Earlier this month, schools across the country celebrated National Charter Schools Week. This commemoration comes 20 years after Minnesota passed the first state charter school law and City Academy in St. Paul became the first charter school to open its doors. Since then, 40 more states and the District of Columbia have adopted some form of charter school legislation, providing new options to parents who are seeking a choice in their children’s education. Ursula Wright of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) described the basic goal of charters: … More
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Alabama has joined a growing number of states opposing the Common Core national education standards. Last week, the state senate adopted a resolution to “encourage the State Board of Education to take all steps it deems appropriate, including revocation of the adoption of the initiative’s standards if necessary, to retain complete control over Alabama’s academic standards, curriculum, instruction, and testing system.” This comes at the same time other states are backing away from the standards. Education Week reported earlier this month: Utah has been surfing the waves of common-standards controversy … More
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Opponents of national standards and tests see the push as furthering “federal intrusion into state education matters,” asserts the Wall Street Journal today. While the standards have been touted as “voluntary” by proponents, the Obama Administration’s heavy promotion of the standards—tying Race to the Top dollars to a state’s adoption of the standards, by suggesting that federal Title I money for low-income schools could be tied to their adoption, and, most recently, by making No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waivers contingent upon a state’s adoption of common standards—makes them anything … More
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No Child Left Behind, the eighth reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, is 600-plus pages in length and contains programs that cost taxpayers $25 billion per year. The Office of Management and Budget has estimated that states are annually burdened with 7 million hours worth of paperwork as a result of No Child Left Behind. After the passage of No Child Left Behind, several states released calculations comparing the administrative cost of compliance to the amount of federal money they receive under the law. In 2005, … More
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No Child Left Behind, the eighth reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, is 600-plus pages in length and contains programs that cost taxpayers $25 billion per year. The Office of Management and Budget has estimated that states are annually burdened with 7 million hours worth of paperwork as a result of No Child Left Behind. After the passage of No Child Left Behind, several states released calculations comparing the administrative cost of compliance to the amount of federal money they receive under the law. In 2005, … More
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“Budgets are about choices,” stated President Obama in recent remarks to governors about his massive fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request. Nothing more clearly demonstrates the Administration’s priorities than Obama’s decision to once again place the successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) on the chopping block while simultaneously growing the Department of Education’s (DOE) budget more than any other federal agency. In so doing, President Obama is showing low-income D.C. families that his priority is maintaining the unacceptable status quo—at least when it comes to other programs—while bowing to special … More
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By Andrew J. Coulson
“Sometimes people just want to hear a confident person with shiny teeth tell them appealing stories about the secrets to success.” So writes Jay Greene in his debunking of Marc Tucker’s education reform book Surpassing Shanghai. Jay’s whole review is worth reading, but the basic point is simple: you can’t learn much about the systemic [...]
‘A Confident Person with Shiny Teeth’ is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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The New Hampshire legislature recently passed a tuition tax credit option that would provide low- and middle-income students with increased educational choice. The School Choice Scholarship Act would provide tax credits to businesses that donate to nonprofit organizations that provide vouchers to low- and middle-income children. The participating businesses can receive a credit of up to 85 percent of their donations. Students would receive up to $2,500 per scholarship to move to another school or up to $625 to cover the expenses of homeschooling. The School Choice Scholarship Act also … More
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More than half of states have asked the U.S. Department of Education for a waiver from No Child Left Behind. Ten years after President George W. Bush signed the law, the Obama administration appears willing to grant waivers, so long as states adopt a new set of requirements favored by the current occupant in the White House. Chief among them is the Common Core State Standards, national standards and tests that require states to surrender control of their classrooms. That doesn’t sit well with Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), a former … More
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In Connecticut, Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor believes drastic measures are needed to improve the state’s education system: Our state has the dubious distinction of having the largest achievement gap in the nation. This situation cannot be remedied through patient rationalization and modest tinkering. Instead, we must get involved—immediately and vigorously—in the places where students’ performance and life prospects are severely limited by their schools’ struggles. He’s right. Modest tinkering is not enough to cure Connecticut’s education ailments. And while Governor Dannel Malloy (D) is taking some good first steps, … More
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