Tag Archives: Topic: School Choice

Eugene Volokh has this post on the Volokh Conspiracy discussing bias against homeschooling and favoritism toward public schools in child custody rulings.

The U. of Arkansas School Choice Demonstration Project has issued a new study that includes the abstract copied below.  The study is here (pdf 4.29 mb). ________ During the spring of 2004, the first federally funded voucher program – the …

The Washington state Court of Appeals ruled Monday that denying a juvenile the right to a lawyer from the outset violated constitutional requirements.

Another troubling aspect of the ­pre-­K movement is that it is a retreat from parental choice in early childhood arrangements, an approach that has been nurtured since the passage of the block grant bill in 1990.

Ed Feulner writes on Townhall: . . . Powerful politicians of all stripes routinely exercise school choice. A recent survey of Congress found that 37 percent of representatives and 45 percent of senators had sent at least one child to …

Joel I. Klein and Al Sharpton write in the Wall Street Journal: . . . We, too, believe that true education reform can only be brought about by a bipartisan coalition that challenges the entrenched education establishment. And we second …

One News Now: “. . . language in the Idaho bill being developed expressly declares that “children privately instructed at home by their parent or guardian” are in compliance with the state’s compulsory attendance law. It also clearly identifies home …

ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco appeared on Reality Check with Mike Monokian to discuss the ACLU’s attack on Arizona vouchers for special needs children. The mp3 is here and runs just under 23 minutes.  There were some problems with the radio …

The Wall Street Journal: As Chicago schools chief, Arne Duncan has found innovative ways to skirt the restrictive cap on the number of charter schools that can operate in Illinois, thus expanding opportunities for low-income kids. So it’s instructive to …

The Boston Globe reports: “A new study indicates that Boston charter schools significantly outperform the city’s traditional schools, but raises new questions about the city’s experimental pilot schools, which in many cases posted ‘ambiguous’ or ‘disconcerting’ results . . . …

Eighty-seven percent of residents polled would opt for schools other than regular public schools, according to the survey.

The number of home-schooled kids hit 1.5 million in 2007, up 74% from when the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics started keeping track in 1999, and up 36% since 2003.

Phyllis Schlafly writes on Townhall: “What caused young evangelicals, the children of the so-called ‘religious right,’ to change their moral imperatives so dramatically? Most likely it’s the attitudes and decision-making they learned in the public schools, which 89 percent of …

. . . if public education is . . . to evolve into a new form that is better suited to providing a quality education to children—it will happen only through reforms that weaken or eliminate union power over the schools . .

WorldNetDaily reports: . . . The name Dunkirk is famous for the hundreds of thousands of World War II allies saved in May 1940 when a flotilla of pleasure boats, fishing craft and others rescued the soldiers from the beaches …

EdNews reports: “Two weeks ago this space summarized a Maine program permitting many publicly funded students to attend a school of their choice from a variety of sources, both public and private.  A similar tuitioning program in Vermont involves fewer …

The Times-Picayune reports: The Recovery School District is forging ahead with long-range plans to give charter status — and thus more independence — to many of the schools it still operates in New Orleans. As the first step, it plans …

I argue that teachers should keep their hateful views to themselves and not pronounce them publicly if they wish to serve as educators. Students should not be subjected to teachers who are unable to appreciate difference and pluralism, who interpret liberty as a tool for hate, who abhor violence, and who exemplify the opposite of humanistic education.

The courts, however, have altogether failed to address another, more fundamental question: whether the state regulation in fact advances the State interest. A regulation that fails this criterion cannot be “reasonable.”

In March of 2008, Senior Counsel Chris Klicka of the Home School Legal Defense Association, along with Will Estrada and Jeremiah Lorrig of HSLDA’s Federal Relations Department, met with Col. Mike Jones, head of all recruitment for the Army National Guard across the country. Col. Jones and his assistant, Cpt. Paul Douglas, are homeschoolers and wanted to help homeschool graduates get into the Army National Guard.

Children as young as three years old should be in public pre-school programs, according to Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation’s largest teacher’s union.

President-elect Barack Obama will name Arne Duncan, the superintendent of schools in Chicago, to be his Secretary of Education, a senior Democratic official and a second person close to the decision said.

The Land and Environment court has given a conditional go-ahead for an Islamic school to be built at Bass Hill, in Sydney’s south-west.

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) launched a comprehensive, community-based safe schools program today to address a growing epidemic of anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) animus in the nation’s schools.

A proposed homosexual-friendly Chicago public high school is “necessary” for the well-being of students, a Chicago Public Schools administrator told CNSNews.com Wednesday.

