Rees: Elections Come and Go, but Movements — Like School Choice — Endure

My first experience in school choice politics came in 1993. That year, Prop 174 asked California voters to decide whether parents should be given vouchers that they could redeem for their children’s education at the school of their choice. The proposition failed badly. Looking back, it probably should have. It was too expansive and not well structured. Most state leaders opposed it. But its defeat didn’t mean the end of school choice.

At around the same time, charter public schools were being introduced onto the education landscape. California had passed its charter school law the year before. Nearly a quarter-century later, charter schools and school choice have taken hold in California. According to the latest report on charter school enrollment from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Los Angeles has 156,000 students in charter schools — more than any other school district in the nation. Two other California districts have more than 30 percent of their students in charter schools.

The lesson here is simple: Elections offer temporary victories or defeats, but movements endure. School choice is right for students and parents. It’s a movement that won’t be stopped, even amid occasional setbacks.

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What Is the Future for School Choice?

Republicans scored a historic electoral victory across the nation, but the public-school establishment held its own on key reform measures promoted by the GOP. Most notably, Massachusetts Ballot Question 2 (to raise the cap on charter schools) lost decisively, even after Governor Charlie Baker campaigned for it. Many believed that initiative was a proxy battle in the national charter war. In Georgia, Republicans supported a constitutional amendment to reform persistently failing schools in the style of New Orleans’s recent successes, but it failed too. The election of Donald Trump, however, places at the top of American politics a man who has been an outspoken proponent of school choice. The task now is for the federal government to promote school choice in local communities where the public-school establishment is solidly entrenched.

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6 big ways Trump presidency could change schools

Donald Trump has provided only scant details on his education agenda but the ideas he has pitched make one thing certain: the president-elect’s vision for American schools is very different from that of his predecessor. 

Trump has said he would shrink the Department of Education — or demolish it altogether — and vowed to be “the nation’s biggest cheerleader for school choice.” On the campaign trail he also called for an end to gun-free school zones, and for changes in the student loan system. His transition website, which devotes just two paragraphs to the subject, identifies a few other priorities including early childhood education and magnet and theme-based programs.

Keep reading here. 

 

What Is the Future for School Choice?

Republicans scored a historic electoral victory across the nation, but the public-school establishment held its own on key reform measures promoted by the GOP. Most notably, Massachusetts Ballot Question 2 (to raise the cap on charter schools) lost decisively, even after Governor Charlie Baker campaigned for it. Many believed that initiative was a proxy battle in the national charter war. In Georgia, Republicans supported a constitutional amendment to reform persistently failing schools in the style of New Orleans’s recent successes, but it failed too.

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Teachers Unions, Faulty Economics, And School Choice

School choice is one of the most controversial and hard-fought public policy debates of the past few decades. Most liberals, who get significant funding from public school teachers unions, line up against any form of school choice, while many conservatives favor allowing some form of market to introduce competition amongst schools for education tax dollars. The argument against school choice always seems to focus on how it would “defund” public schools by “draining” monies away. This argument, however, is based on faulty economics and should be discarded or strongly rebutted by school choice proponents.

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From Beloit; For some students, virtual can be best educational fit

BELOIT — Although Beloit Memorial High School wasn’t a good fit for Nathan Brown, virtual school in the School District of Beloit has helped him improve his performance.

His mother Mary Brown was concerned about class sizes at BMHS. Now she’s very pleased with the district’s efforts to guide her son through its virtual school program.

“I’m grateful because the school district has been amazing. They are fully supportive of whatever we need to do,” Mary Brown said.

Nathan, 16, said his biggest problem at BMHS was learning in class. Because of large class sizes and a few unruly students, paying attention was difficult for him.

“It’s hard to pay attention with 30-plus kids. Four to five kids would be loud, obnoxious, and trouble-making and taking away from my learning,” Nathan said.

Keep reading about Nathan here. 

Parents deserve more school choice

Our presidential candidates didn’t talk much about education policy, but voters in 11 states took to the polls on Nov. 8 and decided what type of schools students should be able to attend, how much money schools should get, who should run the schools, and what students in those schools should learn.

Heartsick parents in Massachusetts — where 32,646 kids are currently stuck on charter school waiting lists — are upset at the prospect of being forced to send their children to traditional public schools after voters decided not to lift the cap on the number of charters allowed in the state. In other states across the country, parents are left frustrated and distraught at the hampering effects ballot initiatives will have on their ability to educate their children as they see fit.

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Destinations Career Academy in McFarland off to a good start

The newest school in McFarland has 71 students who are focusing on career education and exploration. Destinations Career Academy (DCA), a subsidiary of Wisconsin Virtual Academy, opened this fall. This online learning environment allows students to study in one of four career paths. Those students can earn technical and specialty trade credentials along with a high school diploma upon graduating.

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COMMENTARY: Embrace Texas school choice

Texas has always prided itself for its independence and freedom. Our state does things bigger, bolder, and better. So why is it that when it comes to the education of our children — the very future of Texas — we allow thousands of students to be locked into failing schools simply because they live in a certain ZIP code? We need school choice options now for all parents.

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