It’s officially National School Choice Week. The Washington Examiner reports, “More than 6.4 million people are participating in more than 21,000 events this week as part of National School Choice Week. Organizers say it’s the ‘largest series of education-related events’ in the country’s history.'”
In honor of the event, RealClear Education presents us with “Five Questions for the President of National School Choice Week,” Andrew Campanella. In the excerpt below, Campanella explains what this week is all about:
RealClearEducation: What is National School Choice Week and how many students and schools participate?
Campanella: “National School Choice Week is an annual celebration of opportunity in education. We invite students, schools, business leaders, elected officials, and people from across the country to take time, during National School Choice Week, to raise awareness of school choice through thousands of unique, independently-planned events across the country. We spotlight all types of education options, including traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, private schools, online academies and homeschooling. For 2017, there are more than 16,000 schools holding events, 2,000 homeschool groups, and 1,500 chambers of commerce. We estimate that 6.4 million people will attend events and tens of millions of additional people will participate.”
National School Choice Week ends on January 28, but there’s a lot of legislation brewing in the states that promises to make it National School Choice Week every week of 2017.
SOURCE: RealClear Education
IN THIS ISSUE:
- CHOICE ACT: U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) has proposed the “CHOICE Act” (“Creating Hope and Opportunity for Individuals and Communities through Education”) to expand school choice options for students who are disabled, from low-income or military families.
- DeVOS: Some National School Choice Week attendees, among them House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) are praising Betsy DeVos as a champion of school choice.
- RAID: Federal agents raid the Celerity Educational Group, a charter organization in Los Angeles, to investigate allegations of fraud.
Common Core and Curriculum Watch
- SHORTER SCHOOL YEAR: Chicago Public Schools are considering shortening the length of the school year to save money.
- SPECIAL ED: “The Supreme Court is poised to decide the quality of instruction public schools must provide students with disabilities,” The Atlantic reports.
- CODING: A Virginia bill, if passed, will allow coding to count as a foreign language requirement.
- DOE STAFF: Eighteen new staffers are joining the Trump administration this week in the Department of Education, Politico reports.
- UNIONS: The74Million.org analyzes why the American Federation of Teachers appears to have lost an astounding 69,000 members in 2016.
- BEST STATES: A career expert website has named New Jersey number one and Arizona number 50 in its rankings of the best states for teachers.
- DeVOS: Trump’s pick for U.S. education secretary answered 1,397 questions in her confirmation hearing. Obama’s two picks answered only 109 combined, the Daily Caller reports.
- REGULATIONS: The Obama administration’s ESSA regulations are put on hold as Trump orders a further review.
Thank you for reading! If you need a quicker fix of news about school choice, you can find daily updates online at https://heartland.org/topics/education.
Teresa Mull is a policy advisor for education and an editor at The Heartland Institute.
