Tag Archives: School Choice

Another day at the state legislature, more setbacks for school choice. I’m back from school, have my homework done, so I wanted to share this quick update. Dead on arrival? Yes, that would be a proposal by state senator Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, to create a modest pilot property tax credit for families who take their child out of public school and enroll him in a private school or homeschool program. The Democrat-controlled State Affairs Committee terminated Senate Bill 221 (PDF) on a party-line vote. In other news, the state house shot down an attempt to restore cuts in public charter school facilities funding. A double-whammy against school choice opportunities, and it’s only Monday….

Yesterday morning, my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow took to the airwaves for a quick interview on Colorado’s Morning News (850 KOA). He talked about the awful federal “stimulus” bill, the need for online financial transparency, and gave a shout-out to parent-friendly school choice reforms. I was too busy getting out of bed and getting ready for school to hear it for myself, so I was glad to get a copy we all can go back and listen to: Right on! Now is the time for commonsense reforms that empower parents and taxpayers, not federal boondoggles that subsidize more of the same.

So I’ve already written once today, but I just had to let you know about this Education News Colorado blog post. Why? Because not only does the author Karin Piper give a great argument for school choice, she does so by talking about ice cream. What do I mean? Here’s a little sample, or scoop if you will, to whet your appetite: A great ice-cream parlor caters to the varied needs of its ranging customers with equal appreciation, just like a sound school district is inclusive of the needs of all its students. Have you ever been paying for your treat and had some guy hiss at you that your chocolate ice-cream purchase is hurting the sales of strawberry custard? Has someone told you they think less of you for not preferring their favorite ice-cream? I am going to guess no. So why do some criticize other families for attending different kind of school than theirs? Should we expect parents to sacrifice the schooling choice best suited for their kid, because one type of education should be fine for all? If we flooded all the kids into one type of public school, what are we really accommodating- the kids’ varied […]

Over on Jay Greene’s blog, Dr. Greg Forster has a valuable update for those of us who want a handy place to go to answer all those objections to school choice: …the Friedman Foundation has released a set of “myth buster” guides to the research on the six most common school choice myths. For each myth they’ve provided a brief, handy reference sheet and a slightly longer, more detailed guide to the research. Even the detailed version of each myth buster is still less technical than the other lists on my “meta-list” page, compiled by Jay and other scholars, but it does go over the most important technical issues (how do we distinguish the impact of vouchers from the impact of other factors like family influence?) and provides the references you’ll need to dig further if you wish. Mythbusters, eh? I hear there was a movie made a long time before I was born. Seems it had this memorable song. I think we could rewrite some of the lyrics to fit the topic at hand: If you’re stuck at school in your neighborhood Who you gonna call? – Mythbusters! If the unions say school choice is no good Who you […]

I just wanted to leave you with a quick reading assignment before the weekend comes. Writing over at National Review, Dan Lips from the Heritage Foundation says conservatives can’t give up on fighting for school choice but also need to focus their agenda broadly on a range of effective changes to the education system: First, principled support for aggressive reforms like vouchers has cleared a space for the types of reform policies that leaders like [Washington DC schools chancellor Michelle] Rhee are advocating. And, second, when it comes to systemic reform, conservatives have a broad agenda of policies that strengthen public education — and the results to prove it. Education reformers from across the political spectrum should give thanks to those who have spent decades promoting school choice. These efforts have yielded only modest (but increasing) enactment of voucher programs. But they have created political breathing room for less aggressive reforms — such as public school choice and teacher merit pay. Fordham’s Eric Osberg praises Dan’s article, adding: Of course we’ve said for years that choice and accountability go hand-in-hand, but also that such reforms to the structure of schooling have to be accompanied by changes in how schools and […]

