Opinion
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Poll Finds Illinoisans Support Choice
Opinion -A telephone survey of over 1,000 Illinois residents, taken shortly before the Illinois General Assembly voted to approve the state’s tuition tax credit program, showed three out of four respondents (77 percent) support the idea of permitting parents -
Levin, Thompson Renew Legislative Push for Risk Assessment, Cost-benefit Analysis
Opinion -Picking up where they left off last year, Senators Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and Fred Thompson (R-Tennessee) have reintroduced a bill requiring federal agencies to make major regulatory decisions only after they have conducted a risk assessment and -
Organic Farming for Fun and Profit
Opinion -A third-generation farmer says his conversion to organic farming methods in the mid-1980s has proven to be more than just a smart financial move. -
Clean up America by Cleaning out EPA
Opinion -The Environmental Protection Agency, having been turned into a political tool by the current administration, has jeopardized the lives of the American people and the quality of our environment. -
Minnesota Tax Credit Proves Popular
Opinion -Although the Minnesota state legislature appropriated no money to inform low-income families about the state's education tax credit program, well more than half of the 102,500 eligible families are taking advantage of it, according to an analysis of -
Parental Freedom in the States and Nation
Opinion -Alaska Representative Vic Kohring’s HJR6, a constitutional amendment that would explicitly allow vouchers in the state, has been successfully voted out of two committees, and now awaits action in the House Finance Committee. -
Pennsylvania Voucher Plans Praised, But Attacks Turn Nasty
Opinion -A wide range of business and community groups have endorsed Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge's voucher proposals, and the state legislature has approved a $63 million budget provision to pay for the governor's school choice plans. -
Poll Shows Support for Pennsylvania Choice Proposals
Opinion -A two-thirds majority of Philadelphians support the use of school vouchers to allow parents to select the school they believe is best for their child, according to a new poll conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of -
Rapid Growth Continues for Charter Schools
Opinion -In 1990 there were no charter schools. Today there are 1,205, with another 308 approved to open. Another 34--less than 3 percent of the total--have been closed, either voluntarily or because their charters were revoked or not renewed. -
Reading Is Anything But Natural
Opinion -Must children be taught phonics as part of learning how to read? Or do they learn to read in a natural process, simply by being exposed to the "whole language" of written literature? -
Rotten Apples in the Classroom
Opinion -There is a point in almost all school choice debates where the public school advocate appeals to the emotions of the audience by giving examples of misconduct that has occurred in choice schools: financial mismanagement, fraud, unqualified teachers, or -
Understanding the Teacher Unions
Opinion -The Washington, DC-based Education Policy Institute has published the following three monographs as the start of a new Series on Teacher Unions: Agency Fees: How Fair Are “Fair Share” Fees? -
Mayor: Future of Cities Depends on Educational Quality
Opinion -Although he acknowledged that competition is a very effective way of improving the quality of higher education, Chicago Mayor Richard M. -
Riley Pulls Fire Alarm on Failing Schools
Opinion -"If a school is failing its students, we ought to react like our house is on fire. -
How Florida Achieved School Choice
Opinion -The successful effort to pass voucher legislation in Florida had three key components: GOP control of the state House and Senate, bold leadership from Governor Jeb Bush and Lt. Governor Frank Brogan, and support from Floridians for School Choice (FSC). -
School Choice Is a Matter of Justice: an interview with Patrick J. Heffernan
Opinion -Although philosophers teach us that ideas have consequences, few of them have the range of practical experience required to illustrate the truth of that statement with an example from their own lives. -
Rotten Apples in the Classroom
Opinion -There is a point in almost all school choice debates where the public school advocate appeals to the emotions of the audience by giving examples of misconduct that has occurred in choice schools: financial mismanagement, fraud, unqualified teachers, or -
How Florida’s Voucher Plan Works
Opinion -Florida's vouchers are called "opportunity scholarships" and are part of an education improvement package that rewards successful schools and permits students to escape from chronically failing schools. -
Large Union Averts Disclosure with Semantics
Opinion -A measure that would have allowed National Education Association members to designate where the political portion of their dues would go was ruled "out of order" by the union's Committee on Constitution, Bylaws, and Rules. -
Good News and Bad News
Opinion -The good news: This fall, 40,000 children from low-income families will use private vouchers from the Children's Scholarship Fund, plus an average family payment of $1,000, to escape public schools across the nation and enroll in secular or religious -
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Opinion -Welcome to School Reform News, the only national monthly publication devoted to the latest developments in school reform across the country. -
Choice Scholarships Spark Rush for Exit
Opinion -The Children's Scholarship Fund (CSF) was deluged with applications for the 40,000 four-year scholarships the organization made available for distribution by lottery to children from poor families in kindergarten though eighth grade. -
It’s the Schools, Stupid
Opinion -Allowing parents to direct education taxes to the schools of their choice could reverse not only the decline of city schools, but also the decline of cities themselves, argued W. Russell G. -
Wash. Union Drops Lawsuit against Non-Union Teachers
Opinion -The Washington Education Association (WEA) has agreed to withdraw a lawsuit it filed against a group of non-union teachers, in return for the group's promise to stop using the phrase "WEA Challengers" in its newsletter masthead.