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=====> SchoolReformers.com insiderUpdate ========================
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Items in this update:
o FROM THE EDITOR: Thumbs up for homeschoolers
o Kentucky homeschooler wins victory
o A home-grown success: inside the homeschool coup
o Former homeschool critic now advocates movement
o Reduced voucher plan dies in Senate
o Senate rejects voucher plan for low-income parents
o PTA politics blamed for low membership
o School vouchers rejected by Senate
o Death of federal education voucher belies successes elsewhere
o School choice backers take case to lawmakers
o Interview with Chester E. Finn Jr. on K12, a new online school
o Should charter school principal have allowed the fight?
o Terry Moe discusses his new book on vouchers
o Certification doesn't equal teacher quality
o Bureaucracy would ruin charter schools
o Republican school voucher plans need independent research
o The math wars
o Schools don't have to be public to serve the public good
o Vouchers or tax credits for full school choice
Dear Fellow School Reformer:
Well, it's official. Famed conservative radio talk show host and
moral-admonition dispenser Dr. Laura -- once a skeptic of the homeschool
movement -- now finds that she is recommending it more and more.
"I don't know if I've gotten more enlightened or the movement has
grown or
both, because now I am recommending it constantly," she says. "I
am an
enemy of the public-school system because of the liberal forces that have
taken it over and are determined to do social engineering there ..."
Meanwhile, homeschoolers have won a legal victory in Kentucky, where a
backward circuit court judge was trying to coerce a teenager, "Sarah
D.,"
back into public school against her will. An arrest warrant for the mom
had
already been overturned on appeal. Sarah's ill health had precipitated the
decision to homeschool.
And CNS reports that the latest spelling-bee victory -- by a homeschooler,
Sean Conley -- is making it that much harder to disparage the homeschool
movement as cockamamie and marginal. Last year all three finalists were
homeschoolers. And though it's guesstimated that only 2 percent of the
nation's children are taught at home, some 10 percent of this year's
spelling bee participants are homeschoolers.
This year's winner had taught himself to read by the age of 2 and been
schooled at home most of his life. Given such mental ability, it could
well
have been disastrous to turn Sean over to the educrats.
Yours for school choice,
David M. Brown
Editor
SchoolReformers.com
http://www.schoolreformers.com
==> NEWS REPORTS <==
Kentucky homeschooler wins victory
----------
A Kentucky circuit court judge overruled a lower court's
decision to force a homeschooled teen into public school
until she was 18, saying home schooling is a fundamental
parental right. (06/06/01)
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23116
A home-grown success: inside the homeschool coup
----------
Once the red-headed stepchild of education, the
homeschooling movement is using the ESPN-televised stage
of the National Spelling Bee to demand the attention of
a country that's slowly -- and grudgingly -- giving it
respect. (06/06/01)
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200106/CUL20010
606a.html
Former homeschool critic now advocates movement
----------
One of America's best known talk show hosts has apologized
to homeschoolers. For years, Dr. Laura Schlessinger had
been openly critical of homeschooling. Whether through
becoming more enlightened herself, or because the
movement has grown, or both, she finds herself
recommending it constantly. (06/05/01)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20010605-10764404.htm
Reduced voucher plan dies in Senate
----------
Senate Republican leaders, unable to deliver all their own
members for President Bush's school-choice plan, lost
their effort to make that proposal part of the
administration's education reform package. (06/13/01)
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010613-8225436.htm
Senate rejects voucher plan for low-income parents
----------
The Senate defeated an amendment today that would have
permitted low-income parents in 10 cities to use
taxpayer dollars to send their children to private and
religious schools. (Site requires registration.)
(06/13/01)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/13/politics/13EDUC.html
PTA politics blamed for low membership
----------
The Parent Teacher Association is a century old, but
membership is off in recent years. Its close
relationship with teachers' unions, oppositions to
school vouchers and tax cuts, and endorsement of victim
disarmament and sex education are all cited as factors.
