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Congress appears likely to keep the D.C. voucher program closed to new students but open to current ones, curtailing the hopes of advocates who had pressed for a full revival of the controversial program. The news is buried deep within a thousand-page omnibus spending bill released Monday by a joint conference of House and Senate Appropriations Committee members. The proposal allocates $13.2 million to vouchers and would tighten accountability measures for schools that participate in the program, which provides low-income D.C. students with up to $7,500 to attend private schools. Bringing further upheaval to the program, the Washington Scholarship Fund,...

Education: Barack Obama's choice for education secretary tried to run Chicago schools like a business. As with most monopolies without competition, the result was an inferior product at high cost.Arne Duncan, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools since 2001, has garnered much praise for his efforts to improve them. But his efforts have largely amounted to pouring new wine into old bottles with little to show for them. Duncan holds a degree in sociology, not education. He supports higher teacher pay and more training but has done little to loosen the teachers' unions' grip on education. Like the UAW, these...

I'm willing to countenance the possibility that Barack Obama genuinely believes that the DC voucher program is not helping the students who participate. Here's what I don't understand though: how come the Obama girls benefit from leaving the DC public school system? Surely, if it doesn't make any difference, the Obama girls would do just as well in ordinary, democratic, thoroughly American public schools as in an elitist Quaker institution. Wouldn't it bring wonderful diversity to both the school, and the Obama daughters, to have the children of the president rubbing shoulders with the children of the district's more ordinary...

Supporters of a celebrated school voucher program in Washington rallied near the mayor's office Wednesday to save the scholarships from being slashed by Congress -- nearly 40 percent of whose members send their own children to private schools. An estimated 1,000 parents, children and community leaders attended the afternoon protest in Washington's Freedom Plaza, where they called on D.C. politicians to help preserve a federal school choice program that currently assists more than 1,700 students with scholarships worth up to $7,500. "Several years ago many of us in this good city worked very hard to get a program going with...

We have learned a few things from this presidential campaign season and Barack Obama's first 100 days in office.  First, and to our untold horror, we have discovered that Barack Obama can in fact successfully hide who he is and his vision for our country.  Prior to the election, any person of good judgment could readily understand who this man was and where he would likely take this country.  The signs were all there.  Now in power, he enacts his socialist policies in plain sight with little concern that the American public will strenuously object.  So why is it that...

The Obama administration is making it easier than usual to mine the depths of liberal cruelty. For all of their endless jactitations of compassion for the less fortunate, the current crop of liberals in charge wasted no time setting about to destroy the futures of disadvantaged minority schoolchildren in Washington, DC.

Barack and Michelle Obama are poised to commit a classic act of limousine-liberal hypocrisy -- in this case, turning their backs on tens of thousands of inner-city kids in Washington, D.C. Public schools, it seems, are good enough for poor and middle-class families, but not for rich families like the Obamas. In July, when he addressed the NAACP's annual convention, Sen. Barack Obama expressed his devotion to American public schools, vowing he would not "walk away from them" by supporting school-choice programs like Sen. John McCain did. "What he's offering amounts to little more than the same tired rhetoric about...

When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he notably dissented from liberal orthodoxy on welfare and the death penalty. Many observers have been wondering if Barack Obama will follow Clinton's example. They frequently raise school choice as a cause Obama could take up to show his independence from Democratic interest groups. It doesn't look as if that's going to happen, as ABC News's Jake Tapper reports: On the same day that he was extolling the need to shake up the "status quo" in education, Obama also defended his opposition to school vouchers. "We don't have enough slots for every...

4) The amount of busy work given to our students is shocking Over the years, I've tutored several dozen high school students. Nearly all of these students struggled with effectively dealing with the amount of work they were expected to complete every night. This tremendous amount of scholastic vapidness dumped upon America's youth every night is destroying their reasoning abilities. After all, how can they learn to properly access what's important in their own lives, if their teachers are willingly blurring the line between trite and terrific? It's plainly clear in my experience that the current public school curriculum is...

Some critics have complained that the issue of education has been conspicuously absent from presidential television debates. But the Democratic candidates did sound off about their pro-federal-government, pro-spending policies when addressing the annual convention of the National Education Association, and the nation's largest teachers union liked what they heard. Senator Hillary Clinton told the NEA delegates that she will fight school vouchers "with every breath in my body." Reiterating the message of her book It Takes a Village, she called for universal preschool for four-year-olds. Senator Barack Obama likewise inveighed against "passing out vouchers." Former Senator John Edwards also announced...

