Free Republic

December 2, 2009School Choice and the Common Good of All Children by Kevin E. Schmiesing Ph.D. The United States justifiably celebrates its pluralism. The mandate to find unity in diversity—e pluribus unum—is predicated not on the premise that all peculiarities of creed or color must be washed away; instead, it insists that all such cultural and social differences must be respected. Part and parcel of this freedom is the right of parents to educate their children as they see fit. Like all rights, this one carries with it a duty: to prepare the child adequately for participation in society by...

What began as an experiment in 1992 has become 5,043 charter schools in 39 states and the District of Columbia, providing nearly 2 million American families with opportunity not available in the public school system. Jeanne Allen, president of The Center for Education Reform, said parent demand fueled the rise. "No other form of school choice has provided such a dramatic impact on the lives of so many students," she said, "and no other reform has had the teeth to push conventional public schools to be better like charters have."

We’re All Right-Wing Bastards Now—that is, if the NEA’s logic is to be believed. 20 November 2009 On the last day of the National Education Association’s convention this summer, its outgoing general counsel, Bob Chanin, gave a speech for the ages. After sharing fond recollections of his 41 years as the NEA’s top lawyer, he switched gears and started lobbing grenades at “conservative and right-wing bastards,” including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. The NEA and its affiliates, by contrast, were “the nation’s leading advocates for public education and the type of liberal social and economic agenda that...

Kevin Chavous is an African American and former Democratic city council member from Washington, D.C. He says he’s an Obama supporter, but he is distinctly unhappy with the president. Elections may have consequences, but no one expected that the White House would be so brazenly petty as to allow poor minority children in the nation’s worst school district to become the victims of political score-settling. That’s exactly what happened when the Obama administration killed off the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program several months ago. Of course, if the White House thought that it could pay off the powerful teachers’ unions, and...

A Charter for Achievement Allie Winegar Duzett, October 20, 2009 While bureaucrats everywhere puzzle over how to make public school test scores look good, one charter school principal has figured out how to make them go up without score keeping gimmicks. Ben Chavis is a unique man with an uncommon background: he grew up as a sharecropper on a Native American reservation in North Carolina, and today he leads and operates an impressive charter school—for fun. Every year, Chavis donates his salary back to the school, and uses the money to take the oldest class of children to visit Washington,...

The Patrick administration urged approval of a controversial Gloucester charter school earlier this year, over the fierce objections of city residents and the advice of state specialists, based not on its merits but because it would further the governor’s political agenda, according to a recently published e-mail.

Another respected poll is out that shows the American public overwhelmingly favors school reforms opposed by the union that is misnamed the National Education Association. On two issues in particular, the public is far ahead of the NEA. The annual poll, released late last month by Phi Delta Kappa International, a professional association for educators, in conjunction with Gallup, demonstrated strong majority support for charter schools and merit-pay systems for teachers. But the power-hungry union consistently puts roadblocks or stultifying restrictions on these reforms. The poll found that nearly two out of three Americans favor charter schools. The NEA, however,...

A lawsuit is challenging Idaho officials who contend the state constitution forbids use of the Bible in a charter school opening this fall. The Alliance Defense Fund has filed an action against the Idaho Public Charter School Commission on behalf of Nampa Classical Academy, which, the ADF reports, was threatened with the revocation of its charter if it uses the Bible or any other religious documents or text as part of its curriculum resources. "The Bible shouldn't be singled out for censorship in public schools, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that it is entirely constitutional for...

Villaraigosa joins rally in support of schools resolution August 25, 2009 |  2:12 pm Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa added his voice to a rally in support of a plan to give charter schools access to 50 new schools scheduled to open over the next four years in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Villaraigosa spoke outside district headquarters before a crowd of at least 2,000 charter-school parents and supporters who drove or were bused in for the occasion. Most wore light blue shirts emblazoned with the slogan: “My Child, My Choice.”“We’re here today to stand up for our children,” Villaraigosa...

August 17, 2009 Dear xxxxx: The Caps Hurt Kids rally is at the Bell Tower in Richmond's Capitol Square (9th and Franklin Street) at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Certain rules do apply to events at the Capitol: No parades are allowed on Capitol Square (We'll be playing music, but resist the temptation to form a Conga Line). No stick-holding placards will be permitted (bring a sign, but no stake). No food may be served. No parking will be available on Capitol Square. No signs or other items are permitted to be placed on the Capitol Square fence. Please remember these...