The Arizona Supreme Court should reject the demands of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking to prevent special needs children from using vouchers at private religious schools, say attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund . . .

The Becket Fund has issued this press release that reports: The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed an amicus brief in a case argued before the Arizona Supreme Court today (Dec. 9), Cain v. Horne, where the constitutionality of two …

ABC15.com reports: “The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments, which could determine the future of school choice in Arizona. In Caine v. Horne, a number of groups are challenging a state-run school voucher program for special needs and …

The Institute for Justice has published this announcement indicating: Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. on the steps of the AZ Supreme Court located on 1501 West Washington Street in Phoenix, AZ. Hundreds of families participate in AZ’s voucher …

David W. Kirkpatrick writes onEdNews.org: It might be said that trying to reform the public schools is more difficult than trying to move a cemetery.  In other words, almost impossible. Exhibit A is school vouchers, to fund students rather than …

Jerry Cantrell has this post on NJE3.com: Whatever your feeling on the latest round of judicial intervention in New Jersey’s urban public-school-funding soap opera, one thing is clear: The state Supreme Court intends to continue its override of the Legislature’s …

The National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Columbia has issued this report/abstract: 170. The Start-up of Religious Charter Schools: Implications for Privatization and Choice in U.S. Education. 2008. Author: Marcia J. Harr Bailey and Bruce S. …

The Houston Chronicle: Texas handed out its final public school charter Friday, a move that puts pressure on the state to either lift its self-imposed cap or shut down low performing campuses to make room for more of the untraditional …

HSLDA reports: “The State Board of Education in Delaware has approved a change in the administrative regulations terminating the right of non-public school students to receive driver education during the summer months without paying tuition. A homeschool in Delaware is …

HSLDA reports: The Berlin Wall may have been come down in 1989, but the chill on liberty that existed for decades in Soviet-influenced East Germany seems to have penetrated further into, rather than receded from, the reunified capital of the …

In February 2008, the California Court of Appeal, Second District, ruled in In re Rachel L. that parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children.

The National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Columbia’s Teacher’s College has published this abstract and paper: 168. Fulfilling Parents’ Wishes: Property Taxes, School Choice, and Referendum Success. 2008. Author: Arnold F. Shober Do charter schools improve …

The Boston Globe reports: The Boston Globe reports: School superintendents are renewing a call to change the school choice law, particularly funding for charter schools, as their districts lose money because students leave for charter schools and other alternatives . …

The Religion Clause Blog reports that the Arizona Supreme Court will review a challenge to private school vouchers pending in Cain v. Horne, (Case No. CV-08-0189-PR). The East Valley Tribune reports: “The Arizona Supreme Court will decide whether parents can …

The Boston Globe reports: One of the most eye-catching elements of Boston School Superintendent Carol R. Johnson’s reorganization plan – the creation of two single-gender academies – seems to have just one problem: They appear to be illegal in Massachusetts …

The ACLU of Kentucky reports: The ACLU of Kentucky is hosting a panel discussion on Wednesday, October 29 about the growing trend of sex-segregated education in public schools. Speakers will raise questions about whether public school resources should be spent …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: “Utah could have nearly 50 percent more students in charter schools by the 2010-11 school year if the state Board of Education approves several new schools and agrees to expand others at its next meeting.”

. . . the NEA has directly (or via state affiliates) bankrolled Acorn, the Democratic Leadership Council, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and, naturally, the Human Rights Campaign, which lobbies for “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equal rights.” . . .

“At current levels of per-pupil spending, just a 1 percent drop in private-school enrollment will put New York governments on the hook for about $100 milliona year. A 10 percent swing means about $1 billion more in school spending.”

This Note discusses the details of the Parent Choice in Education Program that was to be established by H.B. 148, the reasons for the program’s subsequent defeat in the November 2007 citizen referendum, and the suggestions for Utah’s next effort to pass a statewide education voucher program.

The National Center for the Study of Privitization in Education, Teacher’s College, Columbia University has posted a new report: 167. Can Interdistrict Choice Boost Student Achievement? The Case of Connecticut’s Interdistrict Magnet School Program. 2008. Author: Robert Bifulco, Casey Cobb & …

The Independent carries this report discussing the experience and concerns of one homeschooling family in England.

