The Heartland Institute

Opinion

Search/Filter
Topics
Select Topic
News Type
Select Types

  • Tests Reveal Students Unprepared for College

    Published February 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    The advent of high-stakes testing is revealing more than just information on what American high school students know and are capable of doing; it is also revealing a significant shortfall between that assessment of actual skills and what schools have

  • House Approves Final DC Voucher Plan

    Published February 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    As expected, the House of Representatives did its part to advance President George W. Bush’s voucher plan for the District of Columbia, passing a $328 billion omnibus spending bill in a special, one-day session in early December. The bill, H.R.

  • 02/2004 Friedman Report: School Choice Roundup

    Published February 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    Colorado * Delaware * Florida * Kansas * Kentucky New Hampshire * New Mexico * South Carolina * Virginia COLORADO Voucher Supporters Run Radio Ad Campaign Even though a Denver district judge has ruled the Colorado voucher program

  • Survey Results: Student Attitudes Towards Cheating

    Published February 1, 2004
    By George A. Clowes
    Opinion -
    Several organizations conduct surveys on attitudes and opinions of American teenagers regarding cheating.

  • The Little School on the Prairie: an exclusive interview with Victoria Martino

    Published February 1, 2004
    By George A. Clowes
    Opinion -
    Victoria Martino knew students at her school were doing well. After all, she had co-founded the little school on the prairie, Mountain View Academy in Greeley, Colorado, simply to be able to teach using a highly effective instructional program.

  • Unremediated Grammar

    Published February 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    Attached to every résumé we get at our advertising agency is a cover letter. Despite the fact that these letters are usually written by college graduates or seniors in college, they regularly feature some of the most labored prose ever set to paper.

  • 01/2004 Friedman Report Profile: Troy Williamson of Educate New Mexico

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    Troy Williamson--a father of three, former teacher, and dedicated advocate of education reform--thinks of his job as director of Educate New Mexico as providing irrefutable proof that positive parental involvement is the most important element in a

  • Class-Size Reduction Brings Mixed Results

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    Two recent studies of student achievement for students enrolled in class-size reduction programs in Wisconsin and California offer mixed results and call into question the cost effectiveness of large-scale programs with mandatory class-size caps.

  • New Yorkers Give Schools Mediocre Grade

    Published January 1, 2004
    By George A. Clowes
    Opinion -
    Three out of four New Yorkers gave the city’s public schools mediocre or failing grades, and the city’s poorest residents were the most unhappy with school performance, according to a recent survey of 1,012 respondents conducted by the Community

  • NAEP Provides Acid Test for NCLB

    Published January 1, 2004
    By Robert G. Holland (1940-2017)
    Opinion -
    The 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed modest gains in the mathematical prowess of fourth and eighth graders but little or no progress in their reading skills.

  • Private Schools Safer for Teachers and Students

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    According to a new government report, the rate of violent crime against students is almost twice as high in public schools as in private schools.

  • A Victory for Vouchers–in the School Boardroom

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    It was the kind of news neither friends nor foes of the school choice movement had expected anytime soon--bannered across the front page of a local newspaper the day after the November 4 school board election in Colorado Springs, Colorado: “Reformists

  • Texas Voucher Program Produces Benefits for All Children

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    School choice produces benefits not only for students who make use of the voucher to transfer to a private school, but also for students who remain in the public school system, according to a new study on the outcomes of the HORIZON Program, a

  • 01/2004 Friedman Report: School Choice Roundup

    Published January 1, 2004
    By George A. Clowes
    Opinion -
    Colorado * Connecticut * Illinois * Louisiana * Michigan Minnesota * New Jersey * Vermont COLORADO “Educate Me.

  • Education and Capitalism: an exclusive interview with Joseph L. Bast

    Published January 1, 2004
    By George A. Clowes
    Opinion -
    Although there are many major players in the school choice movement--and School Reform News has interviewed many of them over the past seven years--it was Heartland Institute President Joseph L.

  • Competition, Choice, and Privatization

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    Education and Capitalism: How Overcoming Our Fear of Markets and Economics Can Improve America’s Schools Herbert J. Walberg and Joseph L. Bast (Hoover Institution Press, 2003, 362 pages, ISBN: 8179-3971-7 $25.00 cloth, ISBN: 8179-3972-5 $15.

  • Charter School Legislation: Data Tables

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    States With No Charter Laws Alabama Kentucky Maine Montana North Dakota Nebraska South Dakota Vermont Washington West Virginia Growth of Charter Schools Year # of Charter Schools 1991 0 1992 1 1993 36 1994 84 1995 251

  • Judge Orders Billion-Dollar Tax Hike in Kansas

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    In a December 2 ruling sure to haunt the governor and lawmakers in the 2004 legislative session, a Topeka judge declared the Kansas school finance system unconstitutional and gave lawmakers until July 1, 2004 to fix it.

  • Key Dates in Kansas School Finance History

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    November 8, 1966: Voters approve a constitutional amendment establishing a 10-member State Board of Education having “general supervision” over public schools, with the legislature required to “make suitable provision for finance of the educational

  • DC Vouchers in Limbo, IRS Probes NEA

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    DC Vouchers in Limbo As most Members of Congress headed home for Thanksgiving, President George W. Bush’s voucher plan for families in the District of Columbia remained stalled, one substantial step away from final passage.

  • School Choice Saves a Life in Washington, DC

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    Although she’d already raised two children on her own, Virginia Walden Ford found her youngest son William to be more than a handful.

  • The Language Police: Fahrenheit 451 With a #2 Pencil

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn Diane Ravitch (Knopf, 2003; 272 pages; $24, ISBN: 0375414827) In the world described by Diane Ravitch in her new book, The Language Police, censorship is implemented not with

  • Five Ways to Spend Less on Higher Education

    Published January 1, 2004
    Opinion -
    On October 21, 2003, the College Board once again documented the widespread impression that college costs are spiraling wildly out of control.

  • Colorado Voucher Program Dealt ‘Temporary Setback’

    Published January 1, 2004
    By George A. Clowes
    Opinion -
    A Denver District Court halted Colorado’s fledgling voucher program on December 3, ruling the provision of “Opportunity Contract” scholarships for children to attend private schools violated the right of public school districts under the state

Heartland Newsletters

The Heartland Institute offers free email subscriptions to all of its newsletters and monthly public policy newspapers.

Subscribe Now!