A new charter school planning to open this fall in Idaho has come under fire since it publicly announced one of the textbooks students will be using is the Bible. Unlike a typical public school, the Nampa Classical Academy has the freedom under Idaho's Public Charter School Commission to develop its own curriculum. Students will be taught, for example, Latin and Western civilization, but it's the school's choice to use the Bible as a historical and literary text that has ignited a public firestorm. At a meeting of the Public Charter School Commission, parents stood and argued for and against...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is set to announce on Friday a competition for $4 billion in federal grants to improve academic achievement in U.S. schools, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. Obama wants states to use funds from the competition, dubbed the "Race to the Top," to ease limits on so-called charter schools, link teacher pay to student achievement and move toward common U.S. academic standards, the Post said. Charter schools receive public funding but generally are exempt from some state or local rules and regulations. They are operated as an alternative to traditional public schools.

PHILADELPHIA, PA—Kevin O’Shea, 50, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty today to mail fraud, theft from a federally funded program, and filing a false tax return, stemming from his role in defrauding the Philadelphia Academy Charter School (“PACS”), announced United States Attorney Michael L. Levy. O’Shea admitted to stealing between $400,000 and $1 million from PACS by: (1) using approximately $710,000 in PACS’ funds to purchase a building in the name of his purported non-profit business; (2) demanding kickbacks from PACS vendors; (3) submitting for reimbursement at least $40,000 in fraudulent invoices for personal meals, entertainment, home improvements, and gas and telephone...

During its late conference held during the Independence Day holiday weekend, the National Education Association took up a series of new resolutions that targeted charter schools. The union was looking for ways to reign in the success of charter schools to make their own woeful attempts at education in the public schools look better. The union was also looking for ways to cash in on charter school's success as well as for a way to get more union oversight into them. But, here is the thing: when they work, charter schools work because they have less union meddling involved in...

Some D.C. public charter schools continue selective admissions practices that discourage special-needs students from enrolling, and students citywide with possible disabilities still face delays in special education evaluations, a federal court monitor said this week. "Charter schools . . . generally have not enrolled students with significant disabilities who required extensive hours of special services or education," the monitor, Amy Totenberg, wrote in a report prepared for a court hearing yesterday.

As the Obama administration pushes for more charter schools, a teachers' union is pushing for a bigger role in them. It's a new development for the charter school movement, a small but growing — and controversial — effort to create new, more autonomous public schools, usually in cities where traditional schools have failed. On Tuesday in New York, the United Federation of Teachers expects to formalize a contract with teachers at Green Dot New York Charter School in the Bronx, a high school run by Green Dot, a nonprofit group that operates charter schools. Ten other New York charter schools...

Oakland, California's American Indian Public Charter Schools are quickly gaining a reputation. Well, two reputations, actually. One reputation is for being aggressively anti-union, and weeding out teachers who try to peddle New-Agey education philosophies. The other reputation is for delivering the best education in California... ranking in the top 4 in the state, and the only top California school serving inner-city kids

Spitting in the eye of mainstream education Dave Getzschman Students sit in detention at American Indian Public Charter school in Oakland for offenses ranging from getting up during class or skipping a problem on a homework assignment. Students who misbehave in the slightest must stay an hour after school; if they misbehave again in the same week, they get more detention and four hours of Saturday detention. Three no-frills charter schools in Oakland mock liberal orthodoxy, teach strictly to the test -- and produce some of the state's top scores. By Mitchell Landsberg May 30, 2009 Reporting from Oakland --...

The fight against poverty produces great programs but disappointing results. You go visit an inner-city school, job-training program or community youth center and you meet incredible people doing wonderful things. Then you look at the results from the serious evaluations and you find that these inspiring places are only producing incremental gains. That’s why I was startled when I received an e-mail message from Roland Fryer, a meticulous Harvard economist. It included this sentence: “The attached study has changed my life as a scientist.” Fryer and his colleague Will Dobbie have just finished a rigorous assessment of the charter schools...

