The more people understand about school choice, the more they like it.
2016 EducationNext Poll asked more than 4,000 respondents, including 609 teachers, how they feel about charter schools, private school vouchers and tax credit scholarships, among other education-related topics. The poll has demonstrated that more respondents favor school choice measures when provided with a definition of what they mean.
Read more here.
By Jennifer Seversen
he students of Wisconsin Virtual Academy (WIVA), an online public charter school, are now back in session, ready to experience another year of academics through an education program that functions primarily online.
Many families in Wisconsin prefer online education as an avenue for individualized academic success. In June, more than 100 students gathered face-to-face to celebrate their high school graduation in McFarland. Now just a few months later, hundreds of students are returning for the 2016-17 school year.
WIVA educates students in grades K through 12 from all over the state of Wisconsin, among them more than a dozen students in Dunn County.
Continue reading here.
Check out this great article as part of our coverage today of National #OnlineLearningDay.
By Ola Lisowski
MacIver Institute Research Associate
As a lifelong public school attendee who began her education in the Chicago Public School system, I'm not the most obvious choice for a defender of, well, educational choice. Even when I crossed the state border to become a badger or international borders to pursue a graduate degree, I have always attended public schools.
For my family, they worked. When my sister was ahead in her class, her attentive teachers contacted my parents and let them know their options for advanced programs where she could travel to a local high school to take classes in 7th grade. When I entered pre-kindergarten having already learned how to read, my teachers got in touch with my parents right away to discuss options for moving me up a grade, which I did after a few weeks of attending the 1st grade.
Read the rest of Ms. Lisowski's article here.
By Ola Lisowski
MacIver Institute Research Associate
As a lifelong public school attendee who began my education in the Chicago Public School system, I'm not the most obvious choice for a defender of, well, educational choice. Even when I crossed the state border to become a badger or international borders to pursue a graduate degree, I have always attended public schools.
For my family, they worked. When my sister was ahead in her class, her attentive teachers contacted my parents and let them know their options for advanced programs where she could travel to a local high school to take classes in 7th grade. When I entered pre-kindergarten already having learned how to read, my teachers got in touch with my parents right away to discuss options for moving me up a grade, which I did after a few weeks of attending the 1st grade.
We were, and are, lucky. Lucky to have watchful teachers and involved parents. Lucky to have some flexibility in an otherwise rigid system, to get us to the more advanced level we needed to avoid the falling grades that would occur when we weren't challenged enough.
Despite my not so coveted status as a millennial, I'm young enough to remember the different stages of my education quite well. I have spent the majority of my life not just inside a classroom, but being required to be there. In his State of Education speech last week, State Superintendent Tony Evers spent time discussing how much education has changed since his day. If education has changed since my youth, it's imploded and exploded and morphed into something entirely different since his. Hyper-customized à la carte education has arrived.
You'll find the rest of this article here.
As children head back to school, an increasing number of their homeschooled peers will be starting their academic year as well. Homeschooling in the United States is growing at a strong pace.
Recent statistics indicate that 1.5 million children were homeschooled in the United States in 2007. This is up significantly from 1.1 million children in 2003 and 850,000 children in 1999.
The homeschooling movement first emerged in earnest during the 1980s. Back then it was largely led by evangelical Christians. But as the movement has grown, it has also changed. Today’s homeschooling families may increasingly welcome cooperation with their local public school districts. In my own research, I have seen how diverse homeschoolers now are. This diversity challenges any simplistic understanding of what homeschooling is and what impact it will have on the public school system.
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Despite the shortcomings of allowing parents to send their children to schools that they alone believe best meet their needs and interests, the movement will not die. The latest example comes from California ("California bill to extend school choice law faces allegations of inequity," Los Angeles Times, Aug. 30).
The "district of choice" law permits students who live in one school district to cross the boundary to enroll in another school district. To date, parents of about 10,000 students in California have taken advantage of the law to enroll their children in 47 participating school districts.
The rest of this article appears in Education Week.
The power of school choice. Our parents live this every day. "Not only can school choice help get a child into a better school, but it can also help empower parents to be thoughtful advocates for their child’s education, rather than passive consumers."
-Excerpt from May 2016 Survey of Parental Rights and Responsibilities in Choice School Laws
You can find the full survey here.
A Universal ESA Program Would Go a Long Way Toward Remedying Wisconsin’s Lackluster Record of Failing to Adequately Educate its Children.
Read the entire article from the Heartland Institute here.
rapid review in case middle school was a long time ago: The Bill of Rights — the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution — protects every American from unwarranted government intrusions and enshrines citizens’ rights to speak and worship freely. The document, written by James Madison, distilled and displayed principles of a society liberated from tyranny. These rights flowed not vaguely to a society or individually to a monarch’s favorites but to all Americans, regardless of station or circumstance.
The Tribune’s agenda today isn’t an exercise in constitutional history. Rather, it’s a look through a comparable prism of principle at what all of us owe young Americans. As a new academic year launches and uncertainty roils Illinois’ largest school district, we set out to explore the rights of Chicago’s children — of America’s children — to a high-quality education at public expense. And, whether you’re a current student or a former one, we invite your help.
From the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune. Click here to read the rest.