Free Republic

Too often, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., is the typical opportunistic politician. But on a few issues, notably school vouchers and the war against Islamic extremists, he seems guided by principle rather than pragmatism. Sen. Lieberman this month helped block an attempt by teachers unions and their congressional servants to kill the Opportunity Scholarship Program in Washington, D.C. The program gives scholarships so 2,000 mostly low-income, minority students in the nation's worst public school system can attend private or parochial schools. A number of leading Democrats, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and past and present mayors of Washington, want the...

Eleanor Holmes Norton is hoping to save nearly 2,000 city students from the dreaded federal voucher program that allows them to attend well-functioning private schools in a safe and nurturing environment. Mrs. Norton vehemently opposes the voucher program because of its imposition on the District´s public schools, which, of course, perform at levels of bad and worse. Mrs. Norton and the like-minded in the Democrat-controlled Congress want to end the $18 million program because it works, is a big hit with the parents of disadvantaged students and provides low-income families with a choice. Some of the testimonials of the parents...

A landmark education program that provides opportunity to hundreds of families in the nation's capital to attend private schools is being opposed by Democrats in Congress. Barack Obama told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in February that he was open to voucher programs, but just last week announced his intentions to squash the DC pilot program. "Barack Obama prefers private education for his daughters but won't give DC parents the same opportunity," said Brian Burch, President of Fidelis, a Catholic-based political, legal, research and educational organization. "Vouchers are Change," he continued. "Rather than subjecting kids to rotting schools, vouchers have brought change...

"In January 2004, Congress passed the District of Columbia School Choice Incentive Act of 2003, the first federally funded school voucher program in the United States. Now known as the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, this initiative provides scholarships of up to $7,500 to more than 1,900 low-income students in the District. A recent U.S. Department of Education (DOE) evaluation of the program should provide policymakers with some encouragement, as the report demonstrates that the Opportunity Scholarship Program is having a positive impact on students and families alike.[1]" "The DOE evaluation reviews the first two years of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship...

Students in the D.C. school voucher program, the first federal initiative to spend taxpayer dollars on private school tuition, generally did no better on reading and math tests after two years than public school peers, a U.S. Education Department report said yesterday.The findings mirror those in previous studies of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program...

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...

WASHINGTON – Voters are demonstrating widespread dissatisfaction with public schools in a series of surveys. In the latest scientifically representative poll conducted by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice among Idaho voters, only 12 percent of parents said they would choose government school for their children if other options were available. The results were similar in other states, including Illinois, Nevada and Tennessee. The Indiana-based Friedman Foundation is using the surveys to gauge American attitudes toward school choice. In addition, the Idaho survey revealed only 4 percent of parents between the ages of 36 and 55 would use public schools...

Last week was tempestuous among defenders of the embattled school choice programs for disabled and foster children. Following an East Valley Tribune report and an article published here by Tim Keller of the Institute for Justice reporting that Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne had decided not to award vouchers next year, Horne responded with a memorandum provocatively entitled “Lies from the Goldwater Institute” denying that he had done so. The Arizona Republic weighed in for Horne, blasting Keller and the Goldwater Institute for assertions that were “insulting” and untrue. Horne and the Republic simply are wrong. Though the Court...

THE best schools in the world, it is generally agreed, are in Finland. In the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies, which compare 15-year-olds' reading, mathematics and science abilities in more than 50 countries, it routinely comes top. So politicians, academics, think-tankers and teachers from all over the world visit Finnish schools in the hope of discovering the magic ingredient. Journalists come too, and now it’s my turn. And since I'm coming this far north, I want to take in Sweden too. That social-democratic paradise has carried out school reforms that make free-market ideologues the world over weak...

Saving the best for last, Gov. Sonny Perdue “sealed his legacy as one of America’s foremost ‘education governors’ ” last week. That’s the view of Lori Drummer, director of state projects for the Washington-based Alliance for School Choice, the nation’s largest nonprofit promoting school vouchers and scholarship tax credit programs. “Georgia is now a national leader in a school choice movement that is gaining momentum,” she said. The reason for her exuberance? On the final day allotted to deal with legislation passed by this year’s General Assembly, Perdue signed a bill authored by State Rep. David Casas (R-Lilburn) that will...

