Public Schools
Blog
Torpedoing a Successful Charter School
While the statewide assault on charter schools by politicians in Sacramento has garnered headlines, it is the effort to undermine specific successful local charter schools that really pulls at one’s heartstrings. Take, for example, Willow Creek Academy charter school in Sausalito in Marin County. Willow Creek is a K-8 school ...
Blog
Will State Budget Be Victim of Coronavirus?
The uncertainty over the coronavirus has negatively impacted the financial markets. Hit the hardest in the short term have been the travel and hospitality industries – with much talk of layoffs, bankruptcies, and industry bailouts. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq have entered bear territory, falling more than 20 percent in ...
California
California must do a better job of helping homeless children
By Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb As Gov. Gavin Newsom noted in his 2020 State of the State address, California had the second highest increase in state homelessness in 2019. But a newly released report by State Auditor Elaine Howle found that California public schools undercounted homeless students by at ...
California
Celebrating the Return of the Primitive
Private automobiles are no longer allowed on Market Street in San Francisco, California. The result has been an increase in bike ridership. This is, of course, being hailed as progress. So why does it look like the city is resetting the clock to a previous century? When novelist Ayn Rand ...
Blog
A Former Speechwriter’s View of the 2020 State of the Union
PRI is fortunate to be home to several former speechwriters for Presidents and Governors, including me. Anyone who has been a speechwriter watches a big public speech like this week’s State of the Union address or Gov. Newsom’s upcoming State of the State address on Feb. 19 with great interest ...
Blog
National School Choice Week Celebrates All Types of Education Choice
This week is National School Choice Week and it is important to remember that education choice includes not just private, charter, and traditional public options, but also homeschooling options as well. My upcoming book, co-authored with the amazing Mia Giordano, tells the story of Mia’s incredible educational journey. Because of ...
Blog
New Poll Shows Strong Support for Education Freedom Scholarships
This week’s observance of National School Choice Week in California comes at a time when the movement to expand charter schools in the Golden State and increase school choice options for every student is at a particularly low ebb. Recall that last fall, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law legislation ...
Charter Schools
Key Supreme Court Case Could Increase School-choice Possibilities In California
The week of January 27th is National School Choice Week, which is appropriate since a potentially landmark case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court could have wide-ranging implications for California parents who want more education options for their children. The case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, involves a Montana ...
Charter Schools
Trump’s school choice plan will help kids, and is smart politics
At a recent White House roundtable with students, teachers and policymakers, President Trump said that children trapped in failing government schools “would be forgotten no longer,” and urged Congress to pass his Education Freedom Scholarships proposal, which would improve education for America’s children. Under the president’s EFS proposal, taxpayers could make voluntary ...
Blog
California Politics in 2019: Not Much To Be Happy About
December is about half gone, and, as the Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz once sang, “it’s getting cold in California.” In another song from the same 1996 album Duritz also sang that it’s been “a long December and there’s reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last.” ...
Torpedoing a Successful Charter School
While the statewide assault on charter schools by politicians in Sacramento has garnered headlines, it is the effort to undermine specific successful local charter schools that really pulls at one’s heartstrings. Take, for example, Willow Creek Academy charter school in Sausalito in Marin County. Willow Creek is a K-8 school ...
Will State Budget Be Victim of Coronavirus?
The uncertainty over the coronavirus has negatively impacted the financial markets. Hit the hardest in the short term have been the travel and hospitality industries – with much talk of layoffs, bankruptcies, and industry bailouts. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq have entered bear territory, falling more than 20 percent in ...
California must do a better job of helping homeless children
By Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb As Gov. Gavin Newsom noted in his 2020 State of the State address, California had the second highest increase in state homelessness in 2019. But a newly released report by State Auditor Elaine Howle found that California public schools undercounted homeless students by at ...
Celebrating the Return of the Primitive
Private automobiles are no longer allowed on Market Street in San Francisco, California. The result has been an increase in bike ridership. This is, of course, being hailed as progress. So why does it look like the city is resetting the clock to a previous century? When novelist Ayn Rand ...
A Former Speechwriter’s View of the 2020 State of the Union
PRI is fortunate to be home to several former speechwriters for Presidents and Governors, including me. Anyone who has been a speechwriter watches a big public speech like this week’s State of the Union address or Gov. Newsom’s upcoming State of the State address on Feb. 19 with great interest ...
National School Choice Week Celebrates All Types of Education Choice
This week is National School Choice Week and it is important to remember that education choice includes not just private, charter, and traditional public options, but also homeschooling options as well. My upcoming book, co-authored with the amazing Mia Giordano, tells the story of Mia’s incredible educational journey. Because of ...
New Poll Shows Strong Support for Education Freedom Scholarships
This week’s observance of National School Choice Week in California comes at a time when the movement to expand charter schools in the Golden State and increase school choice options for every student is at a particularly low ebb. Recall that last fall, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law legislation ...
Key Supreme Court Case Could Increase School-choice Possibilities In California
The week of January 27th is National School Choice Week, which is appropriate since a potentially landmark case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court could have wide-ranging implications for California parents who want more education options for their children. The case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, involves a Montana ...
Trump’s school choice plan will help kids, and is smart politics
At a recent White House roundtable with students, teachers and policymakers, President Trump said that children trapped in failing government schools “would be forgotten no longer,” and urged Congress to pass his Education Freedom Scholarships proposal, which would improve education for America’s children. Under the president’s EFS proposal, taxpayers could make voluntary ...
California Politics in 2019: Not Much To Be Happy About
December is about half gone, and, as the Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz once sang, “it’s getting cold in California.” In another song from the same 1996 album Duritz also sang that it’s been “a long December and there’s reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last.” ...
