Tag Archives: Topic: School Choice

ADF Weekly Update: School choice: a parent’s right under attack

At Bench Memos, ADF Attorney David French responds to Robert VerBruggen on tax-credit voucher programs: “Taxpayers give money to nonprofit organizations based upon shared beliefs and shared goals. Arizona has chosen to further incentivize one segment of charitable giving (in the arena of education, which is a public and private function) by giving a relatively modest tax credit.”

Denver Post: “The Douglas County School District is examining starting a voucher program to give students state money to attend private or religious schools.”

ADF Attorney Gregory S. Baylor writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “The Washington Post editorial board agrees with ADF that Arizona’s school choice tax credit is constitutionally permissible . . . The key line in the Post editorial: ‘The program is driven by a series of private choices that do not involve the government.’”

OneNewsNow: “‘They had tried to argue that this was somehow government money,’ [ADF Attorney David Cortman] explains. ‘But, of course, the argument we made [was that] it was private people making private donations to private organizations — and simply because religious schools participate [in the program], it doesn’t violate the Constitution.’”

Christian Post: “‘Parents should be able to choose what school their children attend and where their money goes. Just because religious schools can join the program on the same basis as non-religious ones doesn’t make it unconstitutional,’ said [ADF Attorney David Cortman].”

NPR reports High court weighs tax credit for religious schools: “Mr. PAUL BENDER: ‘Sixty-five percent of the whole program went out on the basis of religion. You get this scholarship only if you send your kid to the religious school that I designate.’ TOTENBERG: ‘But [David Cortman] of the Arizona Christian Schools Tuition Association disagreed.’ Mr. DAVID CORTMAN (Arizona Christian Schools Tuition Association): ‘Not a dime goes to any school, religious or secular, unless the parent decides, number one, that their child will attend that school; and number two, that they apply for a scholarship.’”

Marcia Coyle writing at The National Law Journal: “The Supreme Court, in separate arguments on Wednesday, waded into two difficult parts of the Constitution that traditionally have divided the justices: religion and preemption.”

SCOTUSblog: “The transcript of today’s oral argument in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn is now available here . . . ”

Arizona Republic: “‘There is a very important philosophical point here,’ [Justice Alito] said sternly. ‘You think that all the money belongs to the government except to the extent that it deigns to allow private people to keep some of it’ . . . Outside the court, [David Cortman], a Georgia lawyer for the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization, told reporters that the private-school tax credit is only one of many options Arizona offers to trim taxpayer debt. ‘It’s simply not the government’s money until you reach the bottom line of the tax form, and no sooner,’ he said.”

The Christian Century (RNS): “Is a state law that allows tax credits for donations to scholarship programs unconstitutional if most of the recipients attend religious schools? . . . The Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization in the case, said in a court filing that the percentage of religiously affiliated STOs in the program has dropped from 94 percent in 1998 to 67 percent in 2009.”

Los Angeles Times: “The Obama administration upset liberals as well as the president’s two Supreme Court appointees Wednesday by arguing that ordinary citizens have no legal right to go to court to challenge the government if it uses tax money to fund religious schools.”

Update: Religion Clause has the relevant excerpts from the transcript.

ADF attorney David Cortman is featured in one of the podcasts. He provides an excellent overview of the litigation and its stakes.

CBN News: “‘This program is important to the millions of Americans who support school choice across the country,’ [ADF Attorney David Cortman] said. ‘And Arizona is trying to increase their scores by giving parents a choice whether they want to go to public schools, charter schools or private schools, and this is just another prong in that.’” | Post includes video:

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: “Remarkably, Acting Solicitor General Neal K. Katyal appeared before the justices to argue on behalf of the program. For some reason, the Obama administration thought it would be a good idea to join groups like TV preacher Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice, Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Liberty Counsel, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Christian Legal Society, the Alliance Defense Fund and others supporting this ill-conceived plan.”

“The conservative justices indicated they are likely to rule against a challenge to the Arizona program that says it amounts to an unconstitutional state endorsement of religion. The court’s liberals suggested they have problems with the state’s tax credit.”

