I've seen a new attack from liberals on social media in the last few weeks as they try to paint Republicans and school choice advocates as being horrible, angry elitists who want to take funding away from students. This is mostly centered around Betsy DeVos, President Trump's secretary of education.
All of a sudden, liberals who want the choice to end a human life want to vilify parents who want a choice in which type of institution best suits their child's educational needs.
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TUKWILA, Wash. – With the recent confirmation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, there's been a lot of conversation about the future of public schooling. Some families say traditional public schools just aren’t for them.
“Sailing is my life because I've been sailing since I was basically less than a month old on my parents’ boat,” said 11-year-old Alex Zaputil, who attends Washington Virtual Academy, and hopes to someday sail in the Olympics.
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When you are advising your students on college options, you may get a lot of questions about online degree programs. Should you tell your students to sign up for an online degree? That depends largely on the strengths and preferences of the student. An online degree (and online learning in general) can be a great option for some students, and not so great for others. Here are a few factors that influence how likely a person is to succeed at online higher education.
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From the article “School choice saves American communities millions of dollars” by Jason Crye, executive director of Hispanics for School Choice, a Milwaukee-based advocacy organization and visiting fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute:
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Jill Hiles is a mother of two school-aged children. Both of them now go to an online public school after Hiles says the regular public school system turned a deaf ear to her concerns and her daughter's needs.
"I saw the principal after a PTA meeting and I said to the principal, 'Did you get my email?' She goes, 'I don't know what her problem is. We have good teachers.' She turned around and walked into her office," said Hiles.
Hiles says repeated attempts to get some help for her daughter Rebekah went nowhere, and it was bullying that broke the camel's back.
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The Smith family in DeWitt has endured more than its share of challenging circumstances. But having access to an online charter school has been a great help.
During a single week in 2007, Sandy Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer and her son Andrew was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. After Andrew passed away at eight years old, the Smiths enrolled their two surviving children in a cyber school.
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Defenders of the status quo in public education often claim that by sending public money along with children wherever they enroll, school choice is killing the bedrock of American society, the public school.
What they seem eager to ignore is the benefits to taxpayers when kids aren’t imprisoned in failing public schools – or real prisons after they drop out.
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Democrats unsuccessfully opposed newly-confirmed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, but many Americans share her views on some key areas in education. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on February 6-7, 2017 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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A school board member in Bucks County's Centennial district has resigned his post as president of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association over a tweet that included a photo of chimpanzees staring at a computer screen and a comment about the cost of cyber charter schools.
Mark B. Miller, 66, sent the tweet in response to Quakertown Area Superintendent William Harner’s remark in the Inquirer on Sunday that it costs more to educate a student at a cyber school than a traditional school.
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Perhaps one could be forgiven for thinking Tuesday’s confirmation of Betsy DeVos as education secretary marked a dark turn for America’s over 50 million students. After all, Senate Democrats spent Monday night taking turns denouncing Mrs. DeVos as being an out-of-touch billionaire historically unqualified for the position. Republican senators found themselves inundated with phone calls from angry constituents. The outcry even persuaded two Republicans to cross the aisle, with Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska stating that Mrs. DeVos was “so immersed in the push for vouchers, that she may be unaware of what actually is successful within the public schools, and also what is broken and how to fix them.”
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