The best education read of the Thanksgiving week goes to the Hoover Institution’s Terry Moe, writing in the Wall Street Journal: Democrats are fervent supporters of public education, and the party genuinely wants to help disadvantaged kids stuck in bad schools. But it resists bold action. It is immobilized. Impotent. The explanation lies in its longstanding alliance with the teachers’ unions — which, with more than three million members, tons of money and legions of activists, are among the most powerful groups in American politics. The Democrats benefit enormously from all this firepower, and they know what they need to do to keep it. They need to stay inside the box. And they have done just that. Democrats favor educational “change” — as long as it doesn’t affect anyone’s job, reallocate resources, or otherwise threaten the occupational interests of the adults running the system. Most changes of real consequence are therefore off the table. The party specializes instead in proposals that involve spending more money and hiring more teachers — such as reductions in class size, across-the-board raises and huge new programs like universal preschool. These efforts probably have some benefits for kids. But they come at an exorbitant price, […]

Okay, so the last time I told you Joe Williams from Democrats for Education Reform was about to appear on the Independent Thinking television program, it turned out to be a false alarm. Schedules change. Those things are beyond my control. But now I’ve been promised that this time it’s going to happen for sure. If you’re in the Denver area, you’ll want to tune in to KBDI Channel 12 this Friday, November 21, at 8:30 PM, or next Tuesday, November 25, at 5:00 PM, to watch Joe Williams and our own Pam Benigno discuss the movement to reform education in the Democratic Party and how it might play out here in Colorado. Set your VCR or TiVo, if you must, but please don’t miss it! (By the way, here’s a link to the hour-long video of the provocative discussion led by Joe Williams at our Independence Institute offices a couple months ago.) Colorado is the home of the first state chapter of Democrats for Education Reform. And after all, as our own Ben DeGrow pointed out a few days ago in the Denver Post, there is hope for more positive change in the area of school choice and other […]

The Rocky Mountain News today reports on jubilation from some Colorado charter school quarters at the promise of a Barack Obama presidency: So last week, when America elected a president who promises to double federal funding for charter schools, KIPP Denver founder Richard Barrett was among the area educators hoping Barack Obama will follow through on his plan for public education. “We’ve made no excuse about it. We just deal with it,” Barrett said of the school’s facility issues. “But when are we going to have equity for our kids? “If Obama’s plan would help that process, more power to it,” he added. “Fantastic.” No doubt charter school supporters in Colorado and elsewhere would be “buzzing” about the potential of more federal funding to alleviate problems in facilities and other areas caused by unequal state funding. I would be glad to see the new President-elect demonstrate that he’s a true friend to charter schools, but there are limits to his backing of school choice: But if Obama is willing to step across some boundaries, there are others he is not. [Michael] Johnston, his education adviser, said that includes vouchers. This news is, of course, not surprising to anyone who followed […]

I know, I know. Yesterday there was this big election, and some things happened that will have an impact on education reform in Colorado. I’m going to let you know more about that a little later. For now, regardless of winners and losers at the ballot box, there are real threats to face – like school officials who won’t give up on using the courts to wrest control and choice from parents: The Charter School Act was passed by the then-Republican controlled General Assembly in 2004 to meet a growing demand for charter schools statewide. The legislation established the Charter School Institute, which provides oversight and funding to state charter schools. Over the last four years, the Boulder Valley School District has consistently tried to tear down the law by challenging its constitutionality. The district says the law takes away its constitutional right to govern schools operating within its boundaries. Provisions in the state constitution allow school districts local control on education policy. This particular complaint was first heard in district court with two other similar cases brought forth by Adams County School District 50 and the Poudre School District. However, when all three complaints were shot down in December […]

In the spirit of the day, I looked for something scary in education to tell you about. But instead of that, I wanted to let you know about an exciting new national group that has formed: This week a committed group of parents from around the United States officially launched the National Coalition for Public School Options (NCPSO) to support and defend public school options in their states and throughout the country. The group was officially launched during the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) Virtual School Symposium. “As parents, we want the best possible education for our children,” said Lori Cooney NCPSO president and parent of online public school students in Colorado. “Our founding board believes parents everywhere should have more public school options available to them, and we will help give those parents a voice in their state capitals and in our nation’s capital.” Cooney joined two other parents to help form the organization: Briana LeClaire from Idaho and Christine Beard from Ohio, both fellow parents whose children are enrolled in online public schools. The Coalition supports the creation of public school options, including charter schools, online schools, magnet schools, open enrollment policies and other innovative education […]