Commentary

Report: Milwaukee Voucher Program Serving Students, Taxpayers Well

A new study shows children receiving vouchers from the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program—the nation’s oldest voucher program—are getting at least as good an education as their peers in public schools, at half the cost. “The Comprehensive Longitudinal Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program,” released by the University of Arkansas’ ...
Commentary

Obama’s Voucher Plan Isn’t Enough

In order to head off a public-relations catastrophe, Barack Obama has spun a partial about-face in his opposition to the school-choice voucher program for low-income students in Washington, DC. The president’s move, however, falls far short of truly saving the program and helping the legions of disadvantaged children in the ...
Commentary

Giving Failure a Pass

SACRAMENTO – The Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in California, spends $10 million a year to “house,” with full pay and benefits, about 160 teachers deemed unsuitable for the classroom, according to “Failure Gets a Pass,” a recent series in the Los Angeles Times. “If I had my ...
Commentary

Options are the Best “Alternative” Education Policy for Parents

(This post was co-authored by Evelyn B. Stacey, Education Studies Policy Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in Sacramento, California. Located about an hour north of San Francisco, Santa Rosa is a gateway city to California’s renowned Wine Country in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys. This “jewel of Northern California” ...
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