Free Republic

The Florida Supreme Court struck down a statewide voucher system Thursday that allowed children to attend private schools at taxpayer expense - a program Gov. Jeb Bush considered one of his proudest achievements. It was the nation's first statewide voucher program. In a 5-2 ruling, the high court said the program violates the Florida Constitution's requirement of a uniform system of free public education. About 700 children are attending private or parochial schools through the program. But the ruling will not become effective until the end of the school year. Voucher opponents had also argued that the program violated the...

Rosen: Education friends, foes December 9, 2005 'Mike Rosen is no friend of public education." This assertion was passed on to me by an ally, a lonely free spirit within the public education establishment. It wasn't his view, mind you; it was the opinion of one of his colleagues. Au contraire, Pierre. That indictment couldn't be further from the truth. Who could possibly be opposed to an educated public? It's the pathway to success in our society. I'm very much a friend of rigorous programs to create an educated public. And I'm also committed to our traditional approach of funding...

I've been getting asked more and more about my position that high school is a waste of time and my recommendation for parents to give their children a choice to skip high school. This is in response to the liberal agendas now prevalent in high schools as well as the simple fact that such a strategy would give kids a 4 year head start on their peers. Below are some useful links for investigating this option. I will repost my own experience under that. http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/school/equivexam.html UCB Parents Advice about School Taking the High School Equivalency Exam Advice and recommendations from...

American public schools can be described in only one way: an unmitigated failure. The government has created an educational system free of the checks and balances that normally guide success and encourage innovation in the marketplace, namely, profit and loss in a setting of open competition. Instead, government schools shelter teachers through life-long tenure, virtually eliminating all accountability about what and how subjects are taught in the classroom. Furthermore, there are few incentives for cost-efficiency because this could result in budget reductions. Instead, whenever there seems to be a “learning problem,” the cry is for more of the taxpayers’ money....

WASHINGTON — Escalating its courtship of a politically powerful constituency, the Bush administration is teaming up with some of the nation's best-known and most influential black clergy to craft a new role for U.S. churches in Africa. The effort was launched last week, when more than two dozen leading African American religious figures met privately with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and senior White House officials at the State Department, according to administration officials and meeting participants. The hourlong session focused largely on how the administration's faith-based initiative could be expanded to combat the spread of HIV and provide help...

The Legislature has listened to Gov. Napolitano's request for expanded full-day kindergarten, and responded by including funding for it in an education bill. Now if the governor would only listen to the Legislature's request for expanded school choice and approve that provision of the same bill. Yet she was still insisting on Monday, after the House approved House Bill 2782 to fund full-day kindergarten as well as a small voucher program for students from low-income families, that the measure was unacceptable. Amazingly, she is still claiming that it's legislative leaders who refuse to compromise on the budget impasse. “The governor...

While the future of Catholic higher education tends to look increasingly bleak, with widespread abandonment of the Faith, financial scandal, and an overall secularization, a solidly Catholic liberal arts college is being created in San Francisco by a core group of students, teachers, administrators, and friends of the now-closed Campion College. The idea of a new Catholic institute of higher education started during the dismantling of Campion College of San Francisco, a two-year Catholic liberal arts college that announced to its students and faculty in June that it was closing due to the cessation of funding by the Guadalupe Associates,...

For businesses looking to grab a bigger share of the $393 billion K–12 education industry, the bottom line is looking up. But when private profits outweigh public accountability, educators and kids pay the price.

As Boston police hackney officials and Democratic National Convention hosts prepare to meet cabbies tomorrow to work out a discount voucher plan, one irate driver is exploring a Federal Election Commission complaint. Cab driver Bill Ford, an independent driver who says he's voted for more Democrats than Republicans, objects to what he considers a forced donation to the Democratic Party. The plan now being discussed would require cabbies working the airport to accept discount vouchers and multiple riders. Estimates on the value of the vouchers have been placed at $10 or more, but cabbies said compared to their regular multiple-rider...

BOSTON (AP) Boston taxi drivers are angry over a city proposal that they accept vouchers from delegates to the Democratic National Convention instead of using their meters for rides to and from Logan International Airport. The city first offered vouchers worth $8, then raised the amount to $10, taxi drivers said. ''If you take one person to town, it's usually about $30, and I'm going to take one person for $10?'' said 45-year-old Jean Abrahm, a cabbie for 16 years. ''And I have to pay the toll, too? With gas now up, this is just a rip-off.'' The vouchers, combined...

