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Archives: Education / Articles (page 8)

  • ALEC Principles Shine Light on Government Failures image

    ALEC Principles Shine Light on Government Failures

    Sunshine Week, running from March 13 to 19, aims to promote transparency in government, which is a fundamental component of the ALEC principles of limited government, free markets and federalism. The private sector can offer superior alternatives to failing public schools, overly complex healthcare services and expensive infrastructure projects. When government services are transferred to the free market, private companies deliver high-quality public services at far less cost to the taxpayer.

  • Education and Workforce Director Testifies in Missouri about Education Savings Accounts image

    Education and Workforce Director Testifies in Missouri about Education Savings Accounts

    Putting parents back in charge of the direction of their children’s educations allows parents not only to send their students to the schools – public or private – that work best for them, but to actually design customized and flexible education experiences, including tuition, online classes, curricula, textbooks and workbooks, tutoring, and special education therapies, that are as varied as the children themselves. Instead of feeding a child into a system that must, necessarily, be designed around the “average” student, through an ESA program, parents can and have constructed individualized education pathways for their children which capitalize on their unique strengths and shore up their particular weaknesses. But although they are cutting-edge, ESAs are not brand-new or unstudied. As of today, five states – Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Nevada – have passed education savings account programs. If 2011 was labeled the “Year of School Choice”[i] by the Wall Street Journal, 2016 is likely to be the “Year of Education Savings Accounts.”

  • Report Ranks States for Hostility to Parent Choice and Charter Schools image

    Report Ranks States for Hostility to Parent Choice and Charter Schools

    On Tuesday, the Network for Public Education (NPE), a policy group led by well-known school choice opponent Diane Ravitch, published a report grading the states’ education policies. Unlike the…

  • State of the State: Oklahoma image

    State of the State: Oklahoma

    Governor Fallin has traditionally been an ally of limited government, free markets and federalism. However, given the difficult economic circumstances that her oil-dependent state is suffering, the governor and legislature are in a trying position.

  • National School Choice Week Sets Participation Record in 2016 image

    National School Choice Week Sets Participation Record in 2016

    This week, millions of teachers, students, parents and community leaders are coming together to promote and celebrate the merits of school choice.

  • Netflix Billionaire Hopes to Avoid Zuckerberg Donation Mess by Focusing on Charter Schools image

    Netflix Billionaire Hopes to Avoid Zuckerberg Donation Mess by Focusing on Charter Schools

    Earlier this month, Reed Hastings, CEO and founder of Netflix, announced he would donate $100 million dollars to set up a fund for educational initiatives, mainly the creation and maintenance…

  • Five Reasons to Celebrate National School Choice Week 2016 image

    Five Reasons to Celebrate National School Choice Week 2016

    This week is National School Choice Week! Here are five reasons to celebrate school choice this year.

  • Feltscher to Breitbart: Choice for All Students is the Future of American Education image

    Feltscher to Breitbart: Choice for All Students is the Future of American Education

    Late last week, and just in time for School Choice Week, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a universal education savings account (ESA) bill for all of the District…

  • Video: Friedrichs Supporters Stand for Free Speech image

    Video: Friedrichs Supporters Stand for Free Speech

    On Monday morning, ALEC staff gathered with teachers, parents, legislators and grassroots leaders on the steps of the Supreme Court to support Rebecca Friedrichs, a California teacher who is fighting…

  • Rally for Rebecca image

    Rally for Rebecca

    On a freezing Monday morning, dozens of teachers, parents and policymakers gathered on the steps of the United States Supreme Court to cheer on plaintiff Rebecca Friedrichs during oral argument…

  • Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association image

    Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association

    Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association et al. is a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court filed by the Center for Individual Rights on behalf of Rebecca Friedrichs and…

  • Inez Feltscher Defends School Choice in O.C. Register image

    Inez Feltscher Defends School Choice in O.C. Register

    Board members of the Anaheim Union High School District and Superintendent Michael Matsuda took to the Voice of OC news site to argue that charter schools’ “main goal” is to…

  • Supreme Court Set to Review Forced Union Contributions from Teachers image

    Supreme Court Set to Review Forced Union Contributions from Teachers

    Teachers’ unions, like other unions, spend a great deal of money engaging in explicitly political activity like lobbying legislators and supporting candidates. Teachers’ unions have so far represented the strongest political challenge to transformative education reform, such as charter schools, voucher programs and education savings accounts. Unfortunately, that clout is built, at least in part, on the forced contributions of teachers who do not necessarily agree with the actions of the unions.

  • Feltscher to Breitbart: Omnibus Bill Fails to Reauthorize School Choice image

    Feltscher to Breitbart: Omnibus Bill Fails to Reauthorize School Choice

    Adding to other disappointments for conservatives, the FY 2016 omnibus spending bill does not include reauthorization for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP). The District’s scholarship program serves…

  • Inez Feltscher to Breitbart: Washington Budget Deal Neglects Kids in Need image

    Inez Feltscher to Breitbart: Washington Budget Deal Neglects Kids in Need

    American Legislative Exchange Council Education and Workforce Director Inez Feltscher went on Breitbart News Daily with host Stephen K. Bannon to discuss a critical bipartisan failing in the recent budget deal…

  • Feltscher Gives Interview on Education Policy at ALEC Winter Meeting image

    Feltscher Gives Interview on Education Policy at ALEC Winter Meeting

    At the 2015 ALEC States and Nation Policy Summity in Scottsdale, Arizona, ALEC Education and Workforce Director Inez Feltscher chatted with Trent England on MiddleGround Radio on AM 1640 in…

  • Massachusetts Caps Boston Students’ Potential by Restricting Charter Growth image

    Massachusetts Caps Boston Students’ Potential by Restricting Charter Growth

    Looking in from the outside, one would think  this would be a great time to be a charter school operator in Boston. The city’s charter sector has garnered praise for…

  • An “Unconscionable Decision”: League of Women Voters et al., v. State of Washington image

    An “Unconscionable Decision”: League of Women Voters et al., v. State of Washington

    Late last Thursday, the Washington Supreme Court denied all motions to reconsider its decision in a case last month that sent shockwaves through the state’s charter schools. Just earlier…

  • Students Win in Louisiana: U.S. Department of Justice Loses Case to Shut Down School Choice image

    Students Win in Louisiana: U.S. Department of Justice Loses Case to Shut Down School Choice

    A U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against Louisiana’s scholarship law, which some worried might have national implications for school choice – is officially dead after the Fifth Circuit…

  • How States Can Serve Veterans in their Communities image

    How States Can Serve Veterans in their Communities

    As Veterans Day approaches, Americans reflect on how to serve those who have selflessly served this country. With the Pentagon enforcing dramatic force reductions, the best thing state governments can…