In a society filled with the choice of an infinite number of colored, carbonated or uncarbonated sugar water drinks, an uncountable number of automobile models designed to fit every conceivable taste or price range, or even a range of crayon colors or wall covering choices beyond imagination we confront the monolith known as PUBLIC EDUCATION. Here the choice is not “our way or the highway” it is just “our way”!

Parents who fail to toe the line set by the combination of government schools and union educators deserve a "special place in hell," according to a Colorado state lawmaker.

Stephan Goyne entered teaching as a "fight the good fight" kind of guy, taking a job in East Oakland right out of college. "I come from a family of teachers. It wasn't even a question of whether to do that," Goyne said. "The question was whether to do elementary, middle or high school." But after six years in the trenches -- transferred from campus to campus, forbidden from organizing field trips and ordered to teach math only after lunch -- Goyne left the profession. Now he works in real estate and runs a Brazilian jiujitsu studio in Oakland. "That last...

PARENTS of school-aged children can be forgiven for feeling punch-drunk after a week of big talk but little action towards making Australia's education system the best it can be. Parents really need only understand the following: first, they are no closer to getting a clear idea of how individual schools perform to enable an informed choice; second, education unions remain obsessed with class-war politics; third, the Labor state governments, held hostage by the education unions, refuse to entertain federal Education Minister Julie Bishop's plan that teachers be paid for performance rather than length of service; and finally, the best that...

Dear prospective congressman or incumbent representative having poll troubles, If you are reading this, it is because your campaign sorely lacks good policy ideas, and the public and/or your constituency is starting to take notice. Even your political opponent is likely noticing, but the fact that he has no good ideas himself is no solace for you. (Perhaps your television ads tarring him as a terrorist sympathizer aren't quite working out as planned.) So you are coming to PI for the advice to actually win over the public with a brilliant and fresh campaign platform. Good news, squire, you came...

5. Both assume one solution for every individual. US justice policy incorrectly assumes that incarceration will solve many social problems, such as drugs, prostitution, gambling, etc. The US Department of Education assumes that federal and/or state government standards should apply to every student. Both are incorrect assumptions. Nonviolent and white-collar offenders should be rehabilitated; parents and kids should have choice and options in education. One size does not fit all. 6. Both are unnecessarily expensive to taxpayers. Because politicians generally fear comprehensive solutions to problems, they end up throwing money at whatever doesn't work right. This is true to disastrous...

Utah's new program, scheduled to begin in the fall of 2007, will be by far the most expansive school choice program in the nation. On Monday, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr., signed into law the "Parent Choice in Education" Act (H.B. 148).[1] The legislation, which was sponsored by Rep. Stephen H. Urquhart (R-St. George) and Sen. Curtis S. Bramble (R-Provo), creates a sweeping school voucher program that puts Utah on track to offer all children a scholarship to attend the school of their parents' choice. By enacting the "Parent Choice in Education" Act, Utah has created the most comprehensive school...

Today, the school choice movement could take a giant step forward. At 11 am MST, the Utah House will begin debating what could become the nation’s first universal school choice program – the type of program that Milton Friedman wrote about in 1955 and pursued tirelessly for over 50 years. You should be able to listen to a live audio broadcast of the hearing at http://www.le.state.ut.us The program would allow every child, even children currently enrolled in private schools, to be eligible for a school voucher worth between $500 and $3,000 depending on the family’s annual income.

Take a deep breath. Now exhale. Does that make you feel like you deserve a raise? If so, you understand the concept of the so-called "breathing bonus." And you also understand one of the main reasons New Jersey has the most expensive public school system of any state. One of the few useful results to come out of those legislative committees on property tax reform was an admission of just how costly it is to put a kid through New Jersey's public schools: $16,000 a year. That figure was included in the report of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public...

In 1955, economist Milton Friedman proposed changing the funding of American schools to provide parents with “a sum equal to the estimated cost of educating a child in a government school, provided that at least this sum was spent on education in an approved school. ... The interjection of competition would do much to promote a healthy variety of schools. It would do much, also, to introduce flexibility into school systems.” What is the legacy of this “father of school vouchers,” who passed away on Nov. 16? States have found innovative ways to embrace Friedman’s 50-year-old idea. Among the programs...

by Mark Finkelstein August 29, 2006 - 07:23 A New York Times editorial and an op-ed piece by one of its house columnists have something interesting in common this morning: stamp-your-feet frustration with the way the world is and an inability to suggest what should be done about it. In The Falling Paycheck, the Times editorial board complains that real wages aren't keeping up with the economy's continued expansion. "American employees have not shared in the wealth they’ve helped to create," laments the Old Gray Lady. Sure sounds as if the Times subscribes to the 'surplus value' theory of labor....

