MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'charter'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:24:45 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5158955&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3KbnyKal1m4%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonPhilanthropy Daily has just published the most interesting review to date of my recent charter school philanthropy study (“The Other Lottery“). Scott Walter, an expert in charitable giving in the field of education, looks not only at the central finding (that there is no link between charter networks’ performance and the amount of grant funding they’ve received) but also extrapolates to what the findings imply about the nation’s top education foundations. I’m curious to know if anyone else shares his interest in seeing the numbers crunched to allow education foundations to be ranked in terms of the performance of the charter school networks they have backed. Ping me on Facebook if you’d like to see that. School Reform’s Sh... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5158955 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:10:51 +0100 5158955 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5139701&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5dtKfNMRi2s%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonEarlier this summer, I released a study comparing the performance of California’s charter school networks with the amount of philanthropic grant funding they have received. The purpose was to find out if this model for replicating excellence was consistently effective. The answer, regrettably, was no. But a new study we are releasing today finds that there is at least one place where better schools HAVE consistently scaled-up: Chile. Thanks to that nation’s public and private school choice program, chains of private schools have arisen, and they not only outperform the public schools, they also outperform the independent “mom-and-pop” private schools. For anyone interested in replicating educational excellence, this study by a team of Chilean sch... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5139701 Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:09:48 +0100 5139701 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5096166&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUTcau62NImA%2F By Adam SchaefferAs Neal wrote about earlier, Education Next has released their new poll, and there are some interesting results. Surprisingly, the authors buried the lede in their writeup; education tax credits consistently have more support and less opposition than any other choice policy. This year, donation tax credits pulled in a 29-point margin of support (that’s total favor minus total oppose). In contrast, charter schools had a 25-point margin of support. The authors added a new, less neutral voucher question that boosted the margin of support to 20 points. They couched the policy in terms of “wider choice” for kids in public schools, and the implication was that it was universal. All three of these additional considerations tend to have a positive impact on support for choic... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5096166 Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:41:42 +0100 5096166 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028140&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F2dLM3P5-hxQ%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonThe brass ring of education reform is to find a way to ensure that the best schools routinely scale-up to serve large audiences, crowding out the mediocre and bad ones. Over the past twenty years, the United States and Sweden have taken two very different approaches to achieving that goal, which I wrote about in a recent op-ed. In the U.S., our main strategy has been for philanthropists to fund the replication of what they deem to be the academically highest-performing networks of charter schools. In a recent statistical analysis of California, the state with the most charter schools, I discovered that this is not working out particularly well for us. There is no correlation between charter school networks’ academic performance and the philanthropic funding they&#... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028140 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:01:53 +0100 5028140 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968460&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkA5UIP2HUYo%2F By Neal McCluskeyA Washington Post story from a couple of days ago touts survey results showing a majority of DC parents — 53 percent — finally giving the DC public schools a decent grade. That is, to be fair, a big story. But it certainly isn’t the most overwhelming finding in the survey. That you find mentioned deep in the article: This year, Congress approved an extension of a federal program that provides vouchers to help students from some low-income D.C. families attend private or parochial schools. The survey found that nearly 70 percent of parents with children in the system support such tuition aid. Overall, nearly two-thirds of residents back vouchers, with positive sentiment higher among African Americans. Perhaps even more interesting is that support for cha... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968460 Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:53:16 +0100 4968460 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934096&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJeehXKIZYnY%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonGerilyn Slicker, of the Fordham Institute, offers a brief review of my study of charter school philanthropy in the latest “Education Gadfly” mailing, including the following observation: Note, though, that this analysis is not without fault. The report doesn’t break down spending by pupil (only reporting aggregate grant-giving), nor does it account for student growth over time or for how long the charter networks have been operational. All three of these concerns are worth raising, and the first two of them were actually addressed in the paper itself. The aggregate vs. per-pupil grant funding question is discussed in endnote 15: Note that total grant funding, rather than grant funding per pupil, is the correct measure. That is because enrollment is endogen... