Category Archives: Private Schools

My mom really doesn’t have much tolerance for the “But everybody’s doing it” excuse. I’m hoping she makes an exception for this posting. What am I talking about? Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (who, today, I might add, signed into law “the nation’s largest voucher program”…. HIP, HIP, HOORAH!) gave a big education reform speech at D.C.’s American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Not surprisingly, AEI’s education guru Rick Hess had some good things to say about the “uber-wonk” Daniels’ speech. Matthew Ladner posted the full 51-minute speech on Jay Greene’s blog with the telling observation: “Indiana 2011 stands as the best reform session since Florida 1999 in my book.” Meanwhile, for those who don’t have time for the whole speech, RedefinED’s Adam Emerson has posted a key 90-second clip:

Today is an important day for families interested in Douglas County School District (DCSD)’s brand new, groundbreaking Choice Scholarship Program. Student applications are now available. Completed forms — available either online or as a hard copy to download and print — will be accepted up through next Thursday, May 12, at 5 PM. Events are moving rather quickly, as the district prepares to have up to 500 funded slots available for students to attend one of 31 (potential) partner private schools in 2011-12. Students must be Douglas County residents and currently attend a DCSD school since at least last August. If more than 500 eligible students apply, the district will hold a lottery on Monday, May 16, and inform winners of the $4,575 choice scholarships by the end of that week. Initially, it looked like there were either 27 or 28 private schools that had applied to be partners in the program. The updated final list of applicants shows 31 schools, including 8 non-religious schools. In any case, it’s encouraging to see such broad interest from schools seeking to participate in the program.

Just to be clear up front, I’m not necessarily implying any sort of superiority from the Hoosier State. Not at all. It’s far more about having a little Friday fun with puns. After all, it’s fun to revel in the news from the Foundation for Educational Choice: The Indiana Senate today passed legislation that would create the nation’s broadest school voucher program, allowing low- and middle-income families to use taxpayer funds to send their children to the private school of their choice. House Bill 1003, which was approved by the Senate in a 28-22 vote, would create a new scholarship program enabling families to send their children to the private school of their choice. Scholarship amounts are determined on a sliding scale based on income, with families receiving up to 90 percent of state support. Having the full support of Governor Mitch Daniels and now having passed both houses, the voucher program is sure to become law in Indiana. But HB 1003 has to return to the House first to iron out details. The Foundation explains that the Senate added a “$1,000 tax deduction for private and homeschool expenses” available to all families regardless of income. If that piece survives […]

Update, 12:30 PM: The Denver Post says it’s 27 schools, not 28 — as stated on the Douglas County web page linked below. Looks like 27 is the correct number, if you count multiple campuses of Denver Christian and the Denver Street School as one school each. The Post also says 8 of the schools are non-religious, whereas I only count 7. I’m willing to be corrected on the matter, though. A couple weeks ago I reminded readers that there would be many interesting angles to follow as the Douglas County pilot voucher program rolls out. Well, here’s some good news: According to the district website, an assortment of 28 different non-public schools have applied as potential partners. Looking over the list, it represents a diversity of private educational options interested in accepting some of the 500 publicly-funded Douglas County choice scholarship students for the 2011-12 school year. Yes, there are the variety of expected Christian schools and Catholic schools, some of which have special focuses on targeting at-risk students. There is also a Jewish school (Hillel Academy) and seven non-religious schools by my count. Included among the latter are schools that focus on educating gifted students (Mackintosh Academy) or […]