School vouchers allow individual families, rather than to school districts, to select the public or private schools of their choice and have all or part of the tuition paid. They have recently become a 'hot button' issue in many local elections. Some of the common misconceptions regarding school vouchers are addressed in this article.

Congressional Republicans on Tuesday proposed a $100 million plan to let poor children leave struggling schools ...

The Arizona State Legislature adjourned Wednesday, June 21 on matters surrounding the state budget, after numerous negotiating sessions between Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano and leaders of the nominally Republican Legislature. Among the agreements made during the 164-day session was a $5-million budget for new school voucher programs that enable disabled and foster-care children to attend private schools with tax money. Napolitano conceded to the Republicans’ voucher agenda in order to win their accord on some of her other educational priorities, including the all-day kindergarten bill. In this bill Napolitano insisted that all-day kindergarten be extended throughout the state, which would...

Coastal Orange County, California, is an instructive example of what obscene local wealth can do for the local flora and fauna. Despite the socialist myth that wealth breeds environmental destruction, the area offers myriad parks, open land and other beautifully-protected areas. Why is this? Aren't capitalists the ones who are plundering God's Green Earth and ruthlessly paving over bunny rabbits?

State Senate Democrats, angry that chamber President Tom Lee pulled a parliamentary move to resurrect a school-voucher proposal that had died a day earlier, responded with a maneuver of their own this morning: Insisting that each bill be read in its mind-numbing entirety, bringing the chamber to a near standstill. Assuming it lasts all day, the bill-reading decision could mean high-profile legislation might die without a vote when the 60-day lawmaking session ends Friday. Among the bills: insurance fixes, hurricane response and preparation, and a plan to give inmates access to DNA tests to prove their innocence. A monstrous time-killer...

The fate of a seven-year-old private-school voucher program could be decided this morning in the Florida Senate. The chamber is scheduled to vote on whether to send to the November ballot a far-reaching constitutional amendment that would authorize vouchers and make them immune to any further legal challenges. The vote is expected to be close and comes just three days after a group of moderate Republicans joined with Democrats to kill a plan to ease class-size restrictions. In January, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the state's opportunity scholarship program, the centerpiece of Gov. Jeb Bush's ''A+ Plan,'' violated the...

Every now and then, Hillary Clinton lifts the curtain and gives the world a peek at her real views. It's not pretty. New York's junior senator spoke this week to the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp., raising the issue of tax-funded school vouchers — which many reformers see as a key tool, one that gives parents immediate alternatives to public schools that are failing to educate their kids. Now, vouchers face a major obstacle in New York: The state constitution's Blaine Amendment arguably bans sending public funds to parochial schools. Then there' the implacable opposition to vouchers of the...

Here's Hillary Clinton going bananas over school vouchers, via FNC's Hannity and Colmes: Download and watch the video (Windows Media file). Hillary screeches that providing inner-city and poor students with more choice in education will lead to a a "school of the Church of the White Supremacist " and a "School of the Jihad." Transcript: CLINTON: Suppose that you were meeting today to decide who got the vouchers. First parent comes and says 'I want to send my daughter to St. Peter's Roman Catholic School' and you say 'Great, wonderful school, here's your voucher. Next parent who comes says, 'I...

Clinton raps vouchers BY GLENN THRUSH WASHINGTON BUREAU February 22, 2006 Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton slammed private-school voucher proposals yesterday, predicting that vouchers would eventually lead to the creation of taxpayer-financed white supremacist academies - or even a government-funded "School of the Jihad." Clinton, a longtime voucher foe who earned the backing of the city teachers union in 2000, says government financing of sectarian groups would incite ethnic and religious conflict - and encourage fringe groups to demand government cash to run their schools. President George W. Bush has long favored laws that require states to provide vouchers, a position...

Queens mom tells why she's suing state to get her children a private school education The future of my children is the most important thing to me, and my priority is securing for them a good education. But I can't get that in this city. And I don't have time to wait. So, I filed a lawsuit against New York State seeking $13,000 for each of my children so I can send them to private school. I am most worried about my two youngest children. Rayshawn, who is 11, is in the fifth grade and is struggling at his school....