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934096 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:02:07 +0100 4934096 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934111&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FQswTor8YJUA%2F By Roger PilonThe liberties we Americans enjoy were hard-won over the centuries. Today we mark a major event in that struggle, the day in 1215 when English barons presented King John with a written list of rights they demanded he recognize. Known ultimately as Magna Carta, the Great Charter, it was a compact between the barons and their king, a political effort by subjects to secure their liberty by placing their ruler under the rule of law, thus limiting arbitrary power. The charter has gone through several iterations, but it drew in part from the common law rights, especially rights of property, that judges in the king’s courts had been finding from reason and custom as they decided controversies the king’s subjects brought before them. What Magna Carta did was bring those same right... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934111 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:05:12 +0100 4934111 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4911461&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FoIlIAaNgQDQ%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonIn December of 1993, Bill Clinton remarked that figuring out how to consistently replicate great schools was the central education policy problem of our age. A generation later, it still is. As someone obsessed with solving that problem, I wanted to know how well our current strategies for achieving it are working. One strategy in particular has attracted the bulk of the funding and attention over the past decade: philanthropists teaming up with what they consider to be the best networks of charter schools, and funding their growth. To find out how well they’ve been picking the winners, I compared the total amount of grant funding received by each of 68 California charter school networks over the past 8 years to the academic performance of those networks. The stud... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4911461 Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:25:05 +0100 4911461 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4330997&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtxU1OBOowuU%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonIn today’s Washington Post, Robert Samuelson argues that the performance of U.S. public schools is at least adequate, and that the relatively low achievement of black and Hispanic students is to be attributed to history and culture rather than to our education system. These claims are not new, and I might well have ignored them if he hadn’t got my Irish up with the off-hand comment that “what we face is not an engineering problem.” (More on that in a second.) First, let’s dispatch the claim that public schooling is off the hook for the poor performance of low-income minority children. I’m currently undertaking a statistical study of the performance of 78 separate charter school networks in California, relative to one another and to th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4330997 Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:50:02 +0100 4330997 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4265686&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fk2hjXnwNZEM%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonThe Brookings Institution released a new study today on charter schooling—assessing how well it’s working and what the federal government should do about it. One of the recommendations reads as follows: Student participation in lotteries for admissions to any public [charter] school and the results of such lotteries should be a required student data element in state or district longitudinal data systems supported with federal funds. Why? Because it would make it a lot easier to measure relative school quality, by permitting more widespread use of randomized, control group experiments. Experiments are certainly great from a researcher’s standpoint, but mandating that schools must admit students on a random basis has a catch: an observer effect as subtl... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4265686 Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:15:37 +0100 4265686 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4003240&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUa11EyTUc1s%2F By Neal McCluskeyTo help kick off “Education Nation” — what NBC is calling an education-intensive week of news programming — Matt Lauer sat down with President Obama on this morning’s Today show. As expected, it was all talk, no real reform. The interview started with a discussion of “Race to the Top,” the President’s $4.35 billion mechanical rabbit designed to make states run to implement ”reforms” the President likes. Lift caps on charter schools. Adopt national curriculum standards. Things like that. As his administration has done for months, the President spared no superlative prasing the thing, saying it is “the most powerful tool for reform that we’ve seen in decades.” Uggh. RTTT did very little of sub... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4003240 Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:05:33 +0100 4003240 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3993874&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FONFbXk-Iu60%2F By Neal McCluskeyYou’ve probably heard it already, but if not, you should know that on Friday the documentary Waiting for “Superman” — from An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim — will be opening in select theaters around the country. The film, about how hard it is to access good education in America thanks to adults putting their interests first, follows several children as they hope beyond hope to get into oversubscribed charter schools. It is said by those who’ve seen it to be a tear-jerker and call to arms to substantially reform American education. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t promote real, essential reform: Taking money away from special-interest dominated government schools and letting parents control it. The movie does... