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SchoolReformers.com
insiderUpdate
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Items in this update:
o FROM THE EDITOR
o Senate deal would allow vouchers for tutors
o Moratorium approved on new Texas charter schools
o Texas governor opposes moratorium on charter school grants
o Indiana charter-school operators are raring to go
o Connecticut putting charter schools under the microscope
o Missouri Senate moves to thicken charter regulation
o Maryland house approves charter schools bill
o Homeless homeschooled teen aces SAT
o Number of homeschooled kids rises as school shootings climb
o Parents can't wait for today, when private schools pick students
o Virginia school officials urged forgery to get federal dollars
o Gates foundation helps charter dreams come true
o Schools debate the popular core knowledge concept
o In Vermont, modest school choice proposal meets resistance
o Chile's longtime voucher plan
o School choice groups team up
o A look at charter schools in the nation's capital
o Limited school choice in Michigan: how is it working?
o Are public schools conning parents?
o Vermonters for Better Education
o The Vermont Education Report
o Interview with the principal of Cesar Chavez High School
Dear Fellow School Reformer,
Current events once again demonstrate that the school-choice revolution
will continue to be a local, not federal, phenomenon.
The big news this week is that although the Senate is ditching most of
Bush's voucher proposal, at least kids trapped in failing schools would be
allowed to use federal monies to hire tutors, if a tentative agreement
survives final rounds of negotiation.
Back in the President's home state, the current Texas governor is voicing
opposition to a moratorium on new charter schools in that state. Texas has
joined the list of several other states
where enemies of school choice are busy throwing broken glass in the path
of charter schools. Their argument: since a few charters fail, none should
be allowed to get started. (Of course, the educrats don't take the same
tactic when addressing failed public schools, or we'd already have a
completely free market
in education.) The governor says such a moratorium would harm parents and
kids. Connecticut, Maryland, Missouri and Indiana are among the states
where pro-school-choice and anti-school-choice forces are doing battle
over charters.
Meanwhile, one homeschooler is proving that you can earn top academic
honors without even a home, let alone a school. Turns out that even more
important than bricks, mortar and bureaucrats are personal dedication and
parental involvement. Ya live and ya learn.
Yours for school choice,
David M. Brown
Editor
SchoolReformers.com
http://www.schoolreformers.com
NEWS REPORTS:
Senate deal would allow vouchers for tutors
----------
Key senators and the White House have negotiated a tentative agreement on
an education bill that excludes a White House proposal to spend public
money on private schools but would allow students in persistently failing
schools to take federal dollars for private tutoring.
(04/10/11)
http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=
30budget.h20
Moratorium approved on new Texas charter schools
----------
The Texas House tentatively approved a measure that would place a two-year
moratorium on creating charter schools,
a retreat from President Bush's education agenda as governor. (04/05/01)
http://www.dallasnews.com/texas_southw
est/330174_skul_05tex.ART.html
Texas governor opposes moratorium on charter school grants
----------
Governor Rick Perry said failing charter schools should be shut down, but
opposes a proposed two-year moratorium on granting new charters.
"Don't put children and parents in a disadvantage ... when there are
charter schools out there serving our children well, serving the parents
of these children well," said Perry at a news conference.
(04/05/01)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/
metropolitan/870056
Despite uncertainty, potential Indiana charter-school operators are raring
to go
----------
by Michelle McNeil Solida
Despite the wrangling in the Statehouse, people already are lining up for
their chance to break new ground in Indiana and open the first charter
schools. (04/03/01)
http://www.starnews.com/news/politics/ar
ticles/charter0403.html
Connecticut putting charter schools under the microscope
----------
When Jane Oliveras signed her son up for a new farm-based high school, the
charter school existed only on paper.
Oliveras has long been won over as a charter school fan. But now Common
Ground and five other charter schools
will have to prove themselves to a different audience: a state Department
of Education team. (04/05/01)
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?n
ewsid=1631621&BRD=1281&PAG=
461&dept_id=7573&rfi=6http://www.
ctnow.com/scripts/editorial.dll?bfromi
nd=408&eeid=
Missouri Senate moves to thicken charter regulation
----------
The Senate has passed legislation changing state requirements for the
operation of charter schools. The special schools operate as public
schools but without traditional rules and oversight. A 1998 Missouri law
authorized them in Kansas City and St. Louis only.