The Star-Ledger: “The New Jersey Department of Education denied approval for the Bergen Regional Charter School, which would have joined three other charter schools in the county operating independently but with taxpayer money. Opponents deemed the charter school unnecessary, claiming the surrounding school districts are not low-performing.”

The Heritage Foundation: “Amidst the flurry of political activity taking place this week, outside the voting booth another important policy issue is up for consideration. This Wednesday, November 3, school choice will be on trial at the United States Supreme Court, courtesy of the American Civil Liberties Union.”

ADF News Release: “Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel David Cortman will be available for media interviews following oral argument Wednesday at the U.S. Supreme Court in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn. ADF contends that the suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, should be dismissed because the ACLU hasn’t proven that its clients have any legal standing to sue over someone else’s private donations.”

ADF Attorney David Cortman writing at Inside the Issues: “Since the program operates no differently than a typical tax deduction for a donation to either a religious or secular charity, where’s the beef? As the Supreme Court said in a similar case, it is merely a religious difference.”

Diane Ravitch writing at The New York Review of Books: “Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for ‘Superman’ . . . arrived in late September with the biggest publicity splash I have ever seen for a documentary . . . The message of these films has become alarmingly familiar: American public education is a failed enterprise. The problem is not money. Public schools already spend too much. Test scores are low because there are so many bad teachers, whose jobs are protected by powerful unions . . . The movie asserts a central thesis in today’s school reform discussion: the idea that teachers are the most important factor determining student achievement. But this proposition is false.”

MinnPost.com: “[O]ver the past month and a half . . . Pawlenty has subtly yet clearly laid out his education platform for the nation. It merges his aspirational record in Minnesota (that is, what he’s glad he did and would have liked to do but couldn’t) with related policies that fall outside a governor’s state-focused purview . . . His self-association with Rhee, meanwhile, gives a large window into what Pawlenty views as an exemplary record that he would say ought to serve as a model for other school districts across the nation.”

OneNewsNow: “A Swedish home-schooling family has been trying to get their son back from foster care since he was taken away by authorities more than a year ago, but an attorney for the family believes the courts have turned a deaf ear to their situation . . . [The Home School Legal Defense Association] and the Alliance Defense Fund have filed a lawsuit at the European Court of Human Rights, demanding justice for the family.”

Katherine Kersten writing at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “The conflict began in January 2009, when the ACLU of Minnesota sued Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy — a K-8 charter school with campuses in Inver Grove Heights and Blaine — for violating constitutional prohibitions against government endorsement of religion . . . [TiZA's] chief tool has been attempted intimidation of all who would draw back the curtain on its secrets.” Via Atlas Shrugs.

Heritage Foundation The Foundry Blog: “Yesterday, Media Matters tried to refute a blog post in which I point out, among other things, that the impact of voucher use in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program resulted in a 91 percent graduation rate compared to 70 percent in the control group. The findings are from the U.S. Department of Education’s final evaluation of the voucher program, authored by Dr. Patrick Wolf.”

Education News: According to Bill Gates, it might be the future of education, or at least a piece of it. Online learning, to many, is still a mystery, and so the Gates Foundation announced today that it’s committing $20 million to develop online learning opportunities — in hopes that taking (and fostering) virtual action will boost America’s sagging college graduation rate.”

Education News: “Asking ‘Where did chartering start?’ is like asking where a river starts. You have to go upstream, where you probably will find no single source, but several little streams flowing together. We’ve prepared this timeline to trace some of the key milestones.”

SCOTUS Blog makes note of the order in this morning’s live-blog coverage and the order is posted here.

The Times-Tribune: “A Monroe County school district has decided to revoke the charter from the Pocono Mountain Charter School, which district officials say is part of a church.”

ADF Attorney David Cortman writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “There are several issues involved in the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v Winn case that is before the U.S. Supreme Court. One of them that is being argued by ADF is whether the ACLU’s taxpaying plaintiffs have any right to even challenge the program. We think not.”

WorldNetDaily: “Roger Kiska, counsel in Europe for the ADF, said it appears simply to be an issue of state control over a family. ‘The opinions in the Johansson case reflect an underlying attempt by the Swedish state to conform Dominic to the bureaucrats’ image of a child, rather than respecting the right of the family and the parents, and even the right of the child to be with his family,’ he said in the HSLDA report.”

