Free Republic

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Republican-dominated North Carolina legislature passed a supplemental spending bill Wednesday that eliminates a large waitlist for private school vouchers and also directs sheriffs to assist federal immigration agents seeking jail inmates... Fully funding the universal voucher program was a leading priority for Republican legislators earlier this year.... The bill also retains language that tells county sheriffs to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers that identify jail inmates believed to be in the country unlawfully and who have been charged with the most serious crimes.... Republican advocates of the immigration provisions say they’re necessary...

A wave of Republican incumbents were swept out of the Texas House in Tuesday's primary runoffs, including a handful who opposed school vouchers last fall, handing Gov. Greg Abbott a tentative majority in the lower chamber on his signature issue. With most ballots counted across the state, six of the eight GOP House members who were forced into overtime appeared to lose their runoffs, continuing a surge of anti-establishment energy that had already led to the ouster of nine House Republicans in the March primary. The runoffs brought mixed results for Texas' hard right: the House gained a pro-voucher majority...

Republican Governor Kay Ivey on Thursday signed the CHOOSE Act into law, making Alabama the latest state to make universal school choice law. "Alabama is only the 14th state in the nation to provide families with an education savings account option," Ivey said after signing the legislation. The education savings account is a school choice model that enables parents to use public funds to cover a variety of education expenses, including private school tuition, instructional materials, and homeschooling costs. School choice, or providing all families with alternatives to the public schools they’re zoned for, can be expanded through multiple avenues...

Manley High School, for example, has a capacity of nearly 1,300 students, but just 64 kids attend the school and only 2 percent of the kids can read at grade level. And Uplift High School – where operational spending is about $30,400 per student – has just as many employees, 54, as there are students, 55. Despite that 1v1 ratio, only 3 percent of students are proficient in reading. And Douglass High School has both a principal making $147,000 an assistant principal making $122,000 – all for managing just 44 students.

ATLANTA – A Democratic state representative who was criticized by fellow Democrats for voting with Republicans during this year’s General Assembly session has gone over to the GOP. Rep. Mesha Mainor of Atlanta announced Tuesday that she is turning Republican, adding to the GOP’s House majority. Mainor voted with the Republicans on several key pieces of legislation this year, most notably her vote in favor of a controversial school voucher bill. Despite her support, the measure failed to pass when a number of rural Republicans opposed it, citing a lack of private-school alternatives in their areas. On Tuesday, Mainor said...

Pennsylvania Senate hopeful John Fetterman (D.) opposes vouchers that let children in failing public school districts attend private and charter schools. But the progressive champion, who lives in one of Pennsylvania’s worst performing school districts, sends his kids to an elite prep school. Fetterman’s kids attend the Winchester Thurston School in Pittsburgh, where parents pay up to $34,250 for a "dynamic" learning environment and an "innovative" approach to teaching. They would otherwise go to schools in Woodland Hills School District, where graduation rates are far below the state average. The local elementary school that serves Fetterman’s town of Braddock is...

At a time countless students face obstacles that could permanently stunt their learning growth, school choice provides one obvious solution to help mitigate a ‘lost generation.’At a time countless students face obstacles that could permanently stunt their learning growth, school choice provides one obvious solution to help mitigate a ‘lost generation.’ Impact on Suicide RatesThe study, released in December and conducted by a Cato Institute scholar and Western Carolina University economist, used two different methods to examine the impact of school choice on mental health. First, the researchers used examined variations in teenage (i.e., 15-19) suicide rates based on states’...

In a speech at Hillsdale College, Sec. DeVos conveyed that in American education, the fight has just begun to restore choice and freedom to every family. As most of the nation is transfixed on the looming presidential election, Sec. of Education Betsy DeVos remains laser-focused on the job at hand. “Education is the means by which we secure the God-given blessings of liberty,” DeVos told a gathering of more than 250 at Hillsdale College, in her home state of Michigan. Whether she has three months at her post, or the possibility of another four years, will be determined in the...

The leftist propaganda taught in schools is no accident. It is the logical conclusion of the prevalent educational philosophy that favors skills over content and engagement over rigor. School choice is finally having its moment in the national conversation, to the joy of those interested in school reform. While some states have adopted various school choice initiatives in small doses, most have not. This may change after President Donald Trump publicly brought up school choice in his recent State of the Union address, and Republican lawmakers have introduced a series of bills that would increase federal funding for vouchers.If school...

Although this wonderful news happened three months ago, I just found out about it now: the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against Obama's attempt to keep low income black children trapped in horrible government schools.Some background information...In August 2013, the Obama administration sued Louisiana to try to bring an end to its school voucher program - a program which had just been passed in 2012.Under the Louisiana program, both of the following criteria had to be met in order for a student to get a school voucher. First, the student must come from a family whose income is...

