|
--------------------------------------------------------------
SchoolReformers.com insiderUpdate
--------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe or unsubscribe:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/networ
k/insiderUpdate.html
Items in this update:
o FROM THE EDITOR: We told you so.
o Massachusetts at war with homeschoolers
o Massachusetts: tough state to homeschool your kids?
o Bush takes heat for surrendering on vouchers
o More parents are knocking on doors of private schools
o Charter success stories
o Bronx charter class gets a social studies lesson from Pataki
o Florida passes voucher, tax credit legislation
o Bill called a try for vouchers
o NYC school board goes on voucher field trip
o Parochial schools need vouchers, says NYC board of ed head
o Learn in freedom
o 100-word answers on separation of school and state
o Facing the classroom challenge
o How Catholic schools serve low-income children in Los Angeles
o Sell the schools
o America's re-education camps
o Poking holes in 'education reform' rhetoric
o Teddy takes Dubya to school
o Cobbett's Caveat
o The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home
Dear Fellow School Reformer:
Last week we noted that the U.S. House hammered the final nail in the
coffin of federally sponsored school-choice. This week we have a report
that some school-choice proponents are upset that the President has given
up so easily on his voucher proposal. We knew Bush would cave. We
predicted this years ago.
Would that Bush had abandoned his education package altogether. For many
reasons (what exactly those reasons might be is left as an exercise for
the reader), even more federal meddling with education is not a good idea.
Nor does that quaint historical document, the U.S. Constitution, empower
the feds to deal with education in any way. (But perhaps the folks in
Washington are as much victims of public education as the rest
of us and have never become fully acquainted with the clauses of that
text. Here's Amendment X: "The powers not delegated to the United
States
by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to
the states respectively, or to the people.")
All the school-choice action is local. And these days, there are more ways
than ever for parents and kids to avoid overbearing governmental
oversight. Demand for private schools is booming. Legislation continues to
move forward on the tax credit and voucher front, most recently in
Florida.
And homeschooling, perhaps the most direct and sure way of taking matters
into your own hands, has also become increasingly popular option. But as
Michael and Jenny Brunelle found out, you have to be careful of where you
live if you want to spend your time educating your child instead of
fighting the know-nothing educrats. Some districts will just leave you
alone, others want to horn in at every turn.
So ... look before you leap.
Yours for school choice,
David M. Brown
Editor
SchoolReformers.com
http://www.schoolreformers.com
NEWS REPORTS
Massachusetts at war with homeschoolers
----------
Michael and Jenny Brunelle made the mistake of moving to Lynn in 1993 and
trying to homeschool their children.
They were criminally prosecuted in Essex County for failing to send their
children to public school. They had refused to sign an agreement with the
Lynn Public
Schools that would give permission for random home inspections. (05/03/01)
http://www.massnews.com/531town.htm#1
Massachusetts: tough state to homeschool your kids?
----------
Massachusetts is "kind of a mixed bag," says the vice president
of a MA homeschool organization. "While some
school districts use every bureaucratic method at their disposal to make
life miserable for homeschooling
parents, others do all they can to leave homeschoolers alone." Stay
out of Lynn, MA, homeschoolers say. (05/03/01)
http://www.massnews.com/531town.htm
Bush takes heat for surrendering on vouchers
----------
While President Bush is winning passage for most of his education
proposals, he's largely abandoned his most reformist idea: school
vouchers. Many supporters are upset that he's conceded the field so
easily. (05/07/01)
http://www.dallasnews.com/national/35970
7_bushed-07nat.A.html
More parents are knocking on doors of private schools
----------
Across America, applications to private schools are up -- in some cases,
by eyecatching percentages. "The No. 1
consideration by far is [parents'] assessment of the performance of public
schools and their assessment of
whether private school is better," says Terry Moe, a professor of
political science at Stanford University. (05/08/01)
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/0
5/08/fp18s1-csm.shtml
Charter success stories
----------
"Fourth grade Michigan Educational Assessment Program scores at
Detroit, Michigan's Colin Powell Academy rose
from 13 percent satisfactory in 1996 to 54 percent in 2000. Seventh grade
reading scores also rose from 21 percent
satisfactory to 50 percent in 2000." Links to charter triumphs for
each day of Charter School Week. (05/04/01)
http://www.edreform.com/success5.html
Bronx charter class gets a social studies lesson from Pataki
----------
Governor George E. Pataki, a prime advocate of 1998 state legislation
creating charter schools, visited Bronx
Preparatory Charter School. In Mr. Stassen's class, the cameras snapped as
Mr. Pataki took questions from the
students: Why did he want charter schools? Has he vetoed any laws? What
does he do every day? (05/05/01)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/05/nyre
gion/05CHAR.html
Florida passes voucher, tax credit legislation
----------
Florida's legislature has passed an expansion of the state's private
school voucher program for disabled children, as well as a tax credit for
corporations that give scholarships to poor children. (05/05/01)
http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/
050501/met_6096455.html
Bill called a try for vouchers
----------
Part of the money raised by Arizona's new education sales tax would pay
for a tutoring program that critics say is
a back-door attempt to set up school vouchers and a power grab by the
state Department of Education. (05/05/01)
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/
articles/0505Vouchers05.html
NYC school board goes on voucher field trip
----------
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani is taking Board of Education members to
Milwaukee on Monday to tour schools that accept publicly financed tuition
vouchers, an indication that the hostile climate toward vouchers within
the board may be shifting. (Site requires registration.) (05/09/01)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/09/nyr
egion/09VOUC.html
Parochial schools need vouchers, says NYC board of ed head
----------
Ninfa Segarra said the city's public schools need the competition provided
by parochial schools. Segarra said
she was saddened by Edward Cardinal Egan's decision to close three
Catholic schools, including St. Bernard's in Manhattan. "Vouchers
should have provided the opportunity to keep kids in those schools. Kids
would go to these schools if they had vouchers." (05/03/01)
http://www.nypostonline.com/news/regi
onalnews/29822.htm
For more News Reports see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/reso
urces/bycategory/news/
ONLINE RESOURCE DIRECTORIES
Learn in freedom
----------
"This site is about learning in freedom, taking responsibility for
your own learning. It shows you how to use your own initiative in
learning, so you can use
schools and teachers just when they are helpful to you, and voluntarily
chosen by you."