HSLDA: “The Pettersson family (names changed to protect privacy) has been traveling across Europe for the last nine months, staying temporarily with relatives and living as visitors in foreign lands. Despite having submitted the appropriate paperwork to homeschool legally in Sweden, this family is one of many who have encountered persecution from the Scandinavian state heralded as a ‘social utopia.’ Now one year since their local school began to fight them tooth and nail simply for choosing to teach their children at home, this HSLDA member family has made the difficult decision to leave their homeland for good.”

WorldNetDaily: “A family – exiled to live as visitors in foreign countries for nine months already – has decided to leave Sweden permanently because of the threat of government action against them over their choice to homeschool their children, according to a new report . . . The Johansson case was elevated to the European Court of Human Rights, where the HSLDA and the Alliance Defense Fund have applied for a hearing.”

News Observer: “Five charter schools are suing Durham Public Schools for more than $1.2 million they say the district owes them from the past five years . . . The charters claim DPS is using different formulas to determine how much money they receive and how much the district spends, per student. DPS bases its per student funding on enrollment at the beginning of the year but is paying charter schools based on their monthly numbers, the suit alleges.”

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn which is pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. | MP3 audio 7:42 mins | ADF Media Information Page | Great Hearts Academies | SCOTUS Wiki information page, decisions, and court filings | DONATE: www.adfonhugh.org

ADF Attorney Gregory S. Baylor writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “As readers of this blog know, one of the primary threats to religious freedom in the U.S. right now is the application of religion and sexual orientation ‘non-discrimination’ rules to religious organizations . . . At first glance, the claims made in the Winn case seem to have little in common with these distressingly common assaults on associational freedom. However, upon closer inspection, the similarities emerge. In essence, the ACLU and its clients in the Winn case object to the exercise of religious associational freedom.”

ADF Attorney David Cortman writing at Inside the Issues: “It has been ADF’s position throughout this case that the plaintiffs, whose sole basis for standing is that they are taxpayers, ‘suffer’ no personal injury. Plaintiffs only claim of injury is that the amount in the public treasury is lessened by the state allowing taxpayers to take tax credits for donations to private 501(c)(3) organization called STOs . . . Second, the ‘injury’ is hypothetical and speculative. It is just as likely, as the Supreme Court, has so held, that the purpose of tax breaks, such as tax credits and deductions, is to spur economic activity. Although less tax may be collected, it is often more than offset by other revenue creation.”

Associated Press: “The Charter School Growth Fund is announcing a $160 million fundraising campaign Wednesday — the largest-ever aimed at helping start more of the nontraditional public schools nationwide. The goal is to establish 335,000 more spots for children at charter schools in the next decade.”

ADF’s Weekly Update is on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l-tD8G2g4E

Freedom From Religion Foundation: “It’s wrong to fund religious schools with taxpayer dollars, say the Freedom From Religion Foundation and other advocates for state-church separation in an amicus brief filed in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. In Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, the court will consider if an Arizona tax credit for donations to groups that offer scholarships to attend private schools is constitutional. The groups are called School Tuition Organizations (STOs).”

The Heritage Foundation / Education Notebook: “New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker appeared on Oprah last Friday to accept a $100 million gift from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Derrell Bradford, executive director of Excellent Education for Everyone in New Jersey, told the New York Post that ‘the mayor has a very compelling vision about what should be done with the schools. He was able to convince Mark to be part of it.’”

Associated Press: “He says unions have often been resistant to change as they try to protect their members – but that many of them are now working with states on reforms including charter schools, and imposing higher standards and accountability.”

PressDemocrat.com: “Public charter schools in California are skirting the worst impact of the state’s budget crisis, even as traditional public schools shorten the school year, increase class sizes and lay off teachers and staff by the thousands.”