The New York City teachers union has decided not to stage a demonstration at ABC's offices on Feb. 14 to protest John Stossel's recent 20/20 feature criticizing the public education system, Stossel said in an email to viewers of the show on Thursday. "They are apparently planning something else," he wrote. "Stay tuned." Earlier in the week, Stossel said that he had been scheduled to receive an award from the union's Social Studies Conference "for the oustanding work which you have done for social causes." However, he said, after the broadcast the union wrote a letter withdrawing the invitation and...

$10 million spent annually by district for classroom subs... Driven by parental concerns about teacher absenteeism, the Chicago Public Schools for the first time will start scrutinizing schools with high numbers of teachers taking sick days. On any given school day in Chicago, an average of 1,500 teachers, about 6 percent of the teaching staff, call in sick or take a personal day, according to a Tribune analysis of teacher payroll records. The absentee rate is highest on Fridays, when an average of 1,800 teachers don't show... For each of the last six school years, Chicago teachers missed an average...

San Francisco seems an unlikely home for the man who in 1962 first proposed the privatization of Social Security. Asked why he dwells in liberalism's den, Milton Friedman, 92, the Nobel laureate economist and father of modern conservatism, didn't skip a beat. "Not much competition here," he quipped. Friedman is considered perhaps the most influential economist... It was Friedman who in 1962, with the publication of "Capitalism and Freedom," first proposed the abolition of Social Security, not because it was going bankrupt, but because he considered it immoral. Friedman calls Social Security, created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, a...

TALLAHASSEE -- In his eighth and final year as the state's chief executive, Jeb Bush is back where he began -- trying to cement his claim to being Florida's "education governor." When the state Supreme Court earlier this month struck down his private-school voucher program, it left Bush and Republican leaders scrambling not only to rescue the program but to preserve the governor's legacy. After a series of closed-door huddles during the past week involving lawmakers and, separately, the governor and his advisers, what's emerging as a likely solution is a plan to ask Florida voters in November to change...

In what could be the first big legislative test for New Jersey's school voucher supporters, a pair of bills was filed that would provide privately funded scholarships for 4,000 children in four cities to attend schools of their choice. The proposed Urban Schools Scholarship Act would create pilot programs in Newark, Orange, Camden and Trenton where low-income children could tap scholarships of up to $9,000 to attend private schools or public schools outside their district, backers say. They would be funded entirely by corporate contributions that, under the new bills, would in turn qualify for state tax credits of up...

50 Years of an Idea 2005 marks the 50th anniversary of Milton Friedman's first articulation of an old idea of liberty in a new way, thus launching the modern school choice movement. Join the Foundation in celebrating this occasion at our second gala dinner in Los Angeles: An Evening with Milton and Rose Friedman with Special Guest Arnold Schwarzenegger Date: Monday, December 5, 2005 Time: 6:30 pm Reception 7:30 pm Dinner Location: The Regent Beverly Wilshire 9500 Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills, CA 90212 Attire: Business

My daughter needs some good arguments to counter propaganda against school vouchers. She is an elementary education major at St. Francis University and is writing an essay on her chosen topic of school choice.

Dear Colleague, That exemplary Catholic politician, the one who supports unfettered access to abortion and other enormities, is now blocking federal aid to New Orleans students who want to attend private schools on an emergency basis. Good man, Ted, good man. Spread the word. Yours sincerely, Austin Ruse President Kennedy Leads Congressional Discrimination Against Private Schools in Katrina Relief     One of the Senate's best known Catholics has worked to reject a proposal by President Bush that would have given families displaced by Hurricane Katrina financial aid to send their children to private or parochial schools. A bipartisan student relief...

There is a second rescue urgently needed in the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and one that is long overdue: saving New Orleans school kids from their broken public-school system. The tragedy of the storm provides America with a golden opportunity, and the answer lies in the tens of billions of dollars of federal emergency spending. Let's create emergency school-choice vouchers for the children displaced by Katrina. The New Orleans public-school system has been failing its kids for years. Fully 73 of its more than 120 schools are considered to be "failing" according to the state's educational accountability standards. On...

A Bush nominee to the Supreme Court may be probed about whether he or she would overturn earlier high-court rulings. Whomever President Bush nominates to fill Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the US Supreme Court will inherit enormous power immediately upon confirmation. It is the power to assume Justice O'Connor's role of breaking deadlocks in major cases. But perhaps more important, it includes the raw judicial power to overturn many of O'Connor's decisions, should four other like-minded justices agree to take up the task. With high-court opinions on affirmative action, school vouchers, states' rights, and so-called "partial birth" abortion hanging...