webmaster@learninfreedom.org
http://www.learninfreedom.org/
For more Online Resource Directories see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/resou
rces/bycategory/homepages/
INTRODUCTIONS AND FAQS
100-word answers on separation of school and state
----------
Succinct responses to frequently asked questions on separation of school
and state. A great introduction to the main themes.
http://www.sepschool.org/Questions/100
-word_answers
For more Introductions and FAQs see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/resou
rces/bycategory/brief/
SCHOLARLY AND IN-DEPTH STUDIES
Facing the classroom challenge
----------
by Lance T. Izumi & K. Gwynne Coburn
Part two of a three-part series, "Facing the Classroom
Challenge" examines discrepancies between proven
teaching methods and the promoted methods of teaching in government
schools, such as Constructivism and Discovery Learning. (Adobe Acrobat)
(04/01)
http://www.pacificresearch.org/issues/e
du/challenge/challenge.pdf
How Catholic schools serve low-income children in Los Angeles
----------
by Thomas C. Dawson & Eric A. Helland
"Catholic schools attract thousands of non-Catholic students and
low-income families, despite the fact that scholarships do not cover full
tuition" (Adobe Acrobat) (02/01)
http://www.pacificresearch.org/issues/ed
u/helping/helpinghand.pdf
For more Scholarly and In-Depth Studies see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/resour
ces/bycategory/in-depth/
COMMENTARY, OPINION, AND BOOK REVIEWS
Sell the schools
----------
by Sheldon Richman
In a free society, government would operate no schools. Parents,
controlling their own money, would choose
schools that best served their children's interest. And education
entrepreneurs would offer schools and services
that they believed parents would want to buy. Sound familiar? It's
essentially how we have done religion in this country, and it's worked
rather well. (04/01)
http://www.fff.org/editorial/ed0401b.htm
America's re-education camps
----------
by Wendy McElroy
"This fall, tens of thousands of bright-eyed and probably earnest
young men and women will descend on American campuses to begin their
academic careers in earnest. Most of them will face what we used to call
freshman orientation. More than anything, though, it's looking more and
more like indoctrination." (05/09/01)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,2
4276,00.html
Poking holes in 'education reform' rhetoric
----------
by Deroy Murdock
"Defenders of the educational status quo frequently ridicule school
choice as both misguided and hopelessly ethereal," writes Deroy
Murdock. But school choice
already operates very well -- at the university level. (05/06/01)
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/
murdock042601.asp
Teddy takes Dubya to school
----------
by Paul Gigot
"After inspecting the Senate-House fine print," Bush's education
guru during the campaign now says, "'I'm fairly depressed. It's
Potemkin reform, a facade underwritten by billions in new spending.'"
(05/04/01)
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnis
ts/pgigot/?id=95000415
Cobbett's Caveat
----------
by Marshall Fritz
"Bobbie Gentry, of Jumping-off-the-Tallahatchie-Bridge
fame, once told me, 'Euphemism is a euphemism for lying.'" Fritz
explores the role of plain speaking in arguing for separation of school
and state. (04/01)
http://www.sepschool.org/Cobbett/Eup
hemisms.htm
For more Commentary, Opinion, and Book Reviews see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/reso
urces/bycategory/commentary/
BOOKS
The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home
----------
by by Jesse Wise and Susan Wise Bauer
Step by step, how to give your child an academically rigorous,
comprehensive education from preschool through
high school. Train him to read, think, understand, be curious about
learning. (hardcover, 764 pages, Amazon price $28.00)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A
SIN/0393047520/freemarketnetthe/
For more Books see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/reso
urces/bycategory/books/
--------------------------------------------------------------
end of SchoolReformers.com insiderUpdate
--------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward and copy freely, and include the following message:
If you have any questions, comments, or material to contribute, email the
SRC editor, David M. Brown <david@schoolreformers.com>.
SchoolReformers.com is a service of The Henry Hazlitt Foundation <http://www.hazlitt.org/>
and The Heartland Institute <"http://www.heartland.org/>.
Will you consider making a quick tax-deductible donation to support our
work right now? Click to: https://ssl1.imagiware.com/hazlitt/ccar
d.html
To be removed or added to this list:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/netw
ork/insiderUpdate.html
-----------------------
|
