By Andrew J. Coulson
Matt Ladner does a good job of explaining how his beliefs shape his education policy recommendations. It’s a quality that he shares with Horace Mann, who persuaded the people of …
The Making and Breaking of Education Policy is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Andrew J. Coulson
Since man bites dog stories are all the rage lately, I thought it might be a good time for me to point out that the rising Democratic attacks on teachers unions are largely misdirected. Cato Scholar Defends Teachers Unions … from Democrats is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
Cato Scholar Defends Teachers Unions … from Democrats is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Andrew J. Coulson
I’m no theologian, but when a religious group asks God to bless something, I’m pretty sure that’s a sign they like it. So if some other folks show up and say they love that same thing, we’ve got a clear case of mutual agreement. They’re not going to fight over whether the thing in question [...]
How to Make ‘Bless’ and ‘Love’ Fighting Words is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Andrew J. Coulson
Education professor Sherman Dorn imagines foul play and education policy maven Matthew Ladner is withholding judgment for the time being. Ladner recently made use of some of my charts of the public school productivity collapse, and Dorn has taken issue with one of them, depicted below [from my February 2011 testimony to the House Education and [...]
This One Is of the Charts is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Andrew J. Coulson
A 13-year-old black girl from Rochester likens the pedagogical malfeasance of her public school to the deliberate prohibition against teaching slaves to read–as recounted by Frederick Douglass in his autobiography. And she is hounded out of the school. We can do better than this. We need a free marketplace in education with financial assistance to [...]
Girl Likens Public School Failure to Ban on Teaching Slaves to Read is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
“Either he doesn’t get it, or he doesn’t care,” Sheila Jackson, parent of a D.C. Opportunity Scholarship recipient, said upon hearing the news that President Obama’s budget eliminates funding for the popular program. Jackson sounded torn about which was worse. “I was appalled,” she told Scribe. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program provides low-income families in one of the worst public school systems in America with vouchers to attend private schools of their choice. More than 1,600 students are benefiting this year alone. Jackson’s daughter, Shawnee, has had a scholarship since … More
By Andrew J. Coulson
New research by Harvard professor David J. Deming studied the crime rates of young adults who participated in a random lottery at the middle or high school level. The lotteries decided whether students were able to attend a school of their choice or whether they were forced to attend their assigned public school. Students who [...]
School Choice Lowers Crime is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Andrew J. Coulson
The media tide of the past two days has carried in a great flood of stories on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. ABC, NBC, AP, Reuters, the Christian Science Monitor, Politico, the Detroit News, and others joined in. This torrent of attention is due to a White House science fair at which the [...]
The Irony of the President’s STEM Initiatives is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
Joseph Kelley knew something was wrong when his son Rashawn flunked first grade. “I knew he knew his alphabet forward and backward, he knew how to count to 100 forward and backward,” Kelley said. He had taught Rashawn these things himself. Rashawn’s teachers were surprised to find out that he knew how to read; they hadn’t noticed. At the time, Rashawn was attending a public school in Washington, D.C. Kelley decided to sit in on his son’s classes to learn the teachers’ vocabulary and techniques so he could tutor Rashawn … More
By Andrew J. Coulson
Back in 1993, when Whitney Houston hit #1 with “I will always love you”, there was something that California-based state schooling advocates didn’t love at all: a school voucher ballot initiative. Much was written on the subject, and in 1994 a booklet was published summarizing the arguments for and against (Voices on Choice, K. L. [...]
Status Quo Stalwarts, Meet Reality
[School Choice Week Blast from the Past, Pt. 2!] is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
