2020 Democrats Outline Big-Government Education Plans at NEA Forum

On July 5th, ten of the current twenty major Democratic presidential candidates gathered in Houston for the 2019 annual convention of the National Education Association (NEA) to discuss their education platforms before members of the nation’s largest teachers’ union. Present at this forum were: former Vice President Joe Biden, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, California Senator Kamala Harris, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. The answers to the questions and

Congress Deepens the Education Swamp with New Spending Bill

The education swamp-expanding budget process discussed a few weeks ago is now near completion. The table below shows the final levels of difference between this fiscal year and last in the column in bold. Sadly, none of the unconstitutional, wasteful, ineffective programs were cut. The “best” outcome in some cases was that a couple of them were not increased. It is a sad state of affairs, but totally not surprising in an election year. The Senate voted 93-7 to pass the conference report, and the House will vote on it this week. The budget’s education spending is just one of

New Report Exposes Serious Problems with Charter Schools

About a year ago, I wrote about the stunningly precipitous (but deserved) 13-percentage point drop in support for charter schools nationwide. Although these alternative public schools have gained back a modest 5 percentage points this year, other concerning data is coming out showing that charter schools, especially the corporate chain model, are not particularly effective in helping struggling students or turning around poorly performing public schools in neighborhoods where many other factors are in play. Just yesterday, the non-partisan government watchdog group Integrity Florida released a report about charter schools. The report contains a long list of very significant findings, but

POLL: Support for Charter Schools Plummets Nationwide — As It Should

The annual Education Next poll on education issues came out last week, and there was a very surprising finding regarding charter schools. After nearly ten years of very stable support with a high of 72 percent in 2012, support has plummeted in the general public, as well as in both major political parties and among minority groups. It was the largest change in support of any item that was polled. Here is the poll description and their graphic: 39% of respondents say they support “the formation of charter schools,” which is down steeply from 51% in 2016, but still a

2 Reasons Why DeVos’ Education Reform Plan Would Be a Disaster

Charter school and voucher expansion has been a hot topic across the nation at both the state and federal levels. Interest and grave concern about this expansion, especially at the federal level, has intensified from all points on the political spectrum in light of several recent developments: Florida’s bill serving as a trial run, the release of President Trump’s first federal education budget, Secretary DeVos’ recent testimony and speech, and the Jeb Bush-led promotion of these ideas. Betsy DeVos is very correct when she remarked in her prepared testimony about the federal education budget at the US House Appropriations Committee this

Common Core Charter Schools? Why Jeb Bush’s Latest Scheme Won’t Work

It is no secret that Jeb Bush and his close friend and ally, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, are huge fans of charter schools. Bush’s Foundation for Florida’s Future (FFF) and his national Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) are pushing charter-friendly laws in a number of states, with Florida being a major example. There is a dizzying array of charter bills in Florida this legislative session, with several slated to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds diverting funding away from public schools. Some were publicly vetted for only a few minutes in appropriations committees instead of substantive