School Choice Bipartisanship?

Eagleye Blog ^ | August 28, 2012 | Bethany Stotts

[eagleye85]

President Barack Obama recently gave speeches on higher and K-12 education, making it likely that educational policy is a subject of interest this campaign season. Professor Kevin Welner of the University of Colorado said on August 23, that he thought education was “shaping up to be a major issue” this election cycle. “The president has devoted the past week to education, starting with a radio address on Saturday and continuing with a swing through Ohio and then yesterday he was in Las Vegas talking about budget cuts and teachers and growing class size,” said Welner, also the Director of the National Education Policy Center. “School choice is a big part of the education discussion.”

According to Professor Welner, “Governor [Mitt] Romney has made the voucherization of Title I and IDEA, or special education funding, a centerpiece of his educational policy.” He continued, “Essentially what he’s promoting is federal vouchers and his proposed policy would mark a huge change in the federal role.”

At the forum Western Michigan University Professor Gary Miron also noted at the forum that school choice is quite prevalent in the United States, according to his definition. “It was rather surprising to us to find that in the nation as a whole and across those six categories or six types of school choice that we looked at, close to 30% of the nation’s public school students are choosing another school than the one that they are assigned to,” he said. Professor Miron and Professor Welner are two of the four authors of Exploring the School Choice Universe: Evidence and Recommendations. The six categories of school choice identified in the book are

homeschooling,
cyberschools,
magnet schools
open enrollment policies
school choice between districts, and
tuition tax credits or “neovouchers.”

According to Professor Miron, open enrollment policies and school choice between districts make up the bulk of what the authors consider school choice, with close to 9 million students participating. Homeschooling had approximately 2 million students, charter schools had approximately 1.9 million students, and virtual schools had about 250,000 full-time students, he said.

“Everyone’s a choice supporter now, but we all have to decide, I think, what kind of choice supporter we are,” argued Adam Schaeffer, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, at the event. Alex Medler, of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers agreed, calling school choice a “bipartisan” issue. However, argued Schaeffer, it’s not enough to say you support school choice; we need to get into the “nitty gritty of the policy details.”

[dfwgator]

“Bipartisan” means some larger-than-usual deception is being carried out.

[Mr. K]

After 4 years he decides this is an issue he needs to address?

Just in time for an election too!

How convenient

[Brookhaven]

Why, why, why, why...why do we let the left get away with claiming THEY are going to improve education?

Democrats (and the left) have been running public education in this country for at what? 50 years—half a century! They built the current system. They aren’t going to change it (much less improve it), because what we have now is their design.

Yet, when’s the last time you heard a Republican call out a Democrat on this? Never.

We should be hanging education (and ALL its problems) on the Democrats as a gigantic albatross. They built this system; they own it; they own the problems.

Our appeal to parents should be straightforward. If you like the current system then vote Democrat, because they aren’t going to change anything. They won’t improve it one iota; they are the status-quo education party; what you see is what you are going to get from the Democrats—forever.

If you want to improve education; if you want educational change, then you must vote Republican. That’s the only party that offers even a chance of improving education.

If you are a parent and a loyal Democrat, then you have to make a choice between the two. You can’t be loyal to the Democrats and be loyal to your children’s education. You can do one or the other, but not both.

[SECURE AMERICA]

that he thought education was “shaping up to be a major issue” this election cycle. “

Sorry but this election is about JOBS and DEBT.

[SECURE AMERICA]

If people don’t have full time jobs, if there are no jobs to be found after college, there will be no education period.......
We must produce jobs and we must control our debt (government spending)

[loveliberty2]

Oh, yes, this President whose support by the largest and most intrusive union power in the nation is critical to his re-election, will now promise to oppose them and choose the learning performance of children over protecting the employment rights of the NEA and AFT?

Sure!!!!

And, then, he will advocate for Right To Work Laws in every state, Repeal of Obamacare, and endorsement of Ron Paul for President!

[johnd201]

Even when Republicans controlled both house of Congess, and the presidency Democrats controlled the education system and probably always will. I worked in the Department of Education and was one of only two Republicans in the building for 20 years. Kennedy's staff wrote Bush's No Child Left Behind. EVRY education “change” in the past t20 years has been Democrat sponsored and carried out. It is no exaggeration to say that Democrats are so entrenched in the education system that you will never be able to change. Just changing political parties means nothing in education reform.