(06/11/01)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,26850,00.html
School vouchers rejected by Senate
----------
In a move that cripples federal-level efforts to pass
school vouchers, the Senate defeated an amendment that
would have permitted low-income parents in 10 cities to
use taxpayer dollars to send their children to private
and religious schools. (06/13/01)
http://www.dallasnews.com/national/392181_vouchers_13nat.html
Death of federal education voucher belies successes elsewhere
----------
This year's school reform debate shows again that big
causes -- in this case, offering private alternatives to
struggling public schools -- often advance in small
steps. The question is whether those increments over
time add up to something more. (06/11/01)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/06/11/MN68892.DTL
School choice backers take case to lawmakers
----------
The forces that support Milwaukee school vouchers are
taking their case to Madison this week, arguing that the
choice program saves the state money and has spurred
private investment in the city. (06/09/01)
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jun01/choice10060901a.asp
Interview with Chester E. Finn Jr. on K12, a new online school
----------
"Homeschoolers are a natural audience, but so are
'virtual'
charter schools - and millions of families that may want
to supplement their children's regular schooling by
gaining access to, say, a terrific math or art program."
(06/07/01)
http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/interrogatory060701.shtml
Should charter school principal have allowed the fight?
----------
"Anyone who knows the school, and knows Mr. Wells, feels
the same way,'' said Debbie Sawaya, co-owner of The Pub,
across the street from Champion Charter School. "I don't
think he's teaching violence -- he's preventing it."
(06/07/01)
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/158/metro/Principal_says_he_chose_the_less
er_evil+.shtml
For more news reports see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/resources/bycategory/news/
==> INTRODUCTIONS AND FAQS <==
Terry Moe discusses his new book on vouchers
----------
Transcript of a talk by Moe, plus Q&A. "The
[voucher]
movement has made great strides over the last 10 years
or so. But...where is all this headed? Now, is this
movement going to transform this education system or is
it just going to die out? Or are we going to get
something in between, some kind of a mixed system?"
(06/07/01)
http://www.brookings.org/comm/transcripts/20010607.htm
For more Introductions and FAQs see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/resources/bycategory/brief/
==> SCHOLARLY AND IN-DEPTH STUDIES <==
Certification doesn't equal teacher quality
----------
by Matthew J. Brouillette and Aaron Davis
"The shortage of public school teaching candidates in
Oregon is exacerbated by the state's certification
requirements. In fact, certification does not guarantee
qualification but can deter some of the best and
brightest from entering the classroom."
http://www.cascadepolicy.org/pdf/edref/2001_17.pdf
Bureaucracy would ruin charter schools
----------
by Jeff M. Judson
"Some legislators are now attempting to impose the same
and
worse regulations on charter schools as have failed to
make traditional public schools efficient. In addition,
they have established a two-year moratorium on the
issuance of any new charters." (06/08/01)
http://www.tppf.org/pau/2001/pau060801.html
For more Scholarly and In-Depth Studies see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/resources/bycategory/in-depth/
==> COMMENTARY, OPINION, AND BOOK REVIEWS <==
Republican school voucher plans need independent research
----------
by Philip Gailey
Voucher opponents says both sides should put cards on table
and give fair test to theories. "Maybe it's time for the
same Congress that doles out education tax breaks for
the well-off to authorize a limited pilot program that
would focus on helping poor children stuck in some of
our worst-performing schools." (06/10/01)
http://www.sptimes.com/News/061001/Columns/Republican_school_vou.shtml
The math wars
----------
by David Ross
"Imagine if I tried to get my daughter to learn numbers
without using the recited number series; imagine if I
tried to get her to devise her own method for
determining how many." (05/01)
http://www.objectivistcenter.org/pubs/nav_4_5_art_the_math_wars.asp
Schools don't have to be public to serve the public good
----------
by Josh Hall and Charles Byrne
According to Byrne and Hall, "increasing choice in
education will not destroy the public schools, in fact,
we expect it will make the public schools stronger.
Only those that believe education is a zero sum game
think that the success of one child comes at the price
of another child's failure." (06/01)
http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/oped/hall-byrne%20oped.htm
Vouchers or tax credits for full school choice
----------
by Matthew J. Brouillette and Joseph P. Overton
"Mackinac Center policy analysts weigh the pros and cons
of
these two school-choice options." (06/07/01)
http://www.heartland.org/education/jun01/credits.htm
For more Commentary, Opinion, and Book Reviews see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/resources/bycategory/commentary/
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