“Education reform” on The Daily Caller

Barney Frank recently compared the GOP presidential candidates to “Wizard of Oz” characters. It got me thinking about how the education establishment might accommodate the analogy. (more)

Mike Petrilli recently wrote a thoughtful piece for the Fordham Flypaper blog about how education reformers should respond to the defeat of the SB5 collective bargaining reforms in the recent Ohio referendum. He argues that with respect to teachers’ unions, we shouldn’t be afraid to take them on directly while we also contemplate more structural reforms. In other words, we should not only act like halfbacks, structurally circumventing teachers’ unions when we can, but like fullbacks too, running straight at them when we must (my metaphor). Maybe we should consider eliminating school boards entirely, he suggests. (more)

New Orleans schools are making dramatic strides to improve a once-dismal record. (more)

It can hardly be denied that there are factors outside a student’s control that might affect his grades. How smart he is, how much his parents support education, how nutritious the food in his home is, and how much his older brother distracts him with PlayStation 3. (more)

Based on recent headlines, this would appear to be a glorious year for education reform. After years of wheel-spinning debates, governors in states such as Florida, Connecticut, Indiana and Ohio are blazing fast tracks trying to turn around troubled school districts. (more)

President Obama recently spoke at a Virginia middle school on the topic of education reform, highlighting the need to restructure No Child Left Behind before the start of the next school year. Fixing NCLB and returning power to the states is certainly important, but Obama has a more immediate opportunity at hand. Before this school year is even finished, he can boldly lead on a bi-partisan education issue critical to local families in our nation’s capital. (more)

A New Jersey court, Tuesday, took a step further in effectively tying Republican Governor Chris Christie’s hands on budget and education reform.  Superior Court Judge Peter Doyne ruled that Christie’s budget cuts to school aid left public schools unable to provide a “thorough and efficient” education to New Jersey children. (more)

As you read this, Democratic state legislators across the country are doing something that, 20 years ago, would have been considered politically taboo. (more)

In 2008, teacher assistant Johanna Munoz helped her Orlando-area fourth-graders on the state achievement test. (more)

A just-released study from the Government Accountability Office uncovers massive duplication in federal government programs. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) estimates that the resulting waste costs taxpayers more than $100 billion a year. (more)

In what is becoming a signature move of a defeated political coalition, Democratic members of the Indiana state legislature followed their Wisconsin counterparts and fled Hoosierland this week. Ostensibly done to avoid voting on legislation that would make Indiana a “right-to-work” jurisdiction, the real devil for Indiana Democrats may not be this “union-busting” legislation. After all, private-sector unionization — the bill’s key target — is now the sick old man within labor’s empire. Rather, the real fear of fly-by-night Democrats is recently introduced legislation that would establish path-breaking statewide tuition scholarships enabling students from low and middle income families to choose their own school. By running, these politicians are signaling blanket opposition to the education reform proposals of a conservative coalition led by Governor Mitch Daniels. (more)

Let’s say you know that a third of the just-licensed beauticians at your salon give simply terrible haircuts. Are you game? (more)

In 1993, Sweden introduced a system of school choice and vouchers, inspired by the ideas of American economists Milton and Rose Friedman. Even though the system was just as controversial then as any U.S. voucher proposal, the right to chose your school and bring the funding with you is today considered a natural right for families and is widely accepted by all political parties. (more)

Liberals often argue that conservatives don’t care about children, especially those from low-income families. To the contrary, conservatives are committed to one reform that can actually help such children and requires only a loosening of government control. (more)

Turns out, students spend more time learning how to master a beer pong than they do completing homework for Psych 101. (more)

The American public clearly has Washington fatigue. It wants politicians to move in a different direction, one of cooperation between the new Congress and the Obama administration. We have a unique opportunity to do so in an area where bi-partisanship should be, and historically has been, a natural: higher education. But only if we take a rational, fact-based approach to legislation and regulation. An approach grounded in reality, not bias or ideology. (more)

No one can deny the pitiful state of America’s education system. A college degree once signaled true academic achievement and set the recipient apart. Now it has become as banal as attaining a drivers license. The average high school diploma only qualifies the holder to work at Wal-Mart. Many colleges offer remedial classes in response to the ever-growing crop of ill-prepared high school grads. Plato surely would not approve of the lowering of standards and expectations at the Academy. Reforms enacted to remedy the situation, though noble in their intent, fail to address the real problem. Bipartisan legislation such as No Child Left Behind and Head Start accomplished nothing. Pouring money into underperforming school districts makes little to no difference. Charter schools, vouchers, and merit pay for teachers can only achieve negligible-to-marginal success. (more)

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released results Tuesday of a study that ranks international students in reading, science and math. Their release came as a blow to the United States. (more)

“The movie so succinctly, and so colorfully lays out what went on in the New Jersey education system that it’s not only really informative and really has helped me, but it’s also really entertaining on top of it.” (more)

Many, if not most, discussions of American education begin with curriculum. Do we need more math and science? Are the arts and physical education being ignored or unreasonably minimized? Are the historical “facts” being taught accurate or biased? Is the Constitution or anything to do with civics even in the curriculum? Should the concept of what is now called “intelligent design” be offered as a scientifically sound alternative to Darwinism? Should there be two tracks, one that leads to college and one that leads to trade? These are all valid concerns. (more)