Research of the technology sector, one of our nation's fastest growing industries, has revealed a significant trend in the market over the past few years: consumer choice. Some analysts have explained that this theme can be attributed to a shift from a first time buyer market, where consumers are purchasing items like a cell phone or a tablet for the first time, to a replacement market, where buyers are seeking new and improved models or alternatives for their current devices. This change in market identity directs attention to individual attributes and features in products and services that ultimately increase the...

Can you name the most contentious issue in American politics? Here's a hint. It's being fought at the federal, state and local levels. And it doesn't go away. The struggle is persistent, ongoing, unending. Here is a second hint. The issue is not gay marriage, or gun control, or police brutality and or immigration. Those issues are either settled, largely settled, isolated or completely out of the control of local and state governments. Here is a third hint. The issue divides Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. But it is especially divisive among Democrats and among people who call themselves...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and other 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls on Wednesday endorsed school vouchers as a means of driving competition and innovation in the nation's school systems. "Why not allow total voucherization? Nevada is moving in this direction," Bush said at a New Hampshire education summit. "Let the suppliers come up with the creative solutions, have high expectations and accountability, and get out of the way." Bush said schools would benefit from "innovation" since "the system we have today is still designed as though it was in the 1930's."

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is to deliver what aides call an “optimistic, conservative vision for the future” in his first unpaid speech since declaring his interest in a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. […] Wednesday’s speech is the first in a series of stops his aides call his “Right to Rise” tour, borrowing from his economic mantra and the name of the political action committee he formed in December. Bush’s speech, aides said, is aimed at underscoring his desire to reinvigorate the middle class, which he argues has languished despite the ongoing economic recovery. Conservative economic policies,...

Unlike any of the programs identified today as “school choice,” such as opportunity scholarships, charter schools and tax credits, universal school choice transfers control of education back to parents, where it rightfully belongs, by allowing public education funds to follow the child to the school chosen by the parents. These funds — substantially less than current costs but sufficient to pay for a quality education at nonpublic schools — are made available to every parent in the form of a voucher that can be cashed only by a qualified school. With parental control comes responsibility — a prerequisite to success...

When people speak of a legacy, they usually mean something other than what the late economist Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, left behind, namely the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice (edchoice.org). The foundation has just released a small book entitled "The ABC's of School Choice: The comprehensive guide to every private school choice program in America." The Friedman philosophy can be summed up in two sentences, which are posted on their web page: "School choice gives parents the freedom to choose their children's education, while encouraging healthy competition among schools to better serve families' needs. School choice lets parents...

The freedom-enhancing, life-improving power of school choice is more than a theory for me. It's more than a talking points memo or teleprompter speech. Unlike many of the politicians paying lip service to National School Choice Week this week, the issue of expanding educational opportunity and freedom for all is something I live, breathe, practice and witness every day. My mother was a public school teacher who taught in a majority-minority district in New Jersey for more than two decades. She and my father worked hard to put their own children in a mix of public and private Catholic schools....

Gov. Bobby Jindal is battling to protect Louisiana’s fast-growing school voucher program from an all-out attack by the Obama administration. The Justice Department claims the state’s private schools are defying a decades-old federal desegregation order. In November, a judge ruled the Department could monitor Louisiana's voucher program, even though 90 percent of the 6,750 students who use the Louisiana Scholarship Program are minority, and 85 percent are black. Jindal filed a 38-page response to the ruling earlier in January, asking a judge to overturn a 1976 "white flight" case that prohibited giving public funds to all-white private schools. "The state...

On Tuesday, the Department of Justice filed a proposal to oversee Louisiana’s school-choice program. The proposal, if accepted, would give the DOJ the ability to veto scholarships given to children, which allow them to attend a school of their choice. In November, the DOJ dropped its injunction against Louisiana’s school voucher program after failing to produce documents to prove that the program impeded the federally mandated desegregation process. However, in lieu of the injunction, the DOJ instead filed a proposal to oversee the program, requesting that the federal government have 45 days to review detailed information about all scholarship applicants...

I have come to a conclusion. The federal government, especially under the Obama administration, does not like success. This is even more so if the success comes from the states, instead of the massive bureaucracy that makes up the federal government. This is never more true than the case of the Louisiana school voucher program. I have written earlier this year about this program, here and here. By all accounts, it has been an unequivocal success story. Parents are happy that they can choose to send their children to another school of their own choice. The children get the opportunity...