Is school choice the only way to save the U.S. education system?
David S. D’Amato, a policy advisor at the Heartland Institute, thinks so.
In a piece that manages to invoke both John Dewey and Murray Rothbard, D’Amato makes the case that the “dynamism and innovation America’s schools so desperately need cannot come from a failed socialism that promotes more centralization, technocracy and bureaucracy.”
Read the whole thing here.
Conservatives support school choice. However, rural elected officials, many of whom are also conservative, generally do not.
There’s an inherent conflict in this that partly explains why the broad issue of education reform has made some progress in Texas in recent years but the narrower issue of school choice has not.
School choice offers a fundamental question: Should there be competition in public education? The only serious answer to that question is “yes.”
Asked another way, who would oppose competition? The answer is the opponents of school choice, who are generally made up of liberals, school districts, teachers’ unions and some rural Republicans who do not believe school choice options currently exist in rural areas.
Continue reading here.
In order to foster a variety of innovative and high-quality education options for all students, universal access to education savings accounts (ESAs) should be the goal of policymakers in every state.
ESAs are flexible spending accounts that parents can use to purchase a wide variety of educational goods and services, including private school tuition, tutors, textbooks, homeschool curricula, online courses, educational therapy, and more. Parents can also save unused funds for later educational expenses, such as college tuition.
This Special Report explores how ESAs expand educational opportunity and hold education providers directly accountable to parents; it also explains several common types of regulations that can undermine the effectiveness of the program and how they can be avoided.
Read more here.
Wisconsin, like most states, is searching for the best ways to manage the widening spectrum of licensed and openly available content for the state's teachers, many of whom are now contributing their own, according to Janice Mertes, assistant director for instructional media and technology at Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction.
Mertes spoke with EdScoop during the recent State Education Technology Directors Association annual leadership summit about the growing role of open educational resources and a variety of technology and instructional media initiatives currently underway in Wisconsin.
Keep reading here.
Jackson Cole is at the top of his game on the golf course and in the classroom.
The 16-year-old all-region, all-state and former regional player of the year attributes his success to making a tough decision four years ago when the Pawleys Island student decided to forgo a traditional brick-and-mortar education and enroll in South Carolina Connections Academy, a tuition-free virtual public school.
Read more here.
My children attend Florida Virtual School Full Time, a public, free virtual school. We were interested in virtual school because it allows us, the parents, to actually be with our children and monitor what they’re learning and who’s teaching them.
Another perk is the flexibility. It gives us the freedom to schedule lessons in a way that works for us.
Keep reading here.
When Kyle Stendel was struggling in the public school setting and battling anxiety and depression, his mother, Wendy Stendel, took it upon herself to find an alternative solution. She found the online school called Insight School of Minnesota, a public, online school for grades six to 12.
“It just allowed him that time to step away from the stressors that were going on in his original school setting and focus on healing him,” Wendy said.
Kyle started at Insight School in the eighth grade. Wendy said one of the most beneficial components of him attending the online school was the flexibility. He was able to go to his doctor appointments while still being able to view the recording of a class he may have missed from earlier in the day.
Keep reading here.
In this season, Americans have much for which to be thankful. For many families, that includes school choice, which has allowed new opportunities and a path to success for their children.
Here are the stories some of the families who will be giving thanks for school choice shared with Watchdog.org.
Read them here.
By choosing Betsy DeVos as his nominee for the Department of Education, Donald Trump has proven his seriousness about increasing school choice and ending the Beltway’s micromanagement of local education. But whether the subject is charter schools, vouchers, distance learning, or education savings accounts, the teachers’ unions have cried foul. Their interest isn’t students, parents, or even individual teachers, but rather preserving their cut of the $670 billion K-12 market.
Read more here.
Monte McGary is in third grade and he’s finally getting what he’s been in need of academically. A challenge.
Before enrolling in Washington Connections Academy this school year, Monte attended a brick and mortar school in the Battle Ground School District. Since kindergarten, he’s been more advanced than his peers. He was becoming bored in class on a regular basis.
Keep reading here.