ReformK12.com: Table of Contents of "School Choice" Archive

SCHOOL CHOICE Category Archive

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Note: At right is a list of the 13 entries in the "School Choice" archive (most recent first). Below, the entries are listed again in expanded form, with a short excerpt or summary from each entry.

School Choice Archives

Free Market Triptych (part one): Parental Choice March 31, 2004
We are convinced that if K-12 education were to become more like the rest of the world--that is, if it were to join the free market--many of the problems we now face with failing schools (and the wild pendulum swings of governmental mandates in response to failing schools) would disappear in short order. While there are several different aspects of...

Posted by ceb into Charter Schools , Homeschooling , Parents & Community , School Choice
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Myth of "creaming" and school choice March 16, 2004
In Townhall.com's C-log this week, they report on the "creaming argument" that schools of choice (usually charter schools and recipients of voucher students) "cream" the best and the brightest from the public school population. The traditional argument is that public schools will suffer because only the best students will make the choice to switch to a school of choice, either...

Posted by ceb into Charter Schools , Misconceptions , School Choice
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Black Alliance for Educational Options February 27, 2004
Last night we attended an membership reception hosted by the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) in Philadelphia (at right is Dawn Chavous, chair of the Membership Committee). While we've been a member for about two years, this is the first event we've attended. These folks are passionate about increasing educational options for children--our kind of people! And what is...

Posted by ceb into Parents & Community , Racial Issues , School Choice , Vouchers

The point to vouchers: Helping parents pay for private school February 26, 2004
One of the favorite arguments against vouchers is the "all or nothing" attack. Specifically, if the vouchers can't pay for all kids to go to any private schools, then the whole voucher program must be rejected. Here's a simple little graph illustrating how silly this argument really is. Assuming a $5,000 voucher, we've graphed whether private school is "affordable" at...

Posted by ceb into School Choice , Vouchers
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Joe Nathan on Charter Schools February 19, 2004
We like to describe Charter Schools as schools that are essentially publicly funded but privately run. (Full disclosure: We've worked for no fewer than five inner-city charter schools.) An excellent book on the subject is Charter Schools: Creating Hope and Opportunity for American Education, by Joe Nathan. He shares an interesting annecdote about a conference that was held in Boise,...

Posted by ceb into Charter Schools , School Choice
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A Discussion of Vouchers February 19, 2004
Some recent commentary by fellow edublogger (and good guy) Jeff Hellman over at So You Want To Be A Science Teacher centers on criticism of Bush's education policy ideas. We'll be the first to tell you we're not big fans of federal education policy, but we'd like to correct some misunderstandings about the whole concept of vouchers. Jeff writes: I'm...

Posted by ceb into School Choice , Vouchers
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Argument against Choice: Mass Confusion! February 18, 2004
The good people from the Green Mountain State are debating school choice. From the Center for Education Reform's Newswire today (not yet available online): Two-thirds of those who testified before the Vermont House Education Committee spoke in favor of school choice. The few who testified against the proposal offered dire predictions of balkanization and mass confusion on the part of...

Posted by ceb into School Choice
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The whole point of charter schools: Choice February 14, 2004
A battle was waged recently in California, where supporters of charter schools won a court ruling to be able to use closed public schools in which to open theirs. Which makes perfect sense to us: if a school is not being used, why not permit a charter school to utilize the space? Fortunately, the California Supreme Court upheld the ruling,...

Posted by ceb into Charter Schools , School Choice

Parents who move to areas with good public schools are hypocrites? February 04, 2004
The headmaster "who is writing Tony Blair's biography" has some truly bizarre things to say about education in the UK Independent today. According to the article, Dr. Anthony Seldon, who is a headmaster of a private school, feels that "middle class parents who move homes to get their children into better state schools are the 'real moral hypocrites' of the...

Posted by ceb into School Choice
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Criticism of Vouchers, Defense of Monopoly January 31, 2004
Over at Assorted Stuff, Tim Stahmer says U.S. Secretary Rod Paige is "Full of it" simply because he has positive words for vouchers and negative words about the government monopoly over schools in poor neighborhoods. He quotes from a CNN article: Paige said the experiment "isn't about dismantling the public school system. And this isn't a plan to federalize the...

Posted by ceb into Politics , School Choice , Vouchers
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"The Bottom Line" in public and private schools January 18, 2004
One of the arguments against privatization in K-12 education is the jaundiced view that "they're just going to look out for the bottom line." This is true, they've got to make their payroll and pay their utility bills, so yes, money is the bottom line. But this is a specious argument because the unspoken assumption is that other K-12 entities...

Posted by ceb into Misconceptions , School Choice
Comments (3)

Choice for Me but not for Thee January 07, 2004
We get a melancholy kick out of hearing the statistics of how many public school teachers and politicians send their kids to private schools. These same two groups seem to be disinclined to permit parental choice by others, namely the poor. Our delight in blatant hypocrisy is tempered by the sad fact that the vast majority of poor parents have...

Posted by ceb into School Choice
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Thwarting Charter School Efforts January 06, 2004
From today's Center for Education Reform's Newswire, we have the story of a charter school application which was denied on some suspicious grounds. One of the more creative reasons for denying a charter application can be found in Portland, Oregon, where a team of administrators recommended to Portland’s District School Board that they deny a charter application because it called...

Posted by ceb into Charter Schools , School Choice , Success Stories