"This afternoon, more than 1,000 students, parents, and concerned citizens gathered across from city hall to rally in support of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. A number of prominent D.C. leaders spoke, including former mayor Anthony Williams and former councilmember Kevin Chavous....."

President Obama will seek to extend the controversial D.C. school voucher program until all 1,716 participants have graduated from high school, although no new students will be accepted, according to an administration official who has reviewed budget details scheduled for release tomorrow. The budget documents, which expand on the fiscal 2010 blueprint that Congress approved last month by outlining Obama's priorities in detail, would provide $12.2 million for the Opportunity Scholarship Program for the 2009-2010 school year. The new language also would revise current law that makes further funding for existing students contingent on Congress's reauthorization of the program beyond...

Washington, D.C.'s school voucher program for low-income kids isn't dead yet. But the Obama Administration seems awfully eager to expedite its demise. About 1,700 kids currently receive $7,500 vouchers to attend private schools under the Opportunity Scholarship Program, and 99% of them are black or Hispanic. The program is a huge hit with parents -- there are four applicants for every available scholarship -- and the latest Department of Education evaluation showed significant academic gains. Nevertheless, Congress voted in March to phase out the program after the 2009-10 school year unless it is reauthorized by Congress and the D.C. City...

I won't make any pretense. The Obama position on abortion makes him someone I could never support. But I look for signs of goodness in the man; some indication that he may be anything other than a cold hearted, calculating successful politician who has risen on other than his charisma alone. But what I'm about to elaborate on here only re-enforces my belief that Barack Obama is exactly that, a cold hearted calculating politician who would sacrifice and withhold nothing to please his god of political correctness and secular humanism, and also please the others who worship along with him....

APRIL 15, 2009 The Union War on Charter Schools As New York shows, they want to kill any education choice. By JAY P. GREENE On education policy, appeasement is about as ineffective as it is in foreign affairs. Many proponents of school choice, especially Democrats, have tried to appease teachers unions by limiting their support to charter schools while opposing private school vouchers. They hope that by sacrificing vouchers, the unions will spare charter schools from political destruction. But these reformers are starting to learn that appeasement on vouchers only whets unions appetites for eliminating all meaningful types of choice....

In his new book, Work Hard. Be Nice., Jay Mathews claims that the Knowledge Is Power Program is the "best" program serving severely disadvantaged, minority-group students in America today. Let me begin—before I'm denounced as a traitor to the cause of educational reform—by saying that I'm inclined to agree. The improbable story of how KIPP was founded in 1994 by David Levin and Michael Feinberg, two young Teach for America alumni in Houston, is thrilling and worthy reading. KIPP's mission has been akin to putting the first man on the moon: an all-out education race, requiring extraordinary, round-the-clock dedication from...

FRESH evidence of charter schools' success should put President Obama on the spot: Will he put his muscle where his mouth is? This month, Obama issued a direct challenge to the more than two dozen states like New York that have arbitrary, teachers-union-imposed "caps" on the number of charter schools they allow to operate. But if he's serious, he's going to have to put force behind his words. Charter schools have a track record as labs of innovation and high-achievement but the unions hate them, because . . . well, because charters' teachers are rarely unionized. A new, wide-ranging report...

Senate Democrats have dealt a setback to a Republican-sponsored school voucher program that gives schoolchildren in the nation's capital the chance to attend private schools. The Senate voted 50-39 along mostly party lines to reject a bid by Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign to extend the program beyond the 2009-2010 school year. That leaves in place a provision contained in a huge spending bill that requires Congress and the Washington, D.C. government to re-approve the program. Republicans say that is likely to kill it. About 1,700 mostly low-income and minority students kids receive the $7,500 vouchers, which offer an alternative...

President Barack Obama embraced merit pay for teachers Tuesday in spelling out a vision of education that will almost certainly alienate union backers. A strategy that ties teacher pay to student performance has for years been anathema to teachers' unions, a powerful force in the Democratic Party. These unions also are wary of charter schools, nontraditional educational systems that they believe compete with traditional schools for tax dollars. Obama, however, also spoke favorably of charter schools, saying that where they work, they should be encouraged....

