Recently, I was at a technology conference near Phoenix and decided to drop by my old high school which I hadn’t visited since I graduated in… well, let’s just say when chalk was considered the go-to classroom technology.

Some things have changed since I graduated from Saint Mary’s, such as a new campus and fewer priests and sisters; but the culture of the school has remained the same &#Continue Reading »

Mike Petrilli argues for public school choice in the suburbs today. He suggests that residents in “affluent, leafy suburbs” deserve school choice, too. Okay. Except, mostly, those parents already exercise choice–and inside the public school system.

They just move. Ask any realtor in a plummy neighborhood–most of their potential buyers have more data on the local sContinue Reading »

Last week’s GAO report on special education in charter schools prompted the predictable dust-up between charter advocates and opponents. Opponents hailed the report as evidence that charter schools cheat the public system by failing to serve as many special needs students as regular public schools do. Advocates responded that the GAO unfairly compared charter schools with public school systems:Continue Reading »

A couple weeks ago, when the Romney campaign unveiled its education plan, I predicted that it would quickly be characterized as a voucher program because it dares to include private schools in its choice proposals. Sure enough, in its first major story about the Romney plan, the nation’s newspaper of record, The New York Times, did just that on Tuesday.

It was no small task. The Continue Reading »

In recent posts on The Quick and The Ed, Education Sector staff members have discussed the downsides of Romney’s recently announced school choice plan.  Policy Analyst Anne Hyslop argued that with school choice, a student’s educational opportunities will depend on the engagement and capabilities of the parent, as well as the luck of the lottery.  Under Romney’s plan, students with unengaged or Continue Reading »

Dear Kevin, Mike, Checker, and all you other edu-writers:

Voucherize is not a word.

A voucher, at least when one is referring to the use of public money to subsidize parental school choice, is a noun. While it may be popular with McKinsey, et al. to transform everyday, snooze-inducing nouns (like incentive) into a slick, shiny action verb… I expect more from you.

InsContinue Reading »

Unveiling his education plan for the nation, presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, today spoke first for the principle of school choice. He promised, if elected, to use federal dollars to encourage states to offer more choices to students from low income families, including traditional public schools, charter schools, digital schools—and private schools, if states allow it. Continue Reading »

The New York Times’ most emailed articles list typically does not include the most hard-hitting journalism. Instead, the list features pet stories about Ivy League graduates forced to wait tables or, this week, parents paying for their middle-aged daughters to freeze their eggs as grandparent insurance. Monday morning’s list, however, had an important story that examines a tradeoff poseContinue Reading »

Image Credit: Flickr User, Mollivan Jon

Last week Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson announced that the city’s school district would transform itself from a command-and-control bureaucracy into a confederacy of schools operating with greater-or-lesser autonomy, depending on their performance. Charter schools as well as district-operated ones would participate, witContinue Reading »

Editor’s Note: Last week, Education Sector released On Her Majesty’s School Inspection Service, which outlines how school inspections have become part of the accountability system in England. Would such a system work in the U.S.? We asked a variety of education experts to weigh in with their thoughts. We’ll share them throughout the week, and we encourage you to share your reactions as weContinue Reading »