One of the big, untold stories in Florida education over the past decade has been the rising academic achievement of Hispanic students. As researcher Matt Ladner has pointed out, on the fourth grade NAEP reading test, Hispanic students in Florida now tie or outscore the statewide average for ALL students[Read More…]
Catholic Schools
Christian Dallavis, working to revitalize Catholic schools – podcastED
Catholic schools used to be neighborhood schools. Many of them served immigrant familes. But since 2000 alone, more than 1,700 have closed in the United States, leaving voids in communities and diminishing school choice options for families who could use them now more than ever. In an effort to change that, the University of[Read More…]
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What other nations are telling us about educational diversity
This essay was first posted at the CLR Forum by the Center for Law and Religion at St. John’s University School of Law. By Ashley Berner In a recent column for the New York Times, David Brooks argued that a healthy society requires a “thick ecosystem” in which diverse organizations[Read More…]
Retracing America’s path away from pluralism
This essay was first posted at the CLR Forum by the Center for Law and Religion at St. John’s University School of Law. By Ashley Berner Let me begin with a thought experiment. Suppose that a majority of parents in a school district wished their children to have a traditional[Read More…]
The ‘technocrats’ need not fear religion
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius didn’t set out to make life hard on Catholic hospitals, and it is not difficult to imagine why a guardian of health would come down on the side of contraception. But New York Times columnist David Brooks makes an enticing point as[Read More…]
Why it matters that compulsory education can mean private schools
The modern school choice movement was made possible by the 1925 Supreme Court decision, Pierce v. Society of Sisters. This unanimous decision struck down an Oregon law, which was strongly supported by the Ku Klux Klan, requiring all Oregon children be educated in government-run schools. The law was part of[Read More…]
School choice, subsidiarity and the common good
Subsidiarity is an organizing principle rarely discussed outside the Catholic Church and the European Union, and it’s a shame so few academics and advocates of school choice in the United States talk about it. It is a principle that is skeptical about the ability of large bureaucracies to trump smaller units[Read More…]
Dozens of Philly Catholic schools to close or combine
From The Philadelphia Inquirer: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia plans to close four Catholic high schools and 44 elementary schools will be closed or partnered with other schools, officials told school administrators and priests at a close-door meeting at Neumann University this morning. West Catholic, St. Hubert, Monsignor Bonner-Archbishop Prendergast in[Read More…]