Democrats are taking away funding for DC area kids

Democrats are once again proving that "choice" as it relates to children applies only to killing them, not to parents choosing where to educate them. Sorry, but for pro-choice politicians to argue against school choice shows that they care only about the teachers unions that elect them, and not for the lives of the people they represent. The Washington Post called congressional democrats on their hypocrisy in an editorial today: REP. DAVID R. Obey (Wis.) and other congressional Democrats should spare us their phony concern about the children participating in the District's school voucher program. If they cared for the...

Government Spending: Did anyone really think $787 billion would be enough to quench the Democratic Congress' thirst for play money from the taxpayers? Now they want $410 billion more.In addition to solar water heaters for rural Puerto Rico and the Raul Alvarez Golf Course in Austin, Texas, Obama administration sources say the U.S. is also planning to relieve taxpayers of $900 million for Gaza, much of which can be expected to land in the pockets of the terrorist group Hamas, which runs the region. To a family being foreclosed on, or a businesswoman forced by tough times to close up...

  'The mayor is like Noah, he is throwing out a life preserver and I'm going to grab it,' Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Brooklyn Diocese said at City Hall Saturday. In attempt to keep cash-starved Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens from closing, the city may convert them into charter schools, Mayor Bloomberg announced Saturday. "We are in a flood," Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Brooklyn Diocese said at a City Hall press conference. "The mayor is like Noah, he is throwing out a life preserver and I'm going to grab it." The diocese has identified four schools in...

WASHINGTON (AP) - On the rockiest day of his young administration, President Barack Obama did what surely made him happy for a while. He left. With little notice, the president and first lady Michelle Obama bolted the gated compound of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in their tank of a limousine on Tuesday. They ended up at a Washington public school, greeted by children who could not care less about the collapse of a Cabinet secretary nomination. "We were just tired of being in the White House," the president candidly told the gleeful second-graders at Capital City Public Charter School. "We got...

First Lady Michelle Obama told a young school girl who said she wanted to be First Lady when she grew up, "It doesn't pay much."Mrs. Obama made the remark today at the Capital City Public Charter School in Washington where she and President Barack Obama paid a visit to students. After taking turns reading from a picture book on the 1969 moon landing by the Apollo 11 astronauts whose theme was for young people to dream big dreams for their lives, the President asked the students if they wanted to be an astronaut. One student did, another wanted to be...

Obamas read to DC school children in surprise stop By BEN FELLER The Associated Press Tuesday, February 3, 2009; 2:24 PM WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have made a surprise stop at a public school to read to children. The Obamas were at the Capital City Public Charter School in northwest Washington Tuesday. The president told a group of gleeful second-graders: “We were just tired of being in the White House.” ...snip...

U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama talk to second grade students at the Capital City Public Charter School (Lower School) in Washington February 3, 2009.

Economically disadvantaged African-American students in public charter secondary schools are twice as likely to score advanced or proficient in math and reading as their peers in the city-run schools.

Students in the District's charter schools have opened a solid academic lead over those in its traditional public schools, adding momentum to a movement that is recasting public education in the city...

Barack Obama bragged about Charter Schools in his debate with John Mc Cain. Are you curious what kind of Charter Schools he would support? No, Not ordinary ones where children can learn to read and write. Why would he support something that innocent and constructive? Obama "type" Charter schools, like the ones in Chicago will teach children on the Illinois Taxpayers dime the EVILS of white men. And how about throwing in the wonderful qualities of their HERO, Che Guevara. They can learn how to be just like him! As you watch this video, notice the Hispanic anchor woman at...

A picture of Joyce McGautha superintendent of the Urban Community Leadership AcademyUrban Community Leadership Academy 1524 Paseo Boulevard Kansas City, MO 64108 816-483-8035Principal: Joyce McGauthaGrades: 5-9Sponsor: University of Central MissouriClick Below to listen to Joyce McGaetha the school superintendent admit she knew the kids  were being taped and didn't see a problem with it. She is just upset it was posted on youtube. Joyce%20McGauthe%20on%20Stigall%20100608.mp3Here is the original video: Obama Youth Regiment LYRICS:"Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega,""Because of Obama, I'm...

Finally, Obamas Greek pillars in Denver make sense. In the Greek story of the Trojan War, Odysseus sought to gain entrance into Troy, so he cleverly devised a large wooden horse to conceal himself along with Greek soldiers. Tricked into believing the horse would bring them good luck, the Trojans dragged the horse into Troy --ignoring two skeptics (one of whom was Cassandra, the Trojan princess). Like a modern day Odysseus, Obama is plotting to smuggle the National Education Association (NEA) into charter schools. But since charter school supporters would certainly not fall for a large wooden horse today, Obama...

