On our launch

August 11, 2008 · Filed Under In the News · Comment

The Maine Heritage Policy Center noted our launch of School Choice Virginia with this blog post.

The launching of the advocacy group won praise from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which today published a column from Saxman arguing in favor of school choice. Predictably, the teacher’s union in Virginia responded with a call to oppose choice, which tells you all you need to know about how interested the entrenched powers are in maintaining the status quo.

Tags: Chris Saxman, headlines, School Choice Virginia

School choice makes headlines…

August 10, 2008 · Filed Under Uncategorized · Comment

Healthier school choices: “Once Coastal Empire Montessori gets up and running this school year, Savannah-Chatham system administrators will have two life-sized laboratories from which to draw conclusions about the possible expansion of the alternative teaching method to other school campuses. If both Montessori schools mark higher student achievement numbers than those of other schools, Savannah-Chatham school board members should consider emulating that success elsewhere.”

Charter prospectus cites failings: “Proponents of a new Gloucester charter school have painted a bleak portrait of the education provided by the city’s existing school system in a prospectus sent to state regulators to convince them of the need for a new, independent public school.”

Perry superintendent preaches unity: “The fact that we have a school choice model among our elementary schools builds a sense of ownership of their school when a community member personally selects the school that they want their child to attend.”

Reason Foundation Releases Annual Privatization Report: “In the 2007-08 school year, 347 new charter schools opened in 40 different states. The five states with the largest school choice programs are Florida (39,000 students), Pennsylvania (38,000 students), Arizona (28,000 students), Wisconsin (19,000 students) and Ohio (14,000 students).”

To Be Pro School Choice is to Be Pro-City: “If parents in these neighborhoods cannot get their kids into the right public school, and cannot afford private schools, they will leave the city. Bosnian refugees just came here in the last 15 years and they are already flocking in droves to South County for better schools and other immigrant groups are following them. African-Americans are leaving the city in high numbers for this reason and others and working-class whites have been leaving for decades.”

How to Bring Innovative Ideas To a Machine-Politics State: “New Orleans is now a boom town for charter schools. Louisiana is, as of June, the ninth state to offer school vouchers, through a $10 million Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program. The out-the-door line of parents applying for vouchers last month at the Dryades YMCA in New Orleans confirms the appeal of better, more accountable schools. (Unfortunately, the state will give scholarships to only 870 students this year.)”

Tags: Charter Schools, headlines, Reason Foundation