CNN / Belief Blog: “Welcome to homeschooling 2010. It’s no longer a solitary exercise for many parents– it’s communal. Many families are now sharing ideas about teaching and taking turns as teachers. In effect, they’re creating their own ‘shadow schools’ . . . According to the US Department of Education , 1.5 million children are taught by Mom and Dad. That’s up 74% since 1999 . . . Studies used to show that most parents decided to homeschool for religious reasons, but that’s not the case anymore. In a 2008 study, 36% of families listed religious and moral values as the main reason for homeschooling. But, another 38% said the primary reason they homeschool is because they don’t like the school environment or the way teachers teach—those numbers are also way up from a few years ago.”

The Washington Post / D.C. Schools Insider: “‘Yesterday’s election results were devastating, devastating,’ Rhee said. ‘Not for me, because I’ll be fine, and not even for Fenty because he’ll be fine, but devastating for the schoolchildren of Washington, D.C.’ . . . she said the takeaway from the D.C. election for education reformers was that it was time to become even more aggressive in the push for measures such as tougher teacher evaluations using test score data and performance-based pay.”

Struggling Middle Class: Merit-Based Scholarships Meet School Vouchers
Margaret E. Azhar, 24 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol’y 399 (2010)

“In this Note, I suggest a system of merit-based school vouchers to be used at primary and secondary schools in the same manner merit-based scholarships are currently used at colleges and universities. I believe such a system would be an ideal and workable solution to the increasing toll educational expenses are taking on the middle class.”

Christian Science Monitor: “Michelle Rhee, the D.C. schools chancellor, launched aggressive school reforms under Mayor Adrian Fenty. But with Vincent Gray’s win Tuesday, she’ll probably be ousted.”

Wall Street Journal editorial, “Cheating Charter Schools” [full text via Google News]: “President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have made charter schools a big part of their reform agenda, but the pushback from unions has been fierce. Perhaps that explains why the new $10 billion federal teacher bailout will be dispensed in a way that discriminates against charters.”

Unchartered Territory: Market Competition’s Constitutional Collision with Entrepreneurial Sex-Segregated Charter Schools
David Groshoff, 2010 B.Y.U. Educ. & L.J. 307

“Due to the recent growth in sex-segregated charters, the welcoming political landscape that currently encourages their creation, and the lack of direction by the Supreme Court, this Article explores what happens when market competition and choice–generally regarded as innocuous principles supported by many individuals across the U.S. political spectrum–are (a) applied to education, (b) combined with empirical evidence of charter success in educating urban students, and (c) mixed with policy arguments that form the basis of sex-segregated charters. By attempting to navigate the scant potentially relevant guidance from the Court, the Article analyzes how sex-segregated charters, including those expressly authorized by state legislatures, may comport with Title IX of the Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Article concludes that despite the ostensibly benevolent goals of the educational entrepreneurs that create charters, many sex-segregated charters violate the law.”

Wendy Fritzen Hensel, Vouchers for Students with Disabilities: The Future of Special Education? (2010). Journal of Law & Education, Vol. 39, p. 291, 2010; Georgia State University College of Law, Legal Studies Research Paper Series No. 2010-11. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1652793

“The momentum toward vouchers has the potential to make a significant and lasting impact on the manner in which children with disabilities are educated in the United States. Because most states require students receiving vouchers to waive their rights under the IDEA as a condition precedent to receiving state money, this impact will be felt not only at the state level, but also on federal policy going forward.

This article explores the impetus behind the voucher movement, the parameters of existing legislation, the legality of voucher programs, and the corresponding public policy consequences which follow their adoption.”

Leslie Jacobs, “After the Deluge, A New Education System,” Wall Street Journal (full text via Google News): “Five years ago yesterday, the levees broke. Hurricane Katrina flooded roughly 80% of this city, causing nearly $100 billion in damage . . . But from the flood waters, the most market-driven public school system in the country has emerged. Education reformers across America should take notice: The model is working . . . After Katrina . . . state officials took the bold step of creating a market-driven system of autonomous schools . . . Public officials dramatically expanded the number of charter schools in the city. Today close to 70% of children attend charters.”

Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho) editorial: “Here’s what it takes to shutter a charter school in Idaho. First, the school’s backers must promise to spend taxpayer money in defiance of Idaho’s constitutional prohibition of religion in its classes . . . Then to make an even bigger stink, have the school’s leaders cozy up with the Christian conservative Alliance Defense Fund.”

