Sparking the evolution of education choice
I am grateful to Rebecca Sibilia and Sean Gill for their thoughtful response to my blog post encouraging Michelle Rhee to replace her failing schools model of school choice with an approach based on equal opportunity. Rebecca and Sean defended StudentsFirst’s support of the failing schools model on pragmatic grounds.[Read More…]
In recent weeks, Tony Bennett, Florida’s new education commissioner, and Michelle Rhee, the CEO of StudentsFirst, offered conflicting rationales for supporting school choice. Bennett told participants at a National School Choice Week event in Tampa, Fla., that school choice is a necessary condition for equal opportunity and social justice. Low-income[Read More…]
Florida earns a C- for policies and program aimed at empowering parents, but that’s good enough for a No. 4 ranking nationally, according to a report card released today by StudentsFirst. Overall, the state earned a No. 2 rank – and a B- grade – from the report, which looked[Read More…]
Fresh from Sean Cavanagh at Education Week, after interviewing Michelle Rhee at the DNC: Rhee was skeptical of Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s proposal to allow parents to use federal Title I and special-education money for private school vouchers. While Rhee backs vouchers for impoverished students in academically struggling schools, she said[Read More…]
Editor’s note: This is our second installment of “blog stars,” a compilation of thoughtful material from other ed blogs. If I missed something good, by all means let me know at rmatus@stepupforstudents.org. Jay P. Greene’s Blog: Much to Learn About Vouchers Rhee Still Has Michelle Rhee’s faith in regulation is odd.[Read More…]
Michelle Rhee and I are members of the same political tribe. We’re progressive Democrats. Throughout most of the 1800s and into the mid-1970s, our tribe supported school choice, including allowing parents to use public funds to help pay for private school tuition. Our group’s position began to change in the[Read More…]
