“I didn’t even know anything (when I first came here). I saw numbers and letters and was wondering, ‘Where did these letters come from? This is math!’ But at the beginning of this school year I did a review. We took a test and I made a 93. The teacher was proud. She said, ‘You’ve come a long way since you got here.'”
Read the rest of this inspiring story here.
A negative turn in media coverage occurred even though the public's view of charters grew much more positive during the same time frame. Read the whole article here.
Imagine enjoying your summer holiday vacation only to learn that special interest lawmakers beholden to the California Teachers Association are voting to close down your child’s school. As a parent, you’ve never received any school closure information or a single news report.
Sound far-fetched? Actually, it’s not. When the state Legislature reconvenes on Aug. 1, lawmakers will have the opportunity to close down a handful of online public charter schools. It’s a sneaky effort to catch parents off-guard. Over 20,000 California students are at risk of being displaced – literally kicked to the curb.
Check out the rest of the article here.
Alyson Klein writes in Education Week:
It's no secret that most Republicans are big fans of school choice. But they are also big fans of a lean federal government.
So how does the party push its agenda to give parents a greater array of options—including access to charters, vouchers, and education savings accounts&mdash while not going so far as to create a "federal Department of School Choice"?
You can read the whole article here.
“People who truly believe in education, they recognize greatness whether it’s coming from a charter school, a choice school or a traditional public school, and they want as many good options as possible. They want schools to succeed no matter what, and that’s really got to be your core point,” he said.
You can read more and watch the video here at The 74.
We heard several speeches at the Republican National Convention praising school choice. This blog post in Education Week discusses the shifts in the Republican platform for education and also what's remained the same.
Check out this analysis/opinion piece in the Washington Times about the Education Freedom Accounts Act that will help families in the District of Columbia.
Charter schools now serve 6 percent of all public school students. Enrollment has grown sixfold in the past 15 years. During the 2015–16 school year, more than 400 new charter public schools opened, serving an estimated 250,000 additional students.[1] More than 6,800 charter public schools are now enrolling an estimated 2.9 million students throughout the country.
Read the rest of this article which is published as part of the Heritage Foundation's 2016 Index of Culture and Opportunity.
Vicki Alger writes...."Thankfully, parents and policymakers in the states are moving ahead with an ever-growing array of parental choice programs, including vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, and education savings accounts (ESAs). Such progress will be difficult if not impossible to stop, no matter how loudly critics complain."
You can read her full article in The Beacon here.
Jake Hayman makes the case for why philanthropists around the world should take a hard look at the good virtual schooling can do--and support it. You can read his article here.