Education is the first stepping-stone on the path to success, but Pennsylvania students face severe inequality among public school districts. Thousands who can’t afford private school are trapped in failing schools or situations that aren’t the right fit. The solution to this crisis is school choice. By offering families options outside their zip code-assigned district schools, students are better able to find their path to success. Charter schools, tax credit scholarships, education savings accounts (ESAs), homeschooling, and other types of education choice must become a priority in Pennsylvania.

Education

Change He Can’t Believe In

  • Nathan Benefield
  • July 25, 2008

Steve Chapman writes how Barack Obama – the “candidate of change” – rejects school choice (as policy, though he doesn’t practice what he preaches), despite its success. Obama…

Media

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Education

Construction Woes

  • July 23, 2008

A few schools in Pennsylvania are experiencing a money crunch–not because property taxes are too low, but because of school boards’ Edifice Complex. The Bethlehem School District and Danville…

Media

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Education

PHEAA Must Phace the Phacts.

  • July 17, 2008

The Board of Directors of PHEAA (Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Association) too umbrage with our highlighting that government agency’s misuse and abuse of taxpayer dollars.  Our response is…

Media

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Education

School Choice Works

  • Nathan Benefield
  • July 15, 2008

American’s for Tax Reform has a short primer on the success of school vouchers, scholarship, and tax credit programs: There have been a total of ten studies of…

Media

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Education

Obama on School Choice: For or Against?

  • July 14, 2008

The Cato Institute blog reports that Barack Obama told members of the American Federation of Teachers he is opposed to school vouchers, when referring to the “tired rhetoric about…

Media

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Education

For Autism, Try Vouchers, Not Mandates

  • Nathan Benefield
  • July 11, 2008

John LaPlante points out on SPN Blog that instead of health care mandates, autism advocates should be pointing to tax credits or scholarships for autistic children. As opposed to…

Media

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Education

Preschool Study: No Evidence of Lasting Benefits

  • Nathan Benefield
  • July 9, 2008

Adam Schaeffer writes on Cato-at-liberty that a recent study of universal preschool only shows what critics of government-run day care have been saying: that they offer only short-term…

Media

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Education

PSEA Hissy Fit

  • July 8, 2008

Too many public schools have a Liberace complex and feel no compunction against splurging taxpayers’ hard-earned money. So kudos to the Pleasant Valley School District for trying to lowering…

Media

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Education

School boards have no control over teacher salaries?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • July 8, 2008

Tony Phyrillas laughs at school board members complaining about not having control over things like teacher salaries – you know, the salaries school boards establish (typically through labor contracts)…

Media

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Education

Voucher Valedictorian

  • Nathan Benefield
  • July 7, 2008

Andrew Coulson comments on an NRO article highlighting a DC Opportunity Scholarship recipient who just graduated at the head of her class at Archbishop Carroll High School. The…

Media

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Education

Philadelphia private school managers a failure or success story?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • July 3, 2008

The Fordham Institute blasts a Philadelphia Inquirer story calling the Philadelphia public school’s removal of six private managers a “blow to the experiment”: Kristen Graham of…

Media

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Education

Cyber School Funding Formula: The Wrong Mixture

  • July 1, 2008

State Rep. Karen Beyer, along with the Rendell administration, lobbyists for the teachers unions, and the school boards association, has been doggedly seeking to reduce funding for Pennsylvania’s public cyber…

Commentary

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Education

Shady Accounting at the Pennsylvania Department of Education

  • Elizabeth Stelle
  • July 1, 2008

Allegheny Institute’s latest policy brief reveals how the Pennsylvania Department of Education classifies federal monies as local tax revenue. “By making it appear that the local revenue…

Media

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Education

The Liberace Complex?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • June 27, 2008

The York Daily Record has a story on the South Eastern School District paying $97,000 for – wait for it – a grand piano. I may have to…

Media

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Education

Academic progress? Think again

  • Elizabeth Stelle
  • June 25, 2008

A new study by the Center for Education Policy claims significant improvement in student achievement across the country. The Cato Institute discounts the study…

Media

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Education

School Officials Raise Salaries Again

  • June 24, 2008

An article in the Pottstown Mercury today highlights the salaries of school officials in the Pottstown School District. The school board voted on raises for administrators twice in the…

Media

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Education

“Intellectual Diversity” means no Milton Friedman?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • June 23, 2008

Several University of Chicago professors are protesting the university’s plan to unveil a Milton Friedman Institute, because that would “reinforce among the public a perception that the university’s faculty…

Media

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Education

State pre-K program “getting results”?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • June 17, 2008

The PA Department of Education issued a statement, patting themselves on the back, claiming that the “Pre-K Counts” program was working as intended. They cite an increase in…

Media

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Education

Abandoning The SAT – Fraud or Folly?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • June 14, 2008

Interesting discussion about universities ending use of the SAT at Wake Forest (presumably applicable to the ACT – which I took, and scored crazy high on) at Minding the…

Media

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Education

Popping the Tuition Bubble

  • Nathan Benefield
  • June 13, 2008

Interesting article in The American about the idea of financing higher education by promising a set portion of future earnings for loans. The idea of “human capital contracts” was…

Media

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Education

Putting Children Last

  • Nathan Benefield
  • June 11, 2008

The Wall Street Journal blasts efforts by Democrats—coerced by the teacher’s unions—to end the DC Opportunity Scholarship program, a program which saves kids from failing schools and…

Media

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