Give President Obama credit for one thing: We may look back years from now and credit his Race to the Top fund for launching the beginning of the end of teacher tenure. Colorado is on the verge of enacting a law that would dramatically weaken tenure. Money available from the fund was enticing enough to get the school board association, one of the teacher unions, […]
k-12 education
Online learning in Minnesota thrives
If you’re looking for a bright spot in K-12 education, check out an article in the current edition of the Minnesota Sun on the Minnesota Connections Academy, one of two dozen or so online options available to Minnesota students. The article mentions several families who benefit from online programs: A girl in Eagan who was failing classes, suffers from some learning deficiencies, is now on the honor […]
Minnesota teacher union sees recession as opportunity to weaken charter schools
President Obama made news last week for trumpeting charter schools. He called for states that have caps on the number of charter schools to lift them, arguing that placing a limit “isn’t good for our children,our economy or our country.” While the head of the Democratic Party was praising charter schools, some of his DFL counterparts in Saint Paul were trying to bury them. First […]
Public school children are “captured”
Large, bureaucratic organizations, especially government agencies, are well known for using words to shape public perceptions and obscure their own failures. (George Orwell’s “1984” was simply an extreme literary example.) I realized this truth again when I was reading one of the local newspapers published in Dakota County, Minnesota. Various editions of the newspaper “This Week” published an article that could have come straight from […]
Minnesota is #1 for charter schools
Here’s a #1 ranking that Minnesota can be proud of. According to an annual report card report card published by the Center for Education Reform, Minnesota has the strongest charter school laws of any state. That is, charter schools are more secure here, and have a better chance of having an effect on education than anywhere in any other state. Under the center’s framework, a strong […]
Educational Choice in Minnesota
Minnesota is among the leaders in school choice in the country, though that’s not saying much. Charter schools flourish, and the state has both a tax credit and a tax deduction program for education expenses. A new report from the House Research department describes the two different tax plans. Minnesota has both a tax credit and a tax deduction provision. A tax credit, of course, […]
The moral case for school choice
There are many reasons for enacting school choice. Improving educational achievement and saving money are two of the big ones. But Richard John Neuhaus points us to another one that doesn’t get as much play as it should: Enacting choice is the moral thing to do. He points to an earlier essay by John Coons, who writes: Shifting educational authority from government to parents is a […]
Are states grading themselves on the curve?
Since the latest issue of Education Next mentions how some states set low standards for schools, it’s time to bring up an article I wrote on the subject last year. Nothing much has changed since then. November 5, 2007 ‘No Child’ leading to grade laxity We all know about the old problem of “grade inflation.” Lately, when it comes to following the federal No Child […]
Does Educational Choice Threaten Community Stability?
Stumbling through the Internet one day, I came across an article I wrote some years ago. It was, I think, a version of something I wrote for the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy, an organization that now goes under the name of the Kansas Policy Institute. Regardless of the vintage of the piece, it’s still relevant. John LaPlante, TownHall.com, October 4, 2007 Does Educational Choice Threaten […]
Billions for teacher unions; What about taxpayers?
Are courts going out of the school budgeting business? Maybe, though I have my doubts. Back in October 2006, Sol Stern wrote about what happens when a politician, beholden to a teachers union, must then find a way to pay when the union’s demands threaten to impose significant burdens on the state. A group in New York sued the state for another $5 billion in school […]