I don’t think I have to restate here the evidence of the failures of our public school system. While it is true that an education system cannot deal with the disintegration of American society that is ongoing (again, ample evidence of this is all around us), it is also true that those low-income families that want a good education for their children have no place to go. After pouring more and more money into public school systems for 40-50 years with only further deterioration taking place, it is clear to those not feeding off the system that more money is...

The way to solve any problem is to analyze its causes and propose common sense solutions that don’t exacerbate it further. In this case, the educational crisis stems from three factors. First, many urban children are brought up without guidance and direction. Second, children have been raised to “do what feels good,” with a focus on instant gratification and without regard for what’s best long term (even if this was not the parents’ intent, children often learn by example). And last, the school system has stopped stimulating academic growth and fails to deal with the student’s specific needs. As a...

A Mother’s Wisdom: Congresswoman introduces nationwide foster care scholarship bill Dan Lips, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, February 13, 2008 As a foster mother to 23 children, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) appreciates the many challenges faced by foster children—and those who care for them. One big hurdle is education. “We quickly learned that our foster children had very different needs than most children,” Bachman has said. Most of the children in her care had special needs, were in therapy, and had other behavioral or learning issues. Judging by all outcome measures, foster children struggle in school compared to their peers. Foster...

Sweeping the Truth under the Rug: Disability and foster care scholarships in danger Goldwater Institute Daily Email February 12, 2008 Governor Janet Napolitano has very different ideas about education reform from my own, but I have had to confess a grudging respect for her. In 2006, she went down in history as the first Democrat governor to sign a new school voucher program into law. A few seconds later, she did it again, creating voucher programs for both students with disabilities and foster care children. Now, as a part of her budget proposals, the Governor’s office has proposed “sweeping” the...

AASA Statement on State of the Union Address January 29, 2008 Contact: Amy Vogt Communications and Media Relations Manager 703-875-0723 avogt@aasa.org ARLINGTON, Va. – The American Association of School Administrators, the professional organization for school superintendents and other school system leaders, today issued the following statement on President Bush’s State of the Union address: “In his State of the Union address last night, President Bush called on Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education law. Instead of rushing to renew a broken law with fatal flaws, we need to first engage in a thoughtful debate about what...

To the Rev. Reginald Jackson, head of the Black Ministers' Council, the remarkable success of the state's private preschools holds an obvious lesson. We need more school choice. We need to break the monopoly of the public school system. We need to build on this success by at least experimenting with vouchers in the K-12 system. "These preschools, 70 percent of which are privately owned, are providing a good foundation for these children," he says. "The only way we're going to know if it would make a difference in the later grades is by giving it a chance." That, of...

In a letter to National Review Online, Huckabee's Director of Research, Joe Carter, writes that "Governor Huckabee is a supporter of school vouchers, and has always been a supporter of school vouchers." Carter's claim contradicts many news reports: --As the Club pointed out in a December 13th press release, the Concord Monitor reports that the New Hampshire affiliate of the National Education Association endorsed Huckabee specifically because of his opposition to school vouchers. In fact, the affiliate's President, Rhonda Wesolowski, released the following statement about the NEA's endorsement of Huckabee: Among Republicans, Governor Huckabee was the only candidate to show...

We do have to give moderator Carolyn Washburn credit for asking a good question about education -- not only because the subject is often ignored on the campaign trail, but because ... ... it sparked a noteworthy outburst by Fred Thompson against the National Education Assn. -- the nation's leading teachers union. Washburn asked the candidates to identify the biggest impediment to improving public education. Thompson was clear and direct in his response, making the case for giving families, especially low-income ones, greater latitude in choosing the schools their children attend, presumably through a government-backed voucher program. "The biggest obstacle,...