Cabbies Blast Convention Voucher Plan 1 hour, 56 minutes ago Boston cab drivers spoke out Thursday about Mayor Tom Menino's plan to give $10 cab vouchers for each delegate that attends this summer's Democratic National Convention. NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu reported that the drivers said that trips from Logan International Airport to hotels in the Back Bay cost a whole lot more, and they'd rather take the week off. Drivers thought they were going to make a killing the last week in July -- or at least make up for the rest of the summer if it turns out to...

<p>Parents of inner-city school children locked in failing public school systems should be given school vouchers to attend private or public schools elsewhere, a coalition of black clergy leaders said yesterday.</p> <p>"For the 26 years I have been in New Jersey, there have been a host of public school reform proposals, a multitude of major state Supreme Court rulings and billions of dollars spent to achieve parity and improve test scores," said the Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, executive director of the Black Ministers Council. "Yet, the fact remains, that with few exceptions, urban schools and most minority students still do not meet minimum state standards or receive a quality education," Jackson said, speaking at a news conference in Trenton.</p>

  For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryJanuary 9, 2004 President's Remarksview listen President Delivers Remarks to Catholic Educational Association Remarks by the President to the National Catholic Educational AssociationThe East Room 2:10 P.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Welcome. Thanks for coming; please be seated. Thanks for coming. (Laughter.) Welcome to the people's house. We're glad you're here. The last 100 years, the leadership of the National Catholic Education Association has been vital in advancing the work of Catholic schools around the nation, and therefore has been vital to the hopeful future of America. I'm honored to join you for celebrating...

Republican Senate leaders plan to force a vote this week on the nation's first federally funded school voucher experiment by tucking the program into broader spending legislation that would be politically difficult for Democrats to block. The Senate proposal would allow a number of poor children in the District of Columbia, perhaps 1,700 or more of the 65,000 in the capitol's school system, to attend private school at public expense. Democrats stopped action on the bill early this year. With the Senate working this week to finish business for the year, the GOP majority is moving to an expected...

The state Department of Education must set aside another $2 million to continue implementing Florida's original school voucher program, a judge ruled Monday. Circuit Judge Kevin Davey said the state must post the additional bond while it appeals his 2002 decision that the voucher program violates the Florida Constitution by spending tax dollars on religious institutions. That issue is pending before the 1st District Court of Appeal, which heard oral arguments this spring. Although Davey concluded in August 2002 that the voucher law was unconstitutional, he said the state could continue to issue vouchers while it appealed. But there was...

D.C. School-Voucher Plan Bogs Down Thu Sep 25, 8:02 PM ET By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer WASHINGTON - Legislation creating an experimental private-school voucher plan bogged down Thursday in the Senate after a proposed compromise fell flat. The measure would provide $13 million for at least 1,700 poor children in the District of Columbia to get a private education, provided they are accepted by a school and can pay any expenses not covered by the maximum $7,500 voucher a year. Republicans, who hold a slim majority in the Senate, are trying to secure at least 60 votes to overcome...

California educators have joined a political battle over a plan to let families use school vouchers, or taxpayer money for private tuition, to escape failing campuses. But the fight isn't in California. It's nearly 3,000 miles away, in the public schools of Washington, D.C., where lawmakers are poised to create the nation's first federally funded voucher program. The program would set a precedent that supporters hope will open the door for vouchers all over the country. What happens in the faraway district could affect whether a similar school voucher plan eventually makes it into the classrooms of California, where 70...

Students at Ribault High School will become the first in Northeast Florida eligible for vouchers after the Jacksonville school received a second F from the state within four years. Overall, however, the region's school systems saw increases in the numbers of higher-performing schools and some saw elimination of lower-performing schools. Seven schools in Northeast Florida received an F: Six in Duval County and a charter school in St. Johns County. Last year, Duval County's dozen F schools were the only ones in the region. Out of 228 schools in the region's six school systems, 41 percent received As in the...

Broward School Board considers pact with controversial gay group By Bill Hirschman Education Writer Posted April 18 2002 One of the most controversial issues the Broward County School Board has faced in the past six months will erupt again Tuesday. The board will reconsider ratifying a proposal by GLSEN, a gay rights group, to teach educators how to deal with homosexual students. "There is going to be a massive showing. Every pro-family activist I know is going to be there," said Brian Craig, producer for conservative radio talk show host Steve Kane. Supporters of the agreement will counter, not just...

Photograph by George Sakkestad Freshman Liz Caillouette participates in the Gay-Straight Alliance's day of silence at Los Gatos High School. Participants stayed silent throughout the day to protest the discrimination faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. On day of silence, message of students was very clear By Rebecca Ray Thirty-five students clad in black ate lunch together on the front lawn of Los Gatos High School (LGHS), holding colorful balloons and not saying a word. One of them would stand at a table, passing out stickers that read, "ally," and handing out cards that explained the group's silence....