My doom-scroll through “war-breaks-out-in-Europe” news was happily interrupted this weekend by the arrival of Jack Coons new book, “School Choice and the Human Good.” In the foreword to Coons’ collection of essays orignally published on redefinED/reminaginED,Ron Matus, director of policy and public affairs for Step Up For Students, notes: Today,[Read More…]
Tag: Jack Coons
UF’s president stepping down, Florida’s plan to spend federal aid approved, absenteeism, and more
Special session, rising teacher resignations, new Lee school in jeopardy, vaccinations and more
State investigating district, dollars for districts, ‘grow your own’ plan, educator bonuses and more
District under investigation: The Sarasota County School District is under investigation by the state for steering a student with an average IQ into a program reserved specifically for students with severe cognitive disabilities in order to protect the district’s grade from the state. “Staff conduct related to such misrepresentations was systemic in the district and fundamentally violated the Individuals with Disabilities Act, which is based on individualized education derived from an honest reporting of the data,” administrative law judge Diane Cleavinger wrote after hearing a complaint in October from the student’s parents…
Proposed district funding: If Gov. Ron DeSantis’ education budget is approved, $602,282,686 would be distributed proportionately to the state’s school districts through the Florida Education Finance Program for the 2020-2021 school year, with Miami-Dade getting the most at $41,380,556…
Teacher shortage: The Lee County School District is fighting the teacher shortage by offering scholarships for local high school and college students who then commit to teach for at least three years in the district after college graduation…
revisitED: California Dreamin’
Editor’s note: This month, redefinED is revisiting the best examples of our Voucher Left series, which focuses on the center-left roots of school choice. Today’s post from December 2015 describes efforts to put school vouchers on the 1980 California ballot. How the left almost pulled off a school choice revolution[Read More…]
The true unbeliever
Belief has never, for me, been a matter of choice. A natural universe entails a transcendent (if misty) creator. Even in these times of STEM, from nothing comes nothing. And yet, more than a few human minds, some quite celebrated, simply shun that first principle of the very rationality they[Read More…]
Of school choice and human dignity
God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. -Emerson, intellect Picking the school that will teach one’s child is a bracing experience, one not always without issue between the only two persons whose opinions count in American law – or between them and their child. Where parents[Read More…]
Commentary: Of rights and powers: state and parent
Law uses the term “right(s)” in various ways; in its most common version, the concept includes a sub-species called “power(s),” a word that I will deploy here: We say that a scoutmaster has the right and power to expel (or not) the miscreant young Henry from Troop 40; my drill[Read More…]