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3993874 Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:47:01 +0100 3993874 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3980811&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FLL4jscd6HXc%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonTen years ago, the American Indian Charter School scored last among Oakland’s public middle schools. Today it’s the top-scoring public middle school in all of California, according to the state’s own Academic Performance Index ranking. What changed? It wasn’t the school’s demographics. American Indian’s enrollment is still almost all low income and minority, and contrary to almost everyone’s expectations, these inner-city kids now outperform their age-mates in even the wealthiest districts in California. And the school accepts all applicants, so, no, they don’t cherry-pick. The only cherry-picking that happens at American Indian is when elite East-Coast boarding schools recruit their middle-school graduates, offering ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3980811 Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:27:20 +0100 3980811 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3907585&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FMKS0ao40eJQ%2F By Adam SchaefferThe new PDK/Gallup education poll for 2010 is out, with the standard problems we can expect from this pro-government school/anti-choice outfit. Randi Weingarten even gets some column space! Oh Randi, you proud yet humble teacher. The “Commentary” sidebars in general were cringe-inducingly hackish and treacly. It is interesting that there was a big spike in the percentage of people saying the biggest problem schools must deal with is a lack of funds. They’ve done a great job convincing folks there’s no money. Of course, the way the question is worded, it encourages respondents to think about the difficulties schools are facing, which despite their flush accounts probably is dealing with funding issues. I’d like to see the answers to “What do you thin... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3907585 Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:38:50 +0100 3907585 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3802369&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F25hNmwbOrhY%2F By Adam SchaefferCharter schools are the hot new thing. OK, they aren’t all that new. But many people who used to have blanket objections to any increase in school choice now support (some form of) charter schools. President Obama, and even AFT President Randi Weingarten, say they support “charter” schools. The guy who made Al Gore’s documentary, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Planet, will soon release a film about choice and charter schools. In the midst of the charter school hype, we need to remember that the private school system has been educating low-income kids longer, better, and more efficiently than charter schools. And charter schools are now sapping this tiny remaining redoubt of civil-society success and freedom in education. Philanthropists who care about long-term, ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3802369 Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:02:34 +0100 3802369 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3714156&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fxhoxmz3dTfQ%2F By Adam SchaefferTradeoffs are an incurable part of reality. Unfortunately, many school choice supporters like to believe that there are no tradeoffs between school choice policies; public and private school choice, targeted or restricted, big or small, voucher or tax credits, it’s all choice and it’s all good. But some good things are better than others. And most things have some mix of positive and negative effects. Charter schools often provide a safer, better alternative to traditional public schools. That’s good. Charter schools also destroy private schools, decrease educational options, pull private-school students into the government education system and thereby add significant new costs to taxpayers. These are all very bad things. And they are not at all balanced by theories ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3714156 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:18:37 +0100 3714156 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3714163&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FmTztdfgR3uE%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonYesterday, Bill Gates addressed 4,100 charter school leaders and activists and told them that their movement “is the only place innovation will come from.” Certainly there are innovative charter schools–and others that deploy traditional methods with such skill and dedication as to achieve results far above the norm (think Ben Chavis’ American Indian Charter Schools in Oakland). But of course charters are not the only source of educational innovation, and, much more importantly, they are unlikely to drive the process of mass replication and scale-up of innovations responsible for the stunning economic progress of the past several hundred years. Pick any field in which a brilliant innovation has been capitalized on and brought to the masses and yo... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3714163 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:43:31 +0100 3714163 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3420441&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4XM3Iy_0f0M%2F By Neal McCluskeyCongratulations Delaware and Tennessee — you’ve won the Race to the Top beauty contest! Of course, the grading was subjective and will be disputed by lots of states that haven’t won. Well, haven’t won yet — there’s a second round to this, remember. So what do the victories for Delaware and Tennessee mean? The edu-pundits will no doubt be reading deep into the results over the coming days, trying to determine what they portend for the future of RttT, federal education policy generally, and politicians across the country.  And there are some juicy political leads worth following, including the possibility that the winning states were chosen because they have Republican congress members who could be pivotal in getting bipartisan support for the ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3420441 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:58:47 +0100 3420441 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3239558&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FPDlf88beFXc%2F By Adam SchaefferI wrote about this private school in South Carolina last year. The Voice for School Choice has a new video highlighting the great work of the Eagle Military Academy, which works with many kids the public schools cannot or will not educate. There’s a lot of talk lately about the transformative power of some charter schools, and it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that many secular and religious private schools have been saving kids all along with no public funds and little or no recognition from the elite opinion class. We need to open up choice to these schools as well, not just public charter schools that cannot provide the breadth and depth of experiences offered by private schools. Public charter schools are no substitute for full school choice through education t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3239558 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:16:21 +0100 3239558 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3189127&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FEF95PnA1WaE%2F By Neal McCluskeyToday’s the day that states must submit their applications to the U.S. Department of Education to compete for round-one “Race to the Top” grants. But no worries if your state’s a little behind: Not only will there be another application round for the $4.35-billion dash-for-cash, but as President Obama announced today, he wants a $1.35-billion sequel to what was supposed to be a one-time, stimulus-funded contest. The important question, of course, is whether sponsoring this race is worthwhile for federal taxpayers. The clear answer is no. Sure, in response to RttT states have been raising charter-school caps, allowing teachers to be evaluated using student performance, and instituting other changes, but they’ve done little of rea... