2011 October School Reform News

The October issue of School Reform News reports on legal challenges facing Indiana’s new voucher program, which has attracted more than 2,800 students and 250 private schools this fall, despite the pending challenge and obstacles to the application process.

Also in this issue:

• A document temporarily posted on the American Federation of Teachers’ Web site, removed on August 3, details the union’s “kill mode” strategy to convert the Connecticut version of Parent Trigger legislation into an advisory committee with no “true governing authority.”

• The public increasingly favors school choice measures such as merit pay and vouchers, but teachers remain overwhelmingly against them.

• Six states have proposed legislation in 2011 to prevent public employees, including teachers, from receiving more than one taxpayer-funded pension.

• Though many states have tightened their standardized tests in recent years, most still give substandard results a passing grade.

• HOPE Schools motivate test-failing, poor, minority Milwaukee kids to achieve high grades, develop good attitudes, and reach college, with math raps, Christian virtues, and enthusiasm.

• Pell Grants’ contribution to rising college costs and their financial mismanagement were overlooked in the federal debt ceiling compromise.

• New regulations from the federal Office of Civil Rights turn college campuses into kangaroo courts, writes Greg Lukianoff.