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

Exceptions are rule for Act 72

  • February 13, 2006

The Times Leader points out the “referendum in name only” aspects of Act 72…which are also present in the various bills winding their way through the General Assembly. For…

Media

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Education

The PHEAA raises: Another pay-jacking

  • January 29, 2006

More on the lobbyist/legislative operative who is now the highest paid state employee … in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Media

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Education

A government big enough to give you everything you want …

  • Nathan Benefield
  • January 25, 2006

There is a theory (articulate in a piece by Mark Bauerlein) that left-wing academics are engrossed in large scale group think, that when large numbers of the radical left…

Media

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Education

PSBA: “Limit School Spending for Cyber Schools”

  • Nathan Benefield
  • January 17, 2006

The Pennsylvania School Board Association has finally come to agree that school spending should be limited to what it actually costs to educate a child: Patriot News – Districts…

Media

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Education

Public nonprofit, privately profitable

  • January 17, 2006

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…

Media

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Education

“Living in an alternate universe”

  • January 16, 2006

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…

Media

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Education

Conservative professors face discrimination

  • January 16, 2006

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.

Media

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Education

The birthplace of school choice

  • January 16, 2006

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.

Media

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Education

John Stossel: ‘Stupid in America’

  • January 13, 2006

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…

Media

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Education

Referendum exemption is blackmail

  • January 10, 2006

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…

Media

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Education

States Throwing Money at Higher Education

  • Nathan Benefield
  • January 10, 2006

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…

Media

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Education

Are American Kids Stupid?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • January 9, 2006

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.

Media

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Education

Unions Win: Florida Supreme Court Rules Against School Choice

  • January 5, 2006

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…

Media

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Education

Rocky Mountain High

  • Nathan Benefield
  • January 5, 2006

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…

Media

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Education

Myths about Public Education

  • Nathan Benefield
  • December 21, 2005

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…

Media

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Education

Court Bans Mention of Intelligent Design

  • Nathan Benefield
  • December 20, 2005

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…

Media

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Education

The public school monopoly hates competition

  • December 18, 2005

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…

Media

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Education

Universal preschool is inviting universal disaster

  • Nathan Benefield
  • December 5, 2005

SF Chronicle article – Universal preschool is inviting universal disaster. Advocates of universal pre-school in Pennsylvania would do well to heed this warning.

Media

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Education

Is the NEA Really a NUT?

  • July 26, 2005

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…

Commentary

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