Education
Pa. Senate Committee Advances Lifeline Scholarships for Students in Failing Schools
Harrisburg, Pa., May 7, 2024 — Today, the Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee advanced Senate Bill (SB) 795, a bill to establish Lifeline Scholarships for children in failing schools. Sponsored by state…
Read More: Pa. Senate Committee Advances Lifeline Scholarships for Students in Failing SchoolsPennsylvania’s future is in the hands of the next generation. Parents and students—not activist agendas—should drive the Commonwealth’s education policy. While policymakers have been entrusted with ensuring the next generation receives a quality education, parents should be empowered to choose the quality education that meets their unique child’s needs. Charter schools and tax credit scholarships are integral pieces of school choice, but more reforms are needed to make school choice a reality for all Pennsylvania students.
Education
Public nonprofit, privately profitable
The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, a taxpayer-supported, government-monopoly student loan organization, will pay its top executive, Dick Willey, nearly a half million dollars in 2006, reports the Harrisburg…
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“Living in an alternate universe”
The Brownsville Area School District recently voted to give administrators some retirement benefits that no private sector would even consider–Nine years of free healthcare insurance for retiring early. As The…
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Conservative professors face discrimination
Commonwealth Foundation Adjunct Scholar and Villanova University associate professor of political science Bob Maranto in the Philadelphia Inquirer on how diversity on college campuses excludes conservative academics.
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The birthplace of school choice
John Fund of the Wall Street Journal says the “front lines of today’s civil rights struggle are not in the South but in Milwaukee.” Read Fund’s Political Diary.
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PA is national leader on teacher strikes
Pennsbury School District parent, Simon Campbell, nails the teacher strike issue in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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John Stossel: ‘Stupid in America’
John Stossel plans to look at how the public schools are failing kids tonight on ABC. ‘Stupid in America’ will ask the question: Does the U.S. government’s monopoly over public…
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Referendum exemption is blackmail
From the York Dispatch… Thumbs Down to Rep. Stan Saylor’s proposal to amend property tax reform legislation to an extent that renders taxpayer approval impotent when it comes to increases…
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States Throwing Money at Higher Education
An analysis of state spending on higher education from The Chronicle of Higher Education shows that overall spending increases substantially outpaced inflation. While the article’s perspective (and the perspective…
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Are American Kids Stupid?
I love John Stossel reports – this Friday (on 20/20) he asks, “Are American Kids Stupid?” The answer, of course, is no, but our monopolistic public school system is.
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Unions Win: Florida Supreme Court Rules Against School Choice
News release from the Institute for Justice…. Florida Supreme Court Strikes Down School Choice Washington, D.C.-In a major blow to education reform in Florida, the Florida Supreme Court today struck…
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Rocky Mountain High
Denver enacts the nation’s first merit pay system for teachers in a large district. See this National Center for Policy Analysis summary of Denver’s new system and other pay…
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Myths about Public Education
Here is short article summarizing a few of the debunked myths about public education spending: National Center for Policy Analysis – Five Myths About Education. For those still looking…
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Court Bans Mention of Intelligent Design
The Dover Schools case has reached a conclusion: Judge bars the school district from mentioning ‘intelligent design.’ The lesson to take from this sage is that government run schools…
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The public school monopoly hates competition
It was always only a matter of when, not if, the defenders of the status quo in public education would seek to hamstring their competition. First, no charter school…
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Striking teachers strike again…and again…and again…
Students in the northeast PA school district of Crestwood may be getting a few more days off, thanks to the PSEA labor unions efforts to raise taxes on homeowners…
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Universal preschool is inviting universal disaster
SF Chronicle article – Universal preschool is inviting universal disaster. Advocates of universal pre-school in Pennsylvania would do well to heed this warning.
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Is the NEA Really a NUT?
Is the NEA really a NUT? By asking, I’m not casting aspersions on the National Education Association’s sanity, just on its choice of name. The NEA’s British counterpart really is…
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Throwing a Party for the Educational Status Quo
The National Education Association recently concluded its annual convention in Los Angeles, gathering 8,000 delegates in celebration of the status quo in public education. When attendees weren’t offering a vigorous…
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The Union Behind the Curtain
California’s Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is giving his 49 colleagues across the country a quick tutorial in political courage. And Gov. Ed Rendell would be wise to sit up in class…
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School Choice Works!
A Quick Guide to the Scholarly Literature on School Choice During a recent round of visits with print journalists, I spoke to a newspaper editor who told me that she…
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The Somerset Nine: Pennsylvanias Magnificent Seven
What does it take for school board members to be fiscally responsible with taxpayers’ money? For the nine members of the Somerset Area School District (SASD) board of directors, the…
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