A common argument against public funding of parental choice of K-12 education is the claim it would result in government regulations harmful to nongovernment schools. Some fear such regulation would so burden independent schools as to put them out of business or make them virtually indistinguishable from public schools. This argument is too often used by, or effective with, those who might otherwise be among the strongest supporters of generally available publicly funded student grants. People who sing the song of excessive regulation tend to accept it as a given, but they rarely cite evidence to support their fears. In...

From State funding which would have included lethal embryonic research to vouchers, to defending Marriage, referendums across the country should concern Catholic voters. Voters in New Jersey defeated a proposal that would have authorized $450 million in bonds for stem-cell research projects, but an effort in Utah to repeal a schools voucher program was successful. The ballot questions were among 34 initiatives or referendums held in six states Nov. 6 during off-year elections. Another nine questions had been decided in elections earlier in the year. The Catholic bishops in five New Jersey dioceses had urged rejection of Public Question 2...

On October 21, Rudy Giuliani convinced me that he could be the Republican nominee for President. In a singular moment during the Fox News Channel debate on that day, he almost persuaded me that I want him to be. That instant came when Giuliani was asked what he would do to bring public school teachers that he had angered in New York City and those who have been alienated by No Child Left Behind back into the fold for the GOP. Giuliani answered, “…what we need is choice.”

<p>There, teachers unions, whose idea of progress is preservation of the status quo, are waging an expensive and meretricious campaign to overturn the right of parents to choose among competing schools, public and private, for the best education for their children.</p>

I read this sort of thing and I just do a slow burn. In the end, though, I couldn't sacrifice my son to an education system that seems at best inefficient and at worst willfully corrupt. As much as I admire Mayor Fenty, I can't help noting that his children go to a private school. And if he doesn't send his kids to D.C. schools, why should I? The more interesting question is why should all of the parents who don't have the choice to send their kids to a private school, or move to the suburbs? How do you...

Long ago, they caught pickpockets with fish hooks. You'd leave a few in your pocket, walk through a crowd and wait for somebody to squeal. That's what this voucher fight has done – it has helped flush out the pickpockets. You can tell who they are by how loudly they're squealing. And how far they'll go to squeal. Which is illustrated by teachers unions from around the country that have sent in people and money to take away Utahns' privilege to claim a voucher to help pay for private school. In one of the most broad-ranging programs in the country,...

No one says, “As goes Utah, so goes the nation,” but what happens over the next month in the Beehive State may well affect the prospects for education reform nationwide. Last February, Utah’s Republican Gov. John Huntsman signed into law an education voucher bill that promised to help the parents of Utah’s 512,000 public school students send their children to the school of their choice—public or private. The Parent Choice in Education Act was subsequently challenged and a referendum has put the issue before the state’s voters on November 6. A majority vote is needed to uphold school choice. It’s...

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...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A conservative think tank is distributing a lengthy essay on the history of education in Utah that implies that if Mormons don't vote in favor of the state's school voucher law that they could face cultural extinction. The Mormon-oriented Sutherland Institute bought advertisements in Utah's two largest newspapers to publish its essay, which says public schools were introduced in Utah by federal officials who wanted to end The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' control of the state. "The object was to provide a broader context, not just for the voucher debate but for...

Parents and children of America have a grievance. Government compels us to pay into the public educational system, but will not allow us to choose the schools that best meet the needs of our children. This choice is left to government educrats who decide which schools our children attend and what they will be taught, including indoctrination conforming to their political and religious outlook. Parents who opt out of this system are penalized with the loss of educational funding. Clearly, this violates the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise...

The many liberals, Democratic presidential candidates, and African-American leaders assailing last week's Supreme Court decision disallowing the use of race alone to assign students to public schools are missing both the point and a very important public policy implication of the decision. All but the most muddle-headed who consider public schooling issues should realize that diversity, while possibly a worthy goal, must rate a distant second to the goal of actually providing a good education to America's youth...