OneNewsNow: “Dr. Vicki Murray is the associate director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute (PJI) and director of the Women for School Choice project at the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF). She reports that reading levels for fourth-graders in the Sunshine State were close to the bottom of the barrel a little over a decade ago, but one of the changes made during that time was to give parents the opportunity to choose the best school for their children.”

Recognizing and Regulating Home Schooling in California: Balancing Parental and State Interests in Education
Paul A. Alarcón, 13 Chap. L. Rev. 391 (2010)

“Part I of this Comment summarizes the history of education in America discussing in particular the emergence of modern home schooling. Part II considers the conflict between the governmental and parental interests in education created by home schooling and provides an in-depth analysis of these dueling interests. Part III concludes with a proposal for enacting a home school exemption to California’s compulsory school attendance statute, a consideration of limitations adopted by other states, and a proposal for adopting two specific home schooling restrictions.”

ChristianNewsWire: “It appears that in the U.S., homeschooling is the fastest-growing form of education, according to independent research conducted by organizations ranging from the National Home Education Research Institute (www.nheri.org), a nonprofit research and educational organization, to the federally funded National Center for Education Statistics (www.nces.ed.gov).”

Los Angeles Times: “Proposition 39, which was passed by voters in 2000, requires school districts to provide charter schools with facilities that are reasonably equivalent to those of other schools in the district. About 60,000 students in L.A. Unified have opted to attend charter schools. But administrators have in no way tried to meet the ‘reasonably equivalent’ standard . . . When charter schools manage to get funding to build their own schools independent of the district, they do so for far less money than the LAUSD does.”

OneNewsNow: “Just six days before school was to begin, the Idaho State Board of Education voted to uphold the closure of a charter school that tangled with officials over the use of the Bible in the classroom . . . [David Cortman] of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) says he is disappointed by the closure, ‘especially in light of the fact that the entire state’s educational system is undergoing a financial crisis.’ He does not think it was just for the board to take on the one school.”

ADF Attorney Roger Kiska writing at The Christian Post / Advancing Religious Liberty: “A couple months ago in June, attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund and the Home School Legal Defense Association filed Johansson v. Sweden with the European Court of Human Rights so that that the Swedish government will return a seven-year-old homeschooled boy to his parents. Dominic Johansson was forcibly seized by Swedish authorities from his parents in June 2009 after they had boarded a plane in their move to India. The reason? He was homeschooled . . . So, could Europe’s degree of intolerance and crackdown on homeschooling reach American shores anytime soon? It all depends on how vigilant we are in opposing decisions like the one in New Hampshire—and it’s precisely why ADF is fighting to protect parental rights in that case and abroad so that a very nasty cancer is not allowed to grow.

Race and Education at a Crossroads: How Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Wisconsin v. Yoder Shed Light on the Potential Conflict Between the Black Homeschooling Movement and K-12 Affirmative Action Programs
Consuelo Valenzuela Lickstein, 13 J. Gender Race & Just. 835 (2010)

“This Note analyzes the constitutional issues involved in the hypothetical described above. Part II.A discusses some of the reasons why black parents elect to homeschool their children. Parts II.B and II.C review the case law addressing a parent’s fundamental right to direct his or her child’s upbringing and diversity as a compelling state interest. Parts III.A and III.B set forth some of the arguments that the black parents who seek to homeschool their children and school district would make before the Supreme Court. Part III.C discusses how the Court is likely to analyze the arguments set forth by each party and predicts that the Court will rule in favor of the school district.”

Excellent Education for Everyone (E3) / The Blitz: “The Hatikvah brief cites repeated efforts by the school district to deny parents transfer cards, delay or refuse to send transfer cards to Hatikvah school officials, harass parents who expressed interest in enrolling their students in the new dual language Hebrew charter school, and making false statements to the press.”

