The sobering reality that further entanglement with the Common Core standards and tests could come along with school vouchers is underscored by the fact that Common Core champions Bill Gates, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Jeb Bush are all major supporters as well of school voucher programs and charter schools.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker came out fighting for school vouchers Monday at a national conference of education reform advocates, where Walker said vouchers are a “moral and economic imperative.”
“Community schools” is not a widely-known term, but today representatives in the Texas State House will vote on House Bill 1891, entitled “Relating to Texas Community Schools” – legislation that would, if passed, fundamentally change the role of public education in students’ lives, in ways that conflict with Texas values.
President Obama said that his free community college program is a way to show “we believe in opportunity for all” during Saturday’s weekly address. Transcript as Follows: “Hi everybody. I’m speaking with you from the DC Public Library in Anacostia,
Public charter school advocates from all across Texas convened on the south steps of the Capitol in Austin for a lunchtime rally on April 29, featuring an address by Governor Greg Abbott, plus a surprise visit from Lt. Governor Dan Patrick
The Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 4 (SB 4), the tax credit scholarship bill that will allow low income and special needs families who are in failing public schools to get assistance to pay for private tuition. SB 4 was authored by State Senator Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) and passed with bipartisan support. The final vote of 18-12 was taken on Tuesday, April 21.
Pro-school choice advocates revere it. Charter school critics fear it. It is known as the Parent Trigger Law and, on Wednesday, April 15, Senate Bill 14 (SB 14), passed overwhelmingly in the Texas State Senate chamber. The bill carried with a bipartisan vote of 25-6.
Sen. Lamar Alexander’s (R-TN) rewritten draft legislation that would reauthorize No Child Left Behind (NCLB) will likely not allow Title I dollars for low-income children to follow them to schools of their choice, an outcome that would be a win for the Obama administration.
In the battle against the Common Core, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that the proliferation of these top-down education standards is driving a massive increase in the number of homeschoolers. Families are realizing that
“A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March,” Brutus warns Roman dictator Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy. March 15 is the “Ides of March,” one of the most important events in the political history of western civilization, the anniversary of Julius Caesar’s assassination.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) is still considering a bid for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, says Politico.
Potential GOP 2016 presidential hopeful Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) unveiled an education policy plan Monday that confronted the dismal state of public education in the United States and put forth a pathway that emphasizes the role of parents–and not government–as the greatest influence in students’ lives.
On Friday, January 30, supporters of school choice gathered at the Texas Capitol steps in Austin to send a message — they want education reform and they want it now. That was the very sentiment voiced by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) when he participated in the 2014 Houston-held National School Choice Week rally.
Supporters of school choice gathered at the Texas Capitol on Friday to send a message to Legislators: they want education reform, and they want it now. A bustling, diverse crowd of students, parents, teachers, elected officials and other reform advocates — and even a marching band — enjoyed a festive atmosphere as they listened to speeches, sang and danced, and then lined up to enter the Capitol to take their message directly to their elected representatives. Breitbart Texas was at the scene, and spoke to a number of the enthusiastic attendees of the rally.
The daughter of a Texas State Representative has withdrawn her registration as a lobbyist, after an outcry over the potential for conflicts of interest between her work lobbying for education clients and her father’s role as chair of the House Public Education Committee. The announcement was made on a Friday afternoon, just two days after a Breitbart Texas article describing the conflict.
When he was inaugurated as the new Lieutenant Governor last week, Dan Patrick spoke about his three top priorities in this legislative session: reducing property and business taxes, securing the border, and enacting school choice. All of these policies have widespread support in Texas, and especially among the grassroots Republicans who gave Texas’ leaders their power in the 2014 elections. This bold agenda should provide focus and achievable goals for legislators as they begin their work during the 84th legislative session.
Economist and author Thomas Sowell has a way of very succinctly articulating profound truths. The Cato Institute tweeted one such nugget as the country celebrates National School Choice Week
The increased prominence of a Texas State Representative’s daughter as a lobbyist on education issues is raising questions about the propriety of him serving as chair of the House Public Education Committee.
To honor National School Choice Week, Louisiana U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R) announced Monday that he has introduced the Local Control of Education Act, a measure that would ban the federal government from mandating the adoption of specific standards—such as the Common Core standards—as well as curriculum and assessments.
An estimated 1,000 Texans will march in the Texas Rally for School Choice that will be held on the south steps of the State Capitol building in Austin on Friday, January 30 at 10 a.m. This is one of the many events being held during the fifth annual National School Choice Week that kicked off on Sunday, January 25, and will run through Saturday, January 31.
A new study published in the Journal of Public Economics and discussed in a press release at the Harvard Kennedy School provides the first observed estimates on the long-term impact of school voucher programs that allow parents to choose the education setting of their children. Vouchers were found to be particularly beneficial to low-income, minority students.
At the Iowa Freedom Summit, Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) let Republican voters know that the Common Core standards are a huge electoral issue for the 2016 presidential election – and that he’s anxious they’ll remember his support for the controversial education reform initiative.
State Senator Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) was appointed by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick as the new Chairman of the Senate Public Education Committee in Austin on January 23, 2015.
As his first piece of legislation, state Senator Van Taylor (R-Plano), introduced Senate Bill 296 or the “School Calendar Choice Act,” which would toss out the state’s requirement that school districts begin their school year following the fourth Monday in
AUSTIN, Texas — As the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) kicked off their annual Policy Orientation for the Texas Legislature conference on Wednesday, the first day ended with a spirited discussion of school choice issues. TPPF Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Education Freedom Kent Grusendorf moderated the discussion between Lieutenant Governor-elect Dan Patrick and economist Art Laffer.
At least 40 conservative groups in Indiana have signed onto an agenda for education reform that will be submitted to the state’s lawmakers Tuesday. Among the top planks of the coalition’s platform are cutting regulations for schools that agree to accept school choice vouchers and freedom to reject the state’s rebranded Common Core-aligned standards.
Many parents use the start of the new year as a time to start searching for new schools for their children for the 2015-2016 school year. And believe it or not, January is not too early to get this search stared. (In some cases, it might be considered late!)
National School Choice Week began as an annual celebration in 2011, with only 150 events. Since then, it has grown exponentially, and a record 10,100 events are planned for January 2015 to raise awareness of the benefits of alternative education, which supporters call a matter of “simple justice.”
The school choice reform movement, powered by grassroots activism, has made huge inroads in the past decade to break down the public school monopoly that has been failing America’s children. By giving parents choices – through charter schools, vouchers, Education