<p>DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - Barack Obama is promising to double funding for charter schools and replace inferior teachers, embracing education reform proposals normally more popular with Republican candidates.</p> <p>The Democratic presidential nominee says both parties must work together to improve education, according to remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday at a suburban high school gymnasium. The pitch was an appeal to moderate voters in this presidential election swing state, where the fight over education reform has been the focus of a longtime partisan battle.</p>

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) released their annual school report cards this week, and the results show that two taxpayer-financed Islamic charter schools operated by officials of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have failed miserably yet again. But protected by powerful political connections, including Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, and apparently indifferent to their exploitation of the Somali children that comprise the vast majority of their students, the Islamic extremists running the operation appear to have no fear of losing their cash cows. In fact, Ohio educrats have renewed one school’s contract after five...

The District will use a $7.5 million education reserve fund to pay for the seven former Catholic schools slated to reopen as secular charter schools next month, and it will be able to find more money if necessary, officials said this week. The D.C. Council allocated $366 million in May for 63 charter schools as part of its fiscal 2009 budget. Financing for the Center City Public Charter Schools was omitted, officials said, because Center City's application was not approved by the charter school board until June 16.The Catholic school conversions are unusual, they said, because most charters spend 12...

The fact that charter schools have posted some of the highest state test scores among Buffalo schools this year speaks to the validity of what was once considered an educational experiment. As recently reported, a couple of city-based charter schools posted math and English test results among the best of any schools in Erie and Niagara counties — and charter schools significantly outperformed the city’s traditional public schools. Tapestry, South Buffalo, Elmwood Village and Buffalo United consistently ranked in the Top 10 among all Buffalo schools in the recent math and English tests. Community, Westminster and Pinnacle schools appeared in...

The Greenvilleoneline.com has a very interesting article about the **amazing** successes of charters. Charter schools deserve supportSouth Carolina was slow in creating charter schools, but Recent test results show seventh-graders scoring 80 percent proficient in math and 66 percent in reading, up from 16 percent in math and 20 percent in reading.

Education Reform: An inner-city public school in Los Angeles has a zero dropout rate and a college-bound senior class. What's the secret? Hard work, high standards, flexibility and choice. Do the candidates notice?This year's graduating class at View Park Preparatory Charter High School is impressive by any standard. Fifty-eight of the 67 seniors, all African-American, will be attending four-year universities, with one heading to the Air Force and the others going to two-year schools. Remarkably, all the students who started at View Park in the ninth grade were in the graduating class — this in an area where the dropout...

(snip) The best way to determine how students fare in charter schools is to compare them to students who applied but were not admitted by lottery (which many charter schools are required to hold when oversubscribed). Studies based on lotteries allow the comparison of apples to apples, while other studies, unable to control fully for preexisting differences between the students who attend charters and traditional public schools, end up comparing apples to zebras. The only lottery-based analyses released so far were conducted by Stanford University economist Caroline Hoxby. Examining New York City’s charter schools, she found that students admitted by...

Debt Doesn’t Deliver : Charter Schools Are a Better Option Matthew Ladner, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, March 24, 2008 “Crazy for loving you,” Patsy Cline crooned. She must have been singing about district schools. Bill Clinton famously defined “insanity” as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result every time. Apply that notion to Governor Napolitano’s repeated calls for the state to incur huge levels of debt in order to build school district facilities. We have better options. Charter schools operate with fewer taxpayer dollars, and with no state funding for facilities. Charter schools make up nine out...

Barack Obama has been backing off post-partisan rhetoric on education, looking more like a stick-in-the-mud Democratic regular on schools and less like the reformer who supported test-based accountability and performance pay for teachers. The Chicagoan had bucked teachers' unions and other stodgy liberals, supporting charter schools in Illinois and mentorship programs in Washington, Josh Patashnik writes in the New Republic. But a campaign-hardened Obama is sounding more like a traditional lefty, waffling when the issues get tough and even employing an advisor who has worked to kill the avant-garde Teach for America (which subverts certification standards cherished by unions). Patashnik...