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3189127 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:59:06 +0100 3189127 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3100782&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fn0ZyswQ2VcI%2F By Chris Moody Helping out the “Wall Street fat cats:” Bankers are responding to the incentives generated by the economic policies of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. How charter schools can save states big education dollars. Doug Bandow:  “Congress has spent the country blind, inflated a disastrous housing bubble, subsidized every special interest with a letterhead and lobbyist, and created a wasteful, incompetent bureaucracy that fills Washington. But now, legislators want to take a break from all their good work and save college football.” In case you missed it last week, watch Cato’s Jerry Taylor on the premier episode of Stossel. Podcast: “Urban Planners Romanticize Immobility“ (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3100782 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:27:50 +0100 3100782 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3063244&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FrfWvE4yDcew%2F Michigan is facing a projected $2.8 billion state budget shortfall. As a result, Governor Granholm has cut $212 million from state public school spending — rousing the ire of parents and education officials around the state. But if Michigan merely converted all its conventional public schools to charters, without altering current funding formulas, it would save $3.5 billion. Here’s how: the average Michigan charter school spends $2,200 less per pupil than the average district school — counting only the state and local dollars. Put another way, Michigan school districts spend 25 percent more state and local dollars per pupil, on average, than charter schools. Sum up the savings to Michigan taxpayers from a mass district-to-charter exodus and it comes to $3.5 billion. Any... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3063244 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:39:06 +0100 3063244 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044732&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FQ3SU_LlnL-4%2F With print media players disappearing faster than mosasaurs in the late Cretaceous, one would expect the last papers standing to be extra careful with their fact checking for fear of being blogged into extinction. One’s expectations would be mistaken. Yesterday’s LA Times editorial on charter schools combined errors of fact and omission with a misrepresentation of the economic research on public school spending. First, the Times claims that KIPP charter public schools spend “significantly more per student than the public school system.” Not so, says the KIPP website. But why rely on KIPP’s testimony, when we can look at the raw data? LA’s KIPP Academy of Opportunity, for instance, spent just over $3 million in 2007-08, for 345 students, for a total per pupil... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044732 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:46:51 +0100 3044732 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3003731&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F6kwyOyykia4%2F The latest fiscal impact review of Arizona’s scholarship tax credit programs estimates that they saved between $44 million and $186 million last year.  The programs offer individuals and businesses dollar-for-dollar tax credits if they make donations to non-profit K-12 scholarship-granting organizations. Those organizations, in turn, provide private school tuition assistance. This is much higher than the savings estimate offered by the Arizona Republic last month, as the AZ Republic story linked above is quick to point out. I deal with the reasons for the discrepancy below, but first, here’s the crucial fact that the Republic has missed yet again: if the tax credit programs were significantly expanded, such as by raising the donation caps, the state would undeniably save m... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3003731 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:30:34 +0100 3003731 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2999499&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F_s5-A4iBV4Y%2F My last post focused on the general results of a school choice poll in Virginia. Contra conventional wisdom, education tax credits are significantly more popular and less opposed than are charter schools. Even more interesting is the stability of support for donation tax credits across party identification. A stunning 64 percent of Democrats support credits, with only 21 percent opposed. Independents support credits 65 percent to 22 percent. Charters are supposed to be the poster child for policies targeting Independent voters. And yet charters draw 59 percent of support from independents and 23 percent opposition. That’s a swing from a 43 percent margin of support for credits to a 36 percent margin for charters. And vouchers run even further behind with a 22 percent margin of support f... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2999499 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:25:55 +0100 2999499 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2999500&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FaatxNmHFf1s%2F Pop Quiz: What’s the best education policy a moderate politician in Virginia can pursue? Vouchers Charter Schools Education Tax Credits Conventional wisdom says go with charter schools, because they are a bipartisan, moderate compromise reform that will get you the largest number of Independents and the least opposition. Vouchers are too hot to touch. And what’s an education tax credit . . . oh, right, they’re too controversial as well Conventional wisdom is WRONG. The Friedman Foundation has released another in their invaluable series of state education polls, this time for once-purple Virginia. Their findings are consistent with other polls, and the pattern is worth highlighting. Charter schools draw 59 percent in support and 26 percent in opposition. Vouchers find 57 percen... