Public Schools
Charter Schools
Who’s Afraid of Charter Schools?
On November 12, parents of children at Gratts Elementary in Los Angeles received a flier, in Spanish, warning that if they signed a petition to convert their neighborhood school into a charter school they would be deported. This threat, though bogus, teaches parents and policy makers a lesson about the ...
Education
Support for School Choice is Strong in Virginia
Findings like these are bad news for traditional opponents of parental choice in education, including teachers union leaders. “All of this stuff about, ‘We need vouchers so we can send our kids other places, we need to provide choices, we need charter schools,’ all of it is simply an attempt ...
Commentary
LAUSD is selling out English Learners to fatten its finances
IT recently emerged that many Los Angeles students placed in classes for English-language learners in the early elementary grades were still taking such classes when they entered high school. That’s not a knock on the students, but a damning indictment of how government at all levels has sold them out ...
California
State must reveal, not conceal, school aptitude
San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 2009 This year marks the 10th anniversary of California’s Public Schools Accountability Act, an early legislative triumph of then-Gov. Gray Davis. While some good things have come out of the law, the act has failed in its two key missions: to inform parents and the ...
Commentary
Give “American Education Week” Some Real Meaning
This week the National Education Association is sponsoring American Education Week. According to the NEA’s website, the purpose of the week is to emphasize, “the importance of providing every child in America with a quality public education from kindergarten through college, and the need for everyone to do his or ...
Commentary
Public schools mask poor performance, students suffer
The Examiner (Washington, D.C.), December 18, 2009 Recent revelations indicate that Virginia’s public schools aren’t performing as well as educators claim, a classic example of the smoke screen phenomenon. In states across the country, officials hide the real performance of schools and students from the prying eyes of parents and ...
Charter Schools
Chalk Another One Up for Charter Schools
Traditional public schools also respond positively to competition from charter schools according to a new Manhattan Institute report. Overall, “for every 1 percent of public school students who leave for a charter, reading proficiency among those who remain increases by about 0.02 standard deviations. Math performance is unaffected. However, the ...
Education
Obama-Ed “Reforms” are Old News
What the president plans to do, however, is neither exciting, nor innovative. Put simply, Obama-ed is simply common sense with a much a higher price tag. Basically the president explained to these Madison middle schoolers that he wants better standards, better teachers, better data to help identify the better teachers, ...
Commentary
L.A. Loosens Reins on School Administration
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has decided to allow outside groups, including for-profit charter school organizations, to run one-third of the district’s schools and possibly open 50 new ones of their own creation. As a result, more than 60,000 Los Angeles students could be getting more opportunities for ...
Commentary
North Carolina Group Sues for Equal Funding for Charters
School choice advocates have brought a lawsuit in North Carolina seeking funding equity in public education. The North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law filed a complaint on September 21 on behalf of seven charter schools challenging the state’s funding formula, seeking the ability to request money from the state in ...
Who’s Afraid of Charter Schools?
On November 12, parents of children at Gratts Elementary in Los Angeles received a flier, in Spanish, warning that if they signed a petition to convert their neighborhood school into a charter school they would be deported. This threat, though bogus, teaches parents and policy makers a lesson about the ...
Support for School Choice is Strong in Virginia
Findings like these are bad news for traditional opponents of parental choice in education, including teachers union leaders. “All of this stuff about, ‘We need vouchers so we can send our kids other places, we need to provide choices, we need charter schools,’ all of it is simply an attempt ...
LAUSD is selling out English Learners to fatten its finances
IT recently emerged that many Los Angeles students placed in classes for English-language learners in the early elementary grades were still taking such classes when they entered high school. That’s not a knock on the students, but a damning indictment of how government at all levels has sold them out ...
State must reveal, not conceal, school aptitude
San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 2009 This year marks the 10th anniversary of California’s Public Schools Accountability Act, an early legislative triumph of then-Gov. Gray Davis. While some good things have come out of the law, the act has failed in its two key missions: to inform parents and the ...
Give “American Education Week” Some Real Meaning
This week the National Education Association is sponsoring American Education Week. According to the NEA’s website, the purpose of the week is to emphasize, “the importance of providing every child in America with a quality public education from kindergarten through college, and the need for everyone to do his or ...
Public schools mask poor performance, students suffer
The Examiner (Washington, D.C.), December 18, 2009 Recent revelations indicate that Virginia’s public schools aren’t performing as well as educators claim, a classic example of the smoke screen phenomenon. In states across the country, officials hide the real performance of schools and students from the prying eyes of parents and ...
Chalk Another One Up for Charter Schools
Traditional public schools also respond positively to competition from charter schools according to a new Manhattan Institute report. Overall, “for every 1 percent of public school students who leave for a charter, reading proficiency among those who remain increases by about 0.02 standard deviations. Math performance is unaffected. However, the ...
Obama-Ed “Reforms” are Old News
What the president plans to do, however, is neither exciting, nor innovative. Put simply, Obama-ed is simply common sense with a much a higher price tag. Basically the president explained to these Madison middle schoolers that he wants better standards, better teachers, better data to help identify the better teachers, ...
L.A. Loosens Reins on School Administration
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has decided to allow outside groups, including for-profit charter school organizations, to run one-third of the district’s schools and possibly open 50 new ones of their own creation. As a result, more than 60,000 Los Angeles students could be getting more opportunities for ...
North Carolina Group Sues for Equal Funding for Charters
School choice advocates have brought a lawsuit in North Carolina seeking funding equity in public education. The North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law filed a complaint on September 21 on behalf of seven charter schools challenging the state’s funding formula, seeking the ability to request money from the state in ...
