Opinion
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Who Is John Gardner?
Opinion -Although Milwaukee Public Schools board member John Gardner is a strong advocate of public education, he calls public schools "juvenile warehousing run by an incompetent monopoly. -
Education Tax Credit Introduced in Congress
Opinion -While Congress struggles with policy decisions about just how much freedom to give states over the spending of billions of dollars in federal education funding, two Members have proposed beginning the process of turning over such decision-making powers -
How Bad Are Detroit’s Schools?
Opinion -Detroit "is not the worst performing district in the State," protested Detroit Public School officials when details of Governor John Engler's takeover plan were announced in February. -
How ‘Super’ Ed-Flex Would Work
Opinion -Under the Super Ed-Flex proposal developed by Heritage Foundation education policy analysts Nina Shokraii Rees and Kirk A. -
School Choice Handbook Advances, State-by-State
Opinion -Although a number of developments made 1998 a banner year for advancing the cause of parental choice in education, one of the more important factors was the continuation of a trend noted in prior years: increasing support from low-income parents and -
School Choice: The Message Gets Through
Opinion -The ongoing debate over school choice continues to advance the idea of parental choice in education, as evidenced by the following: 1999 World Book Year Book Under the Education topic heading in the 1999 World Book Year Book--A Review of the -
Think Tank Calls for Flexibility to Boost Student Achievement
Opinion -While Congress debates extending the 12-state Education Flexibility Partnership Demonstration Act of 1994 to all 50 states, education policy analysts at The Heritage Foundation say the so-called Ed-Flex bill does not go far enough. -
Thinking Outside of the Box
Opinion -Most people make no distinction between public schools and public education. But, as Andrew J. Coulson points out in his book, Market Education: The Unknown History, one is an end, and the other only a means to the end. -
What Makes Better Readers?
Opinion -As part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, researchers identified school and home factors associated with better reading scores. -
Edgewood Findings Refute Criticisms of School Choice
Opinion -When the Horizon district-wide school choice program was announced in April 1998, critics wasted little time in condemning the initiative, predicting it would draw the best students from the Edgewood public schools in San Antonio, Texas, and drain -
Congress Could Force States to Equalize School Funding
Opinion -While some legislators view the 50 independently governed states as "laboratories of democracy," where innovative experiments in education policy and governance may be carried out, others seem to view the states as unruly puppies that must be -
‘I Wasn’t Taught to Read–I Was Taught to Play Games’
Opinion -Until February 18, when she testified at a District of Columbia Council hearing on special education, few people--apart from her fellow students at Coolidge High School in northwest Washington, DC--had heard of high school senior Saundra Lemons. -
How Is Reading Measured?
Opinion -The 1998 Reading Report Card for the Nation assesses student performance on three types of reading material that represent reading for different purposes: Reading for literary experience (e.g., What is the plot? Describe the main characters.). -
KC Plans to Reward, Penalize Schools
Opinion -Although exact details of the plan remain to be worked out, the Kansas City school board in January approved a measure that would demand greater accountability of the city's schools by rewarding or penalizing them based on student performance, -
Paycheck Protection Upheld in Idaho
Opinion -Although labor unions derailed a paycheck protection initiative in California last year, union officials in Idaho were not so successful. -
State Officials Fined for Tardy Response in Union Case
Opinion -The Washington Education Association is not the only organization in the state of Washington to be fined for responding tardily to court-imposed deadlines for handing over documents to the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF). -
Ron Paul: Ventura Right about Education
Opinion -Instead of fighting over what type of federal intervention is best for the nation's schools, "Congress should recognize that Governor Ventura is right" and get Washington out of education, says Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas). -
Ohio Judge Overrules Voter Rejection of Higher Taxes
Opinion -Although Ohio voters last year decisively rejected a proposal to hike taxes for increased education funding, the courts have demanded that state legislators there develop a new school funding formula to increase per-pupil spending and eliminate -
Who Will Pay?
Opinion -Two U.S. Supreme Court justices dissented from the high court's March 3 ruling that school districts must pay for the continuous, one-on-one nursing care some disabled students require to go to school. -
Earth Day ‘99: Cause for Celebration, Not Alarm
Opinion -April 22--Earth Day--has become the country’s de facto national environment holiday, a day when Americans from Maine to California, and from Alaska to Hawaii, turn their attention to environmental concerns. -
Congress May Backslide on ‘Secret Science’
Opinion -A recent victory in the war against junk science is in jeopardy . . . and now is the time for all good men (and women) to come to the aid of their country. -
Study Finds AHRI Both Unnecessary and Unconstitutional
Opinion -The American Heritage Rivers Initiative, which President Clinton says will promote economic growth along designated rivers and protect their heritage, in fact duplicates the efforts of existing federal programs and creates another level of bureaucracy. -
Congress Takes Up Education Bills
Opinion -With elected officials from all points of the political compass eager to demonstrate that their interest in schooling is as great as that of the American public, education has recently been the focus of substantial legislative activity in the nation's -
Political Propaganda in Elementary Reading Texts
Opinion -Losing Our Language: How Multicultural Classroom Instruction Is Undermining Our Children's Ability to Read, Write, and Reason Sandra Stotsky The Free Press, New York, 1999 316 pages, $26.00 What could be more innocent than a basal reader?