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2999500 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:04:52 +0100 2999500 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2981057&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FXXiVf30PFJQ%2F On the day that we honor veterans for defending our freedom, I read this: Community groups and Los Angeles Unified officials on Tuesday condemned an anonymous flyer handed to Latino parents that threatened them with deportation if they supported plans to convert their neighborhood school to a charter. Calling it an escalation in a series of “scare tactics,” district officials and community advocates said distribution of the flyer was timed to weaken one of LAUSD’s boldest efforts to reform public education in Los Angeles. A generation or two from now, when children are studying how school choice began to spread throughout America, they will read of such incidents and marvel at the depths to which opponents sunk. If you’re a policymaker or opinion leader, on which si... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2981057 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:33:03 +0100 2981057 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2971881&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDDFXh_5jKqc%2F The Democrats who still control the Virginia State Senate (which wasn’t on the ballot this week) say they want to work with the new Republican governor. “I won’t be like the House Republicans were, where anything they propose is bad,” said Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), who like many Democrats says the GOP-led House obstructed the agenda of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D). “If there are areas where we can work things out, I’m ready, willing and able, and so is my caucus.” But not so fast: But asked about certain key pieces of McDonnell’s agenda, Saslaw demurred. Selling state-run liquor stores to raise money for transportation, for instance, would sacrifice the annual revenue the stores provide to schools and other purposes, ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2971881 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:36:27 +0100 2971881 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2865645&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FC8m3PqFAWjs%2F Matt Yglesias has a post up looking at the PISA scores, and he seems to imply that for-profit schooling has been tried and found wanting in Sweden and the U.S.: The big difference is that many Swedish charters are run by for-profit firms. We’ve had some experiments with that in the U.S. and it hasn’t worked very well. Nobody’s really found a great way of making consistent profits running K-12 schools in America. Of course even he notes that Sweden’s schools are highly regulated by the state. And in the U.S., the difficulty of succeeding in for-profit education just might have something to do with that government monopoly on k-12 education and the $560 billion or so in tax revenues that fund it. Maybe. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2865645 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:17:50 +0100 2865645 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2862469&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fm7V6xSpz6FU%2F Last week, I posted a chart on this blog showing the percent change in federal education spending and student achievement since 1970 (achievement has been flat while federal education spending has nearly tripled). After laughing out loud when he saw it, IQ expert and Bell Curve author Charles Murray mused that “such a huge proportion of a child’s educational prospects are determined by things other than school (genes and the non-school environment) that reforms of the schools can never do more than produce score improvements at the margin.” But consider the accomplishments of Ben Chavis, who spoke at Cato last Friday. When he took over the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland in 2001, it was the worst school in the district. Under his leadership (imagine a hybrid... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2862469 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:40:48 +0100 2862469 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2851890&cid=t_289594_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fcontinuous-quality-improvement-unintended-consequence-ehr-implementation In a previous article ("Keys to EHR Team Success," Healthcare IT News; January 12, 2009) we detailed a number of governance structural components which are key to successful electronic health record (EHR) implementation. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2851890 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:48:47 +0100 2851890 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2823961&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFZ0JeGJDZ2c%2F Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post writes today that she feels compelled to “eat at least a spoonful of crow.” Her menu selection is driven by her assessment of President Obama’s “education reform” accomplishments to date. The term “education reform” is meaningless. All it implies is that, in whatever small way, things will be done differently from the way they have been done in the past. Not necessarily better, or worse, just differently. Even the president’s painfully vague campaign message (”Hope and Change”) at least indicated that the sought-after change was supposed to be in a positive direction. “Reform” doesn’t even convey that — let alone giving any indication of the nature, rationale or evidence... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2823961 Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:22:37 +0100 2823961 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2800371&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FhTDziuRGIyI%2F H. L. Mencken described puritanism as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” The new puritanism is the fear that someone, somewhere, may be learning. The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a story today in which public school educationalists wring their hands over the fear that suburban whites may be getting a good education in charter schools. This, somehow, is perceived to be a bad thing for urban minority kids. Um. No. What is bad for any child is a paucity of high quality education