So I hear the federal government came really close to shutting down this past weekend. Bigger people than me can tell you whether the last-minute deal to avert a shutdown was in total a good deal or not. But I do know one aspect of the deal that is definitely praiseworthy: namely, that the SOAR Act reauthorizing and expanding the D.C. school voucher program was adopted. How happy do you think I am? Bet you can only imagine. But giving myself an opportunity to restrain my childish exuberance, here is a roundup of encouraging, uplifting, and insightful reactions: The Eduwonk unpacks some of the politics and says to pay attention to how the program’s infrastructure is reassembled to serve student’s needs during the implementation process… Paul Peterson, writing at Education Next, reminds us that the political victory was made possible by the high-quality research in Patrick Wolf’s official evaluation of the D.C. voucher program — causing me to nod in approval… Lindsey Burke from the Heritage Foundation makes me smile, saying the adoption of the SOAR Act represents “a monumental win”… When Flypaper’s Chris Tessone calls it “a big win for school choice and all kids in DC,” I squirm […]

Matthew Ladner is right when he says: “This has been quite the week for parental choice in Arizona.” Of course, as my GoBash blogging friend noted, on Monday a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upheld the state’s private school tax credit program — an important precedent. But Ladner’s statement comes from a posting primarily about an innovative proposal making its way through The Grand Canyon State’s legislature: Yesterday the Arizona Senate gave the final passage for SB 1553, Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, the nation’s first system of public contributions to education savings accounts as a choice mechanism, 21 to 7. Designed to replace Arizona’s special needs voucher program lost to our Blaine amendment, the ESA program will allow the parents of a child with a disability to withdraw their child from a public district or charter school, and receive a payment into an education savings account with restricted but multiple uses. Parents can then use their funds to pay for private school tuition, virtual education programs, private tutoring or saving for future college expenses. Could it really be “the way of the future” for school choice? If so, the future may be now. I have to give more thought to […]

Maybe it’s a little hometown Colorado bias at work here, but in my mind Douglas County vouchers is the education story of the year. I hope you didn’t think the story was essentially over once the Board adopted the program a few weeks ago. Because it’s not. Now that the official policy for the pilot scholarship program has been posted online for your careful review, there are at least four angles to keep an eye on moving forward:

Baseball season’s Opening Day means it’s not only time to start rooting for my Colorado Rockies. It’s also a great opportunity to introduce you to a relatively new baseball-themed website created by the Center for Education Reform, The Media Bullpen: The Media Bullpen is a dynamic, virtual newsroom that covers the news and the news of education. It’s a sophisticated and unique technological environment that allows everyone to get in the game on the greatest discussions of our day. To understand those discussions, we need great information and reporting on all the issues relating to education—all the time. Each day nearly 500 stories—and sometimes many more—are produced in the media about education, but they often lack the context for the public to get engaged. The Bullpen will empower the public to put in context what they see and hear. The problem is not that education is under-reported; the larger issue is that all too often, it is misreported. Balance, context, sound data, and an institutional knowledge of the many issues are often missing. What I like about the site is how they rate the stories — anywhere from a strikeout to a home run based on “objectivity, proper context” and […]

For those in the know, this report is hardly a jaw-dropping, breathtaking surprise. But it’s good to see the updated information compiled in one place. Thanks to Greg Forster and the Foundation for Educational Choice, we now have the newly-released report A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on School Vouchers, which brings together the 27 studies “using the best available scientific methods” to show: that vouchers improve outcomes for both participants and public schools. Let’s break that down a little bit. Of 10 empirical studies measuring the effects U.S. voucher programs (e.g., Milwaukee, Cleveland, D.C., Florida) have on the learning of student participants: 60 percent found all groups of students benefit 30 percent found some groups of students benefit 10 percent found no measurable impact either way 0 (ZERO) percent found negative impacts on students

A random Monday posting… First of all, let me clarify that this post has nothing to do with old Star Trek movies or even older Mongol hordes. If you are interested at all in the future of education but haven’t heard of Khan Academy yet, now is the time to start getting up to speed. Khan gives every indication of being at the forefront of entrepreneurial education transformation. And you might even want to be aware of the free learning opportunities the Academy offers now! Today, Joanne Jacobs points to a California news story about Egan Junior High successfully using Khan’s online learning tools in the classroom: