Education
Commentary
School Choice Bills Fall Short in California
California parents will have to wait at least another year for better educational opportunities for their children, as state legislators failed to approve all but one of several school choice bills introduced in the most recent session. In the spring California state legislators introduced a package of five bills designed ...
Commentary
Charter Students Outperforming Their Public School Counterparts in California
Charter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) outperform traditional public schools on nearly every student achievement measure, according to a new study from the California Charter School Association. The study, Charter School Performance in Los Angeles Unified School District: A District and Neighborhood Matched Comparison Analysis, compared ...
Business & Economics
Impact – August 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – August 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impactpublic policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions. Read PDF
Commentary
Prop 13 and the education-funding blame game
North County Times (Escondido, CA), August 31, 2008 Sacramento Union, September 17, 2008 Under today’s complicated system: schools with poor results rewarded more than those with good results Earlier this summer California marked the 30th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 13, the historic ballot measure to limit property taxes. ...
Commentary
On the Democratic Convention: Will Obama Keep His Promise on Merit Pay for Teachers?
In this first installment of Education Watch, Bruce Fuller and Lance T. Izumi discuss what was and wasn’t said in Denver about our school system. And Sandra Tsing Loh weighs in on her perspective. Go to Mr. Fuller’s post and Ms. Loh’s post. Lance T. Izumi, a senior fellow in ...
Commentary
Court Re-Connects with Reality in Homeschool Reversal
SACRAMENTO – Earlier this year, California’s Second District Court of Appeal shocked parents and lawmakers by effectively banning the homeschooling of children. In my column “Court Out of Touch with Reality in Homeschool Decision ,” I pointed out that the court had ignored a longtime state practice that gave approval ...
Commentary
Push Algebra on Eighth-Graders?: YES: Don’t accept failure as the standard
The state Board of Education recently unveiled a plan to require all eighth-graders to take algebra by 2011. That sparked opposition from education officials, including state schools superintendent Jack O’Connell, who said the move was “irresponsible” and “setting up schools for failure.” That might strike parents as odd, like a ...
California
A New Lesson for California School Superintendent
When middle-class parents in California opened their newspapers recently and read that the leviathan Los Angeles Unified School District had overpaid their employees by $53 million, many likely took comfort in the belief that at least the school districts in their own cozy suburban neighborhoods were well managed. These parents, ...
Commentary
What Bill Gates says “Isn’t Supposed to Happen” – Did
Bill Gates, one of the most successful men in history, has weighed in on a problem that will prevent others from achieving success like his. American students now languish near the bottom on international rankings. “This isn’t supposed to happen,” Bill Gates told Oprah Winfrey on an August 7, 2008, ...
Commentary
Expel ‘Promote Now, Pay Later’
Last month, Californians were stunned to learn that around one in four high school students drops out, almost twice as many as the state previously reported. In districts like Grant Joint Union High, more than one in three dropout. Yet even when students stay in school, the question is how ...
School Choice Bills Fall Short in California
California parents will have to wait at least another year for better educational opportunities for their children, as state legislators failed to approve all but one of several school choice bills introduced in the most recent session. In the spring California state legislators introduced a package of five bills designed ...
Charter Students Outperforming Their Public School Counterparts in California
Charter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) outperform traditional public schools on nearly every student achievement measure, according to a new study from the California Charter School Association. The study, Charter School Performance in Los Angeles Unified School District: A District and Neighborhood Matched Comparison Analysis, compared ...
Impact – August 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – August 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impactpublic policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions. Read PDF
Prop 13 and the education-funding blame game
North County Times (Escondido, CA), August 31, 2008 Sacramento Union, September 17, 2008 Under today’s complicated system: schools with poor results rewarded more than those with good results Earlier this summer California marked the 30th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 13, the historic ballot measure to limit property taxes. ...
On the Democratic Convention: Will Obama Keep His Promise on Merit Pay for Teachers?
In this first installment of Education Watch, Bruce Fuller and Lance T. Izumi discuss what was and wasn’t said in Denver about our school system. And Sandra Tsing Loh weighs in on her perspective. Go to Mr. Fuller’s post and Ms. Loh’s post. Lance T. Izumi, a senior fellow in ...
Court Re-Connects with Reality in Homeschool Reversal
SACRAMENTO – Earlier this year, California’s Second District Court of Appeal shocked parents and lawmakers by effectively banning the homeschooling of children. In my column “Court Out of Touch with Reality in Homeschool Decision ,” I pointed out that the court had ignored a longtime state practice that gave approval ...
Push Algebra on Eighth-Graders?: YES: Don’t accept failure as the standard
The state Board of Education recently unveiled a plan to require all eighth-graders to take algebra by 2011. That sparked opposition from education officials, including state schools superintendent Jack O’Connell, who said the move was “irresponsible” and “setting up schools for failure.” That might strike parents as odd, like a ...
A New Lesson for California School Superintendent
When middle-class parents in California opened their newspapers recently and read that the leviathan Los Angeles Unified School District had overpaid their employees by $53 million, many likely took comfort in the belief that at least the school districts in their own cozy suburban neighborhoods were well managed. These parents, ...
What Bill Gates says “Isn’t Supposed to Happen” – Did
Bill Gates, one of the most successful men in history, has weighed in on a problem that will prevent others from achieving success like his. American students now languish near the bottom on international rankings. “This isn’t supposed to happen,” Bill Gates told Oprah Winfrey on an August 7, 2008, ...
Expel ‘Promote Now, Pay Later’
Last month, Californians were stunned to learn that around one in four high school students drops out, almost twice as many as the state previously reported. In districts like Grant Joint Union High, more than one in three dropout. Yet even when students stay in school, the question is how ...