California can learn something from Iowa, which recently proved that giving parents choices about their children’s education is a matter of right versus wrong, not right versus left. On May 29, 2007, Iowa Governor Chet Culver approved a 50-percent expansion of the state’s parental choice tuition scholarship tax credit program. Enacted last year, under the Educational Opportunities Act Iowa residents can receive a credit on their personal state income taxes equal to 65 percent of donations to School Tuition Organizations (STOs), which are non-profit charitable organizations that distribute private school scholarships to low-income students. Here’s how the program works. Residents...

Should taxes dedicated to education be given only to public schools or dedicated to individual children through vouchers? Only to public schools Vouchers for each child

FEW ideas in education are more controversial than vouchers—letting parents choose to educate their children wherever they wish at the taxpayer's expense. First suggested by Milton Friedman, an economist, in 1955, the principle is compellingly simple. The state pays; parents choose; schools compete; standards rise; everybody gains. Simple, perhaps, but it has aroused predictable—and often fatal—opposition from the educational establishment. Letting parents choose where to educate their children is a silly idea; professionals know best. Co-operation, not competition, is the way to improve education for all. Vouchers would increase inequality because children who are hardest to teach would be left...

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...

Families have flooded the state with applications for the EdChoice voucher program despite Gov. Ted Strickland's attempt to do away with the program. Nearly three times as many people — 7,957 — are seeking to use vouchers to pay for private-school tuition for the coming school year compared with the number currently in EdChoice. There are 2,785 in the statewide program this academic year, which is available to students assigned to low-performing public schools. Most of those — 2,545 — have applied to continue in the program. The applications for the coming school year include 1,489 from Franklin County districts...

May 02, 2007Tales from the School-Choice WarsBy John Stossel I've been on the road lately, giving speeches at universities, think tanks, and community groups to let people know about the release of the paperback edition of "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity." On the book tour I notice that the people who seem the most energized are school-choice advocates. Many of them are under attack. When the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit dedicated to advancing individual liberty, criticized the Washington state teachers union's use of dues to politick against school choice, the union attacked the organization with full-page newspaper ads...

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has some explaining to do. He plans to gut the state's school-voucher program, ending a two-year statewide experiment building upon 12 years of vouchers in the city of Cleveland. Through EdChoice, 2,829 students around the country receive vouchers to attend private and parochial schools instead of failing local public ones. But Mr. Strickland now intends to send those students back to those crummy public schools, allegedly as an act of fiscal prudence. How insulting. The savings: $13 million, in a two-year budget totalling $52 billion. Mr. Strickland should explain to these thousands of students why their...

... A local paper reports that a drill at Burlington Township High School in New Jersey involved police portraying mock gunmen, described as "members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the 'New Crusaders' who don't believe in the separation of church and state." The fake gunmen were said to have been "seeking justice because the daughter of one [member] had been expelled for praying before class." ...

The state House on Thursday rejected a plan to give public money to parents to send their children to private schools. It's the third consecutive year the House has voted against establishing a voucher program. This time around, voucher supporters tried to attach three separate proposals to a bill allowing open enrollment in public schools. All three were defeated; two of them by slim margins. The emotional issue triggered some heated debate and brought a surprise appearance by Rep. James Smith, D-Columbia. Smith flew home from National Guard training in Kansas to vote on the controversial proposals. Rep. Bob Walker,...

An e-mail written by the House Education Committee chairman saying there must be "a special place in hell" for charter school supporters has some top lawmakers hopping mad. A political Web site called Face the State touched off a firestorm Thursday when it posted an e-mail written by Rep. Mike Merrifield, D-El Paso, to Sen. Sue Windels, D-Arvada.

Our Mission On 29 January 2007 the Centre for Civil Society launched its School Choice Campaign. It is a one-year campaign with concrete, measurable goals. We have given each child the right to education; we must make it meaningful by taking it a step further: The Right to education of Choice! Each child and the parent must be empowered so that they can truthfully say: My Right, My Choice! This is also your opportunity to join the education revolution. Put in your one year to assure quality education to the poor and secure their and India?s future. Log on to...

