The Indiana State Teachers’ Association filed suit last week over the state’s new school voucher law, and we are about to be treated to a familiar constitutional showdown. The lawyers will dig deep into sometimes arcane and often dated legal scripture, but the policy question boils down to whether our collective educational covenant is to… Read more »
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Old arguments on capacity overlook new trends
Education Week has sustained the conversation about the capacity for private schools to meet the demand for school vouchers, and policy analyst Sara Mead has added an additional argument: As they’re currently devised, voucher and tax credit programs do little to increase the number of high-quality schools. These are, of course, legitimate points, but they… Read more »
… but Arete does it the right way in Georgia
Amid my overly academic analysis of the Southern Education Report report on Georgia’s flawed Tax Credit Scholarship law, I failed to mention an important and highly relevant development on the ground there. The law may in fact be overly permissive and lack sufficient accountability, but at least one scholarship organization is doing things the right… Read more »
The American Federation For Children and Malcolm X
Let’s be clear. The American Federation For Children spends significant sums of money to elect candidates who support educational options, and it usually does so in direct competition with teacher unions. But those who dismissed the AFC 2011 National Policy Summit as either politically or philosophically monolithic are playing some partisan games of their own…. Read more »
Another chief for change is resigning
The Associated Press and the New Orleans Times-Picayune are reporting that Louisiana state schools superintendent Paul Pastorek is planning to step down. Pastorek, who took over the top schools post in 2007, is another of the Chiefs for Change with plans to resign. Florida education commissioner Eric J. Smith is another who told his Board… Read more »
Florida expands virtual education with physical limitations
Florida expanded its virtual learning horizon today, even as it once again reminded us that age-old education boundaries won’t easily cede to global technology. The bill that senators sent to Gov. Rick Scott, HB 7197, was a clear victory for online education, adding more public and private options. School districts will be required to give… Read more »
An outcry for changemakers at Harvard ed school
From The Boston Globe: The recent denial of tenure to a prominent Harvard scholar whose work focuses on grass-roots organizing has sparked student protests over the direction of one of the nation’s most influential education schools. More than 50 doctoral students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education are demanding that the 91-year-old school redirect… Read more »
Betting with Jay Mathews on vouchers
There are many things we value in public education today that were once unthinkable. Southern school boards defiantly resisted integration. Charter schools were anathema to the Democratic Party. Even International Baccalaureate programs were challenged by well-meaning principals who feared they would cream the best students and dilute traditional public schools. All of that has changed. But Washington… Read more »
Rattling the constitutional cage
Ron Meyer is the longtime attorney for the Florida Education Association who has succeeded in getting Florida’s original school voucher program and an independent charter school authorizing panel thrown out in the courts. So when he threatens to sue two other voucher programs if the state moves forward with an even larger plan to provide… Read more »
Friends and foes of Jeb Bush overlook the real reason for Florida’s gains
Initiatives such as eliminating social promotion, grading schools and bringing more professional development into high-poverty schools reinforced Bush’s commitment to increasing the achievement of low-performing students, but it was the governor’s drive and forceful personality that convinced schools and school districts to reorder their priorities.
