Opinion
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California Poll: Economic Growth Depends on Improving Education
Opinion -In a poll conducted last fall for the California Business Roundtable, 94 percent of California business leaders and 86 percent of California voters reported their support for setting performance and academic standards for public schools. -
Creating a High-Performance Education and Training System
Opinion -The National Association of Manufacturers' report, "Education and Training for America's Future," offers six policy prescriptions for improving worker education and training. -
K-12 Education Savings Accounts Blasted
Opinion -It did not take the Clinton administration long to respond to the U.S. -
Manufacturers Endorse Vouchers, Education IRAs
Opinion -The K-12 classroom must be recognized as “the front line in global economic competition,” according to a new study from the National Association of Manufacturers. -
Ohio Roundtable Charges Dirty Tricks in School Tax Plan
Opinion -The Ohio Roundtable has accused the state’s House of Representatives of attempting to subvert the state constitution with a proposal that would allow it to pass a school funding tax with only a simple 50-vote majority, rather than a 60-vote -
Pennsylvania Voters Strongly Support School Choice
Opinion -Republican and Democratic voters in southwest Pennsylvania strongly support school choice, as well as Governor Tom Ridge’s efforts to implement statewide academic standards that students must meet before advancing from one grade to the next. -
School Choice Favored in Utah Poll
Opinion -Utah voters overwhelming support school choice, according to a survey of 300 Utah voters conducted last year by R.T. Nielson for the Utah Coalition for Freedom in Education. -
Small Businesses Oppose Tax Hike for Ohio Schools
Opinion -In apparent disagreement with the Ohio Supreme Court, which recently ruled the state must increase its education funding, only one out of three Ohio small business owners believes that too little is being spent on public education. -
Teachers, Not Students, Would Benefit Most from Smaller Classes
Opinion -In his State of the Union message on January 27, 1998, President Bill Clinton embraced the idea of reducing class size to 18 for students in grades one through three in the nation’s public schools. -
Accounting Could Be Reform Catalyst
Opinion -An accountant in green eyeshades, standing on the barricades and consulting a spreadsheet to direct the army of change, is an unlikely revolutionary figure in the battle for school reform. -
Elements of a Classical Education
Opinion -While schools may adopt different forms, the commitment to classical education is marked by certain common elements: Commitment to a liberal, or general curriculum, rather than a narrow approach or one where students can evade issues; Explicit -
K-12 Voucher – No! College Voucher – Yes!
Opinion -Although Members of Congress have consistently rejected legislation that would provide vouchers, scholarships, tax-free savings incentives, or direct aid for low-income children to attend better K-12 schools, more than 115 sponsors have already been -
Poor Blacks Overwhelmingly Support Vouchers
Opinion -When civil rights organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People organize to defeat voucher legislation, they may find themselves working against the wishes of their own constituencies. -
It Isn’t the Money
Opinion -While just a few million dollars invested for small school voucher experiments has spurred some movement in the nation’s $300 billion public school system, the Annenberg Foundation’s investment of a half billion dollars to improve urban public schools -
Marva Collins’ Efforts Expand to Milwaukee
Opinion -Opening her new Preparatory School of Wisconsin last August, Marva Collins expanded her focus on excellence and high expectations to include inner-city minority students in Milwaukee. -
Court Decision Shocks New Hampshire
Opinion -In a surprise ruling issued December 17, a divided New Hampshire Supreme Court declared that the state’s current system of funding public education, where local property taxes pay for almost 90 percent of the costs, is unconstitutional. -
Gag Order Conceals NEA Influence in Washington
Opinion -The actions of Washington state’s Public Disclosure Commission belied its middle name when, after finding the top executive of the local teachers union guilty of falsely identifying his employer on more than 100 occasions, the Commission levied a fine -
Poll Supports Retesting Teachers
Opinion -Five out of six Americans (84 percent) believe that teachers should be retested regularly in order to keep their teaching licenses, according to an October 23 poll conducted for Good Housekeeping. -
02/1998 School Choice Roundup
Opinion -California * Colorado * Florida New Jersey * Ohio * Texas * Virginia CALIFORNIA Fewer Eligible to Attend State University Although more students are taking the classes needed to become eligible for admission to California’s state -
Why Public Schools Won’t Improve On Their Own
Opinion -Although many public schools are responding to the threat of competition from voucher programs, expanded private scholarship programs, charter schools, and open enrollment, most are effectively insulated from change by structural and political -
Every Subject Has Its Own Trivium
Opinion -Every Subject Has Its Own Trivium Grammar Logic Rhetoric Learning Mode Memorization Probing Q/A Papers, case studies, projects Language Vocabulary, rules of grammar Reading, writing Composition, exposition Mathematics Numbers, facts, -
Competition Spurs Public School Improvements
Opinion -A little competition goes a long way. That’s what parents across the country are discovering as a variety of school choice experiments begin to challenge the long-standing inertia of a monopolistic and hitherto unresponsive public school system. -
States with Local Control of Schools Achieve Higher Scores
Opinion -From his first-term Goals 2000 initiative to last year’s promotion of national education standards, President Bill Clinton has worked to wrest authority over public schools from local communities and transfer it to state and federal governments, -
Empowering Principals the Key to Improving Education
Opinion -Nina Shokraii, The Heritage Foundation's leading education policy analyst, is School Reform News' newest contributing editor.