Morris News Service: “The State Board of Education upheld the denial of two online schools Tuesday, frustrating parents seeking options for their children. The board met to allow members to consider granting charters for Georgia Virtual Academy and Mercury Online Academy, which the Georgia Charter Schools Commission denied in June. The commission rejected the two applications largely because neither had a governing board that could act independently of the national companies contracted to operate the schools.”

KHQ (AP): “The state Board of Education has voted to uphold the closure of a charter school that tangled with Idaho officials over use of the Bible in the classroom and is now being shuttered over money problems.”

Baptist Press: “The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold an Arizona program that allows tax credits for scholarship donations contributed to religious organizations . . . The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) appealed the Ninth Circuit opinion to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization. The high court not only granted the request for review from ADF but one from the state of Arizona as well. The cases — Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn and Garriott v. Winn — have been consolidated for the justices’ review.”

HSLDA: “As Home School Legal Defense Association member families approach the beginning of the 2010–11 school year, they may be asked by local public school officials to complete and submit various unauthorized forms. An example from the 2009–10 school year was an ‘Affirmation of Understanding’ form sent to homeschooling parents in the Jefferson City Schools.”

SCOTUS Blog reports that the SCOTUS Wiki has been updated to add various documents including filings in Winn v. Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization.

Bluegrass Policy Institute: “School choice supporters told state lawmakers today that charter schools offer the kind of innovation that could bring true reform to Kentucky’s education system.”

Liberty Counsel Press Release: “Liberty Counsel filed an Amicus Brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Kathleen M. Winn. The case involves parents that challenged an Arizona school choice law that provides dollar-for-dollar tax credits to taxpayers who make contributions to independent organizations, which in turn grant scholarships to attend private schools.”

Wall Street Journal Editorial, “Morally Inexcusable” (full text via Google News): “In a speech to the Urban League’s annual convention Thursday, President Obama was blunt: ‘This status quo is morally inexcusable.’ So is the fact that the nation’s leading civil rights organizations are now siding with teachers unions and others working to preserve a public education system that is failing the millions of black families who can’t afford an alternative.”

OneNewsNow: “The high court has agreed to hear the case, and in the opening brief, Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys made two essential arguments. ‘One of those is that the plaintiffs do not have a constitutional injury . . . [David Cortman] goes on to report that the second argument his firm presented was ‘that this is a neutral constitutional program that allows taxpayers to decide what private 501(c)(3) organizations they want to donate to voluntarily to then support private schools that are both religious and non-religious.’” | ADF News Release

Paul E. Peterson and Martin R. West in the Wall Street Journal, “African-Americans for Charter Schools” [full text via Google]: “Support for charters among African Americans rose to 49% in 2009, up from 42% in 2008. This year it leapt upward to no less than 64%. Among Hispanics support jumped to 47% in 2010, from 37% in 2008.”

“The brief asks that the suit be dismissed because the opponents have not proven that they have suffered any legal injury that would give them standing to sue over the state’s tuition tax credit program.”

New Jersey Jewish News: “New Jersey’s first Hebrew-language charter school has been given the final go-ahead by the state to open in September.”

Miami Herald: “Somerset Gables Academy plans to open a 110-student charter school at University Baptist Church in Coral Gables, not the 675-student K-8 school it had envisioned . . . ‘We gave them a certificate of use for 110 and that’s the position we’ve taken,’ she said. ‘The statute is clear. You can bring in a school into a religious institution or theater or museum if it allows for it under the zoning — and the zoning allows for 110.’”

Telegraph: “The Education Secretary said he would be ‘interested’ to look at proposals for non-religious schools from figures such Professor Richard Dawkins. Prof Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, said last month that he approved of the idea of setting up a ‘free-thinking’ school. The comments follow the publication of Coalition plans to give parents’ groups, teachers and charities powers to open their own schools at taxpayers’ expense.” | Via Religion Clause

Idaho Press-Tribune: “The Idaho State Board of Education will hear Nampa Classical Academy’s charter revocation appeal Aug. 11 in Pocatello. Board of Education members will hear from both sides on the issue at the meeting on the Idaho State University campus. They will then have 60 days to make a decision regarding the appeal. But the Board could call a special meeting before that and announce its decision, State Board chief planning and policy officer Tracie Bent said.”