Opinion
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Pennsylvania Union Settles to Avoid Opening Books
Opinion -Thousands of Pennsylvania teachers were immediately made eligible for a reduction of their forced union dues when officials from the Pennsylvania State Education Association and the National Education Association settled out of court a potentially -
Superfund Reform Still Out of Sight
Opinion -With the 105th Congress no more able to clean up the Superfund mess than any of its predecessors have been, the nation finds itself saddled with a law that continues to misdirect public and private resources while providing few, if any, environmental -
Analysts Recommend New WI Teacher Training Program
Opinion -A new report from the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute calls for a dramatic shift away from the state’s present system of teacher licensure and university-based training, calling it “a costly, outmoded, and unreliable” way to secure high-quality -
Bentonville National Training Workshop a Success
Opinion -A successful National Training Workshop was held in Bentonville, Arkansas, on October 28-30. -
Test Yourself Against Virginia’s Learning Standards
Opinion -Courtesy of The Virginian-Pilot, which developed this quiz, here are 10 questions based on material covered in Virginia’s Standards of Learning. 1. Twelve centimeters is how many inches? (4th grade) A) 4.8 B) 6 C) 5. -
Minnesota DOT Evaluates Promise of Congestion Pricing
Opinion -A report from the Minnesota Department of Transportation concludes that presently available electronic technologies would allow converting all 1,200-1,500 miles of congested roads in the Twin Cities to toll roads without the cost and inconvenience of -
Study Says ‘Scientific Consensus’ on Global Warming Treaty Is Just Hot Air
Opinion -The scientific community’s alleged widespread support for the administration's global warming agenda is more a reflection of the White House's public relations skills than real backing from the scientific community, according to a study released -
12/1997 News Briefs
Opinion -American Heritage Rivers Initiative The Idaho congressional delegation has asked the President’s Council on Environmental Quality to allow Idaho to opt out of any AHRI programs, saying that the state is already doing a good job with Idaho water quality -
Ohio Treasurer Promotes Child-Centered Funding
Opinion -Changing Ohio’s system for funding public education would bring competition and increased accountability to the state’s public schools, and would immediately transform every child from a financial liability into a desirable asset, argues State -
To Save the Cities, Reform the Schools
Opinion -Policy prescriptions aimed at halting urban decline--community policing, green spaces, and tax cuts, for example--will do no good unless city schools are saved, concludes a new study from the Calvert Institute for Policy Research. -
Choice Legislation Passes the House
Opinion -Under the terms of a bill approved 230-198 by the U.S. House of Representatives on October 23, families would have the opportunity to put after-tax dollars into special education savings accounts for their children. -
Benefits of Child-Centered Funding
Opinion -Child-centered funding of education would produce the following benefits, according to Ohio State Treasurer J. Kenneth Blackwell: Better Educated Children--through the creation of a learning culture and by greater parental participation. -
Choice Inspires Consumer Guides to Good Schools
Opinion -Educational choice opponents frequently contend that parents would be unable to make good choices for their children because they lack information on school performance, and thus might choose for superficial reasons. -
Designing a School Choice Program
Opinion -Using precedents established by the U.S. Supreme Court in First Amendment rulings, the Institute for Justice’s Clint Bolick offers three rules of thumb for designing a legally sound school choice program. -
Introducing: Parents in Control!
Opinion -At a news conference on October 18, Kansas State Representative Kay O’Connor announced the formation of Parents in Control (PIC), a lobbying organization aimed at promoting and influencing legislation that will increase parent control of the -
New Book Exposes Partisan Nature of Unions
Opinion -In 1994, the Republican Educators Caucus of the National Education Association endorsed only Democratic candidates for NEA office. The GOP caucus of the California Teachers Association was selling buttons promoting the Democratic nominee for governor. -
12/1997 School Choice Roundup
Opinion -California * Colorado * Florida * Illinois New York * North Carolina * Wisconsin CALIFORNIA Show Us the Money! -
Survey: Education Teachers Out of Touch with Real World
Opinion -Teacher education programs often fail to prepare teachers for the challenges of teaching in the real world, say two out of three education professors recently surveyed by Public Agenda, the non-partisan New York-based research group. -
Ready to Learn What? Is the Key to Education Reform
Opinion -In his 1987 book, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, educator E.D. Hirsch demonstrated that literacy has two key components: the ability to read, and an assumed base of shared factual knowledge conveyed by the words being read. -
Legislation Would Sink EPA/FDA Ban on Asthma Inhalers
Opinion -A bipartisan effort is underway in Congress to snuff out an administration proposal that would ban most types of asthma inhalers. -
Sound Science and the EPA: An Insider’s Perspective
Opinion -David L. Lewis has a Ph.D. in microbial ecology and works for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He also serves on the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia. -
Discharge Petition Would Bring PM, Ozone Bill to a Vote
Opinion -House opponents of EPA's new standards on particulate matter (PM) and ground-level ozone are circulating a discharge petition aimed at bringing the new rules up for a vote. The petition was initiated by Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota). -
Coalition Calls For More Voucher Pilots
Opinion -In a rare liberal-conservative partnership, a broad coalition of progressive leaders from Evangelicals for Social Action joined prominent Republican conservative members of the Renewal Alliance at a September luncheon meeting to launch the “Public -
Florida Education Needs Structural Change, Not More Money: Study
Opinion -Although teacher unions and administrators are promoting a voter initiative to increase public education’s share of Florida’s state budget, a new study shows that the Sunshine State already spends more on education than it spends on any other program