(04/04/01)
http://www.digmo.org/news/local/premi
um/0404local7226.html
Maryland house approves charter schools bill
----------
The bill also would give groups wanting to start charter schools the right
to appeal to the state Board of Education. (04/07/01)
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/educa
tion/A52259-2001Apr7.html
Homeless homeschooled teen aces SAT
----------
Trevor Loflin might be described as a homeschool student -- except that
his family didn't always have a home. Loflin
scored perfect 800s on both the verbal and math sections of the Scholastic
Aptitude Test, proving that intelligence and dedication can overcome lack
of
privilege and government "help." (04/06/01)
http://thekcrachannel.com/sac/news/local
news/stories/news-localnews-574672200
10405-100458.html
Number of homeschooled kids rises as school shootings climb
----------
After a spate of publicity for horrific shooting sprees on public school
grounds, the number of children being
taught at home has tripled from about 500,000 in the mid-1990s to at least
1.5 million this year. (04/09/01)
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3a
d0b10d3273.htm
Parents can't wait for today, when private schools pick students
----------
by Mary MacDonald
Susan Gruber, admissions director for the lower school, was sympathetic
but unyielding. Admission notification
letters were mailed in a single batch Friday morning. Everyone finds out
today, she explained. (04/07/01)
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/aj
c/epaper/editions/today/local_news_a3e
c1c11a43ba0b8006f.html
Virginia school officials urged forgery to get federal dollars
----------
Intrepid student journalists at West Springfield High School in Fairfax
County, Virginia, revealed that school officials urged students to forge
their parents'
signatures on forms that help determine the level of federal funding.
(04/05/01)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn
/articles/A40534-2001Apr4.html
Gates foundation helps charter dreams come true
----------
by Marjorie Coeyman
"We got a call saying, this is someone from Harvard and someone from
the [Bill and Melinda] Gates Foundation and
we're interested in your school," recalls Dee Thomas, one of the
directors of the Minnesota New Country School. The foundation recently
offered the staff a $4.3 million grant to help replicate their innovative
charter school at 15 sites. (04/03/01)
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001
/04/03/fp15s1-csm.shtml
Schools debate the popular core knowledge concept
----------
In the drive to reform American education, no effort has captured the
public imagination quite like the
return-to-the-classics approach of E.D. Hirsch. And no effort has provoked
more debate about what students
really need to learn. (04/10/01)
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premiu
m/local/docs/core10.htm
In Vermont, modest school choice proposal meets resistance
----------
House Bill 104 is hitting some resistance on the road to passage. The bill
would allow some money to follow the
child to the school of his or her choice under the modest public high
school choice bill passed last year. (04/09/01)
http://www.schoolreport.com/vbe/nlet/0
4_09_01.htm
Chile's longtime voucher plan
----------
by Bess Keller
The father of the world's most ambitious school voucher program doesn't
get a lot of mention from proponents of such arrangements. He's Augusto
Pinochet Ugarte, the Army general who hijacked Chilean democracy in 1973
and
may yet stand trial for political crimes. Today, more than 40 percent of
Chile's primary students attend private schools. (04/11/01)
http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug
=30chile.h20
School choice groups team up
----------
by Debra Viadero
Arizona's Goldwater Institute and Michigan's Mackinac Center for Public
Policy, two state-based think tanks
that share similar agendas, announced plans last week to join forces on
education issues. (04/11/01)
http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=
30charter.h20
A look at charter schools in the nation's capital
----------
With charter school enrollment in the District soaring every fall, the
question is no longer Charters Yes or No. The question is, what's
happening in the classroom? And what comes out of the schools? Here's a
look at five schools." They saw an opportunity to do what they had
dreamed of doing, to become unshackled." (04/08/01)
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/educ
ation/A35561-2001Apr4.html
COMMENTARY, OPINION, AND BOOK REVIEWS:
Limited school choice in Michigan: how is it working?
----------
by Matthew J. Brouillette
"Participants in an April 2 symposium at Howard University's School
of Law heard how Michigan children are benefiting from choice in the form
of charter schools and other public-school alternatives."
(04/06/01)
http://www.mackinac.org/3394
Are public schools conning parents?
----------
by Myron Lieberman
If parents are getting a favorable but unjustified assessment of the
educational progress of their children, they are much less likely to be
interested in alternatives to public schools. (04/09/01)
http://www.educationpolicy.org/MLcolum
n/MLcolumn-040901.htm
INSTITUTES, ORGANIZATIONS, AND CLUBS:
Vermonters for Better Education
----------
The web site of Vermonters for Better Education and David Kirkpatrick's
"School Report." VBE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization
whose mission is to enlist
parents and the public at large in achieving quality educational
opportunities for all the children of Vermont.
kirkdw@aol.com
http://www.schoolreport.com/
MAGAZINES AND PERIODIC COLUMNS:
The Vermont Education Report
----------
A weekly e-update on educational news in Vermont that includes reports on
school choice.
http://www.schoolreport.com/vbe/edre
port.htm
AUDIO AND VIDEO:
Interview with the principal of Cesar Chavez High School
----------
In this brief video clip, Cesar Chavez High School Principal Irasema
Salcido talks about the charter school she started and her hopes for
education in the District.
(04/05/01)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/
mmedia/metro/040501-4v.htm
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