WLBT.com reports (linked through the HSLDA website): “Some parents are taking unconventional measures to avoid the state’s vaccine requirements for entering schools. But state health officials say that puts everyone at risk. “

The Baltimore Sun reports: . . . Proponents argue that single-sex schools help students concentrate on academics and improve performance. Their resurgence has come about since 2006, when the U.S. Department of Education gave school districts more leeway to develop …

HSLDA reports: “The family had recently legally withdrawn their daughter from public school in order to homeschool her. Instead of accepting the fact she was being homeschooled, however, school officials contacted the truant officer. “

It may be a free market of competing ideologies and political interests, they say, but what goes on in the classroom is merely operant conditioning in the pragmatic flavor of the day.

The White House has issued this 176 page report.  The Introduction: On April 24, 2008, President George W. Bush convened in Washington, D.C., a broad array of education and community stakeholders to address a deeply troubling but vastly under-reported phenomenon …

All American Blogger reports: “Right now, New Jersey has the most lenient laws in the country. The state ignores us, we ignore them. It’s simple, and it works. There’s a booming homeschooling movement (hundreds of families), and HSDLA almost never …

Ed News carries this report that begins: “Ten years ago, Florida Governor Jeb Bush and lawmakers decided to do something about declining test scores in the Sunshine State. Through a strategy of accountability for public schools and options for dissatisfied …

Ed News carries this report featuring an interview with Brooke Dollens Terry is an education policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.  It includes this Q&A: 1) Brooke, in a recent public policy paper, you seem to indicate that …

This note examines the present funding inequities that face many charter schools and explains how these inequities may provide adequate grounds for successful federal equal protection challenges to state funding regimes.

This paper is the second installment in what I hope will be a three-part project presenting a comprehensive challenge to the standard judicial narrative of the Establishment Clause as applied in the public school context.

The National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education Teacher’s College, Columbia University has issued this report: 165. Luck of the Draw? On the Fairness of Charter School Admissions Policies. 2008. Author: Jonathan R. Dolle and Anne Newman This …

Josh Dunn and Martha Derthick have this article in “Education Next” a publication of the Hoover Institution. Notably, it concludes: Given the support offered by the political establishment, it seems likely that home schooling will continue in California regardless of …

“For the third time, the American Civil Liberties Union has challenged Arizona’s school choice program. The law permits private corporations to dedicate part of their tax liability for tuition scholarships at religious or other private schools. ”

They conclude that expectations about the ability of vouchers to drastically improve student achievement, at least as measured by test scores, should be tempered by the results of the studies to date.

This Note examines the interplay between a publicly-funded school choice program in Georgia and controlling constitutional obligations and provides guidance for the inevitable expansion of school choice in Georgia.

Religion Clause reports that the Florida Supreme Court has issued an opinion in support of its earlier injunction that “enjoined state officials from including on the November ballot two proposed state constitutional amendments– one that would have eliminated Florida’s Blaine Amendment …

. . . ADF attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief defending the constitutionality of Arizona’s corporate tax credit tuition program being attacked by the American Civil Liberties Union.

While party unity was a key theme of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, an important divide has emerged on education between teachers’ unions on one side, and a new cadre of urban education leaders on the other.

The Religion Clause Blog reports on this story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that begins: “Last week, Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA) and the Minnesota Department of Education appeared to reach an understanding in the controversy over whether Islam is …

The AP reports: “McCain tossed red meat to Republicans at their convention last week, saying Obama wants schools to answer to unions and entrenched bureaucracies, while he would hold them accountable to parents and kids.  A look at where the …

HSLDA carries this report from the Detroit News that begins: The 15-year-old Lake Orion girl is among an increasing number of students nationwide and in Metro Detroit who are being taught at home, a trend that has some state lawmakers …

As big government increasingly seeks to supplant the private and family spheres, there is yet another form of federal intrusion on the rise: institutionalized early education.

Setting low expectations — by both parents and teachers — is the great enemy of learning in our time.

OneNewsNow.com reports: “Six Pennsylvania families are battling the state over the strict regulations placed on home schoolers. The families are being represented by the Home School Legal Defense Association.”

So, with hard hat on, here goes the defence: that it is possible to justify faith schools within the state sector with important qualifications; that many of them do a remarkable job; and that it’s time the critics put prejudice aside to think more carefully about the source of their appeal to parents.

CNSNews reports: “The National Education Association has launched a $50 million campaign to put Sen. Barack Obama in the White House, but nevertheless it is praising Sen. John McCain’s pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: According to a National Alliance for Public Charter Schools study of districts with over 10,000 students, in the 2006-2007 school year Camden with 13 percent of its students in charter schools joined Philadelphia as one of …

The National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education has issued a paper that is introduced with this abstract: 163. School Vouchers and Student Achievement: Recent Evidence, Remaining Questions. 2008. Author: Cecilia Elena Rouse and Lisa Barrow In this …