A rendering of California’s Piedmont Unified School District’s new, $66 million STEAM building. The affluent district raises thousands more for each student in local property tax than nearby mostly not-rich and not-white Oakland. Higher education writer and policy analyst Kevin Carey turned in a stirring indictment of school districts as[Read More…]
Education Choice
Prime Minister Boris Johnson should create Assisted Places 2.0
The British Labour Party campaigned on a platform that included a proposal for the state to close independent schools and seize their assets. Such an incredibly illiberal action was justified in the minds of some because private education in Britain, despite efforts at providing financial aid, is very exclusive. Labour[Read More…]
A memo for Jeb Bush
In a recent interview with Sal Khan, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suggested we need a common term for concepts such as mastery-based learning, personalized learning, competency-based learning, individualized learning and customized learning. “We need to come up with a name that everyone uses,” Bush told Khan at a recent[Read More…]
Public support for education choice continues to surge as some presidential candidates swim upstream
While the reasons for Democratic presidential candidate and leading anti-charter stalwart Elizabeth Warren’s nearly 13-point polling plummet are multifaceted, a recent public confrontation with school choice supporters and the revelation that she sent her son to a $17,000-a-year private school likely contributed to the decline. Warren’s strong anti-school choice stance[Read More…]
Florida DOE includes ed choice expansion in strategic plan
Following disappointing results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, released in October, the Florida Department of Education remained optimistic about the state’s future during a recent presentation of its strategic plan for 2020-25. No. 2 on its list of four goals presented at the November Board of Education meeting:[Read More…]
The 74 interview: Jack Coons on rethinking school funding, restoring authority to low-income families and his role in the Serrano v. Priest cases
Editor’s note: Long-time education choice advocate and redefinED guest columnist Jack Coons recently sat for a three-hour interview with Bellwether Education co-founder Andrew J. Rotherham and Emmeline Zhao, senior editor for special projects at The 74. The result, in Rothman’s words, was “a thoughtful, thorough and once-in-a-lifetime conversation” in which[Read More…]
podcastED: an interview with education choice advocate Virginia Walden Ford
Editor’s note: For more than two decades, education choice advocate Virginia Walden Ford has tirelessly championed families and students living in lower-income neighborhoods to ensure that all children have the academic options they deserve. After growing up in Little Rock, Ark., during the battle for school integration, Walden Ford led[Read More…]
Even out here, education choice for Eli
Editor’s note: To learn more about Eli and to hear his story in his mother’s words, please watch the video at the end of this post. LaBELLE, Fla. – In his family’s backyard, Eli Conner, 13, wobbled across a 20-foot tightrope, pretending to be the hero in a rescue scene[Read More…]