Pandemonium has become the norm for the Philadelphia public schools. Hardly a day goes by without a teacher being assaulted, fires being set and students trying hard to harm -- if not kill -- one another. School administrators offer a lot of lip service but little else. The Philadelphia Public School system has been a disgrace for decades and it probably will continue to be as long as it is influenced by the deep-pocketed teachers' union. There is a simple way to solve the problem and that is with inexpensive vouchers -- say a $2,000 cap -- which would allow...

Last week school choice opponents filed a second legal attack against Arizona’s scholarship programs for foster children and students with disabilities. It’s unclear exactly why the challengers object to these particular programs. Parents in Arizona have been using special education vouchers for 20 years. A study recently released by the Institute for Justice documented Arizona’s six longstanding educational aid programs. Those programs serve over 22,000 students in private schools and colleges each year, while the new foster and disability scholarships will likely serve no more than 700. According to Tim Keller, executive director of the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter,...

This morning, I was waiting with my five-year old daughter at the bus stop, for her daily commute to Kindergarten on the cheese wagon. Our golden retriever waited with us, being her usual hyperactive self. While we waited, two things of note happened - first, there was a spectacular car wreck at the light a block down the street. Cops arrived in mere moments, the ambulance a few minutes later, as they should. Good for us - we have excellent city services. Prayers for all involved - I hope their injuries are not too serious. Then, a city work crew...

WOAI radio, the flagship station of San Antionio-based media giant Clear Channel media, reports that a powerful group of businessmen and former politicians have embarked on a project to fight school vouchers in the state of Texas. The group proclaims that the idea is to fix what's wrong with the public schools, but the mechanism to accomplish this, is, ...to spread the message of the dangers that vouchers would do to the public schools. The advisory board of the new group includes several heavy hitters in the South Texas corporate arena, such as HEB grocery chain Chairman Charles Butt. Butt's...

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...

BALTIMORE - Kudos to Del. Nancy Stocksdale for standing up for some of the most disadvantaged in the state — foster children. The Republican from Carroll County, a former teacher, recently filed legislation in the General Assembly to make scholarships available for foster children in kindergarten through high school. They deserve them. Everything else in their lives works against them. Shuttled from home to home, the 11,000 foster children in the state — 7,000 in Baltimore City — lack stability in every corner of their lives. Many move into the system from sexually and physically abusive homes where surviving trumps...

In a fantastic victory for Utah children, on Friday the Utah legislature passed the Parent Choice in Education Act, the nation’s first ever school voucher for all schoolchildren. Governor Huntsman awaits the bill’s arrival on his desk for signature. Under this system, public school children of all income levels will be eligible for a voucher, but greater levels of aid will be given to children from lower-income families. This is an elegant solution to the argument concerning targeted versus universal school choice programs. The program will be both broad and targeted. The program will also be statewide, rather than concentrated...

The Utah Senate passed a bill Friday that would allocate up to $3,000 for every school-aged child that could be used toward private-school tuition. The House also passed the bill last week, and Gov. John Huntsman is expected to sign it into law. Zack Dawes, state advocate for the Alliance for School Choice, said parents will be able to choose from a variety of options for their kids' education -- including private and religious schools. "There are children right now who don't have choices, who can't relocate to a better neighborhood, who don't have the financial means to attend a...

A bill that would create the nation's most expansive school voucher program easily passed the Utah Senate on Friday and awaits only Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s signature before becoming law. (snip) A snapshot of HB148 * ELIGIBLE STUDENTS: All current public school students and students in any type of school who qualify for reduced-price lunch. * ELIGIBLE SCHOOLS: Must employ college-educated or skilled teachers, operate outside a residence, enroll at least 40 students and not discriminate based on race, color or national origin. They must give parents the results of a standardized test once a year and submit to a...

WHAT TO MAKE OF NEW REPORT ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN ALL SCHOOLS THE REPORT from the Rand Corporation and Research for Action that says the Philadelphia School District's privately managed schools are faring the same as conventionally run ones will be viewed as raw meat by district critics and those who want the city to take the schools back from the state. And while the findings of the report are significant, and perhaps even shocking, we hope that calm heads prevail as education leaders fully digest the results of the study. The report's conclusion measures four years of performance since...