Ohio is more than tripling the size of its school voucher program, making it the nation's largest since the practice of using public money for private school tuition was found constitutional three years ago. The tuition aid, which has been available only in Cleveland since 1996, will allow up to 14,000 additional students statewide to leave schools that persistently fail academic tests and move to private schools, beginning in the fall of 2006. "This is a commitment that needed to be made, providing Ohio parents and children with more choices in education," said Karen Tabor, spokeswoman for House Speaker Jon...

Ohio Gov. signs budget creating statewide school voucher program In the 50th year since the school voucher’s introduction, school choice shows remarkable momentum INDIANAPOLIS – In the 50th anniversary year of when Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman introduced the school voucher idea, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft signed the state’s budget bill implementing one of the country’s largest statewide school voucher plans. The bill also expands the state’s two current programs providing thousands of children the chance to receive a quality education at a school of their parent’s choice. “Ohio is moving to the forefront in giving families greater educational freedom,”...

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT Free to ChooseAfter 50 years, education vouchers are beginning to catch on.BY MILTON FRIEDMANThursday, June 9, 2005 12:01 a.m.Little did I know when I published an article in 1955 on "The Role of Government in Education" that it would lead to my becoming an activist for a major reform in the organization of schooling, and indeed that my wife and I would be led to establish a foundation to promote parental choice. The original article was not a reaction to a perceived deficiency in schooling. The quality of schooling in the United States then was far better...

Doyle vetoes voter ID, school voucher bills Associated Press MADISON, Wis. - Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a plan to require voters to show government-issued photo identification, saying Friday the requirement would disenfranchise poor and elderly voters who lack IDs. The governor's veto came three days after Republicans hand-delivered the bill to Doyle's office as they urged him to sign a law they said would improve the integrity of Wisconsin elections. Doyle, a Democrat, said there were better ways to clean up Wisconsin's electoral system than a bill that would have driven away thousands of potential voters. "While requiring a Voter...

AUSTIN — A series of bills expanding the use of vouchers would cost public schools more than $2.2 billion over the next two years, according to a coalition of educators, trustees and administrators opposed to vouchers. The coalition said at a Monday news conference that none of the voucher proposals in the House offers parents a better alternative for their children's education, despite what the voucher backers say. The controversy behind the use of school vouchers pits religious groups and home-school proponents against the state's educational establishment, which argues that already under-funded public schools can't afford to have taxpayer dollars...

More than 70 percent of Bexar County Hispanic voters surveyed in a recent poll favor a pilot school choice program that would allow students to transfer to private schools using taxpayer-funded vouchers. Voucher supporters say the poll results are a battle cry from frustrated parents to legislators that they want more options when it comes to their children's education. Voucher opponents say the survey, conducted by a pro-voucher group partially funded by the U.S. Education Department, contained vague and misleading questions and doesn't reflect the true opinions of Bexar County parents. The poll targeted about 1,000 Hispanics in Bexar, Dallas,...

More than 70 percent of Bexar County Hispanic voters surveyed in a recent poll favor a pilot school choice program that would allow students to transfer to private schools using taxpayer-funded vouchers. Voucher supporters say the poll results are a battle cry from frustrated parents to legislators that they want more options when it comes to their children's education. Voucher opponents say the survey, conducted by a pro-voucher group partially funded by the U.S. Education Department, contained vague and misleading questions and doesn't reflect the true opinions of Bexar County parents. The poll targeted about 1,000 Hispanics in Bexar, Dallas,...

The disciples of the Left have abandoned some of their more enthusiastic calls to action in recent years (“workers of the world unite” just isn’t turning out the big crowds anymore). But whenever they need an excuse to assault American society, both then and now, there is still a handy phrase that always helps advance their goals: “social justice.” Take Julian Bond, for example. Two years ago, the Chairman of the NAACP roused the organization’s membership by stating: “We are a force to be reckoned with: well-educated, well-informed and strongly committed to social justice. And we vote.” That’s fine, but...

Tonight, John Kerry and George Bush will share the stage in the first Presidential debate of the 2004 election season at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. A few interesting facts about said South Miami suburb, to perhaps expand your cultural horizons and maybe, just maybe, make you feel as if you are actually wearing 3-d glasses while watching (if indeed you plan to watch). The city is 91.83% White and 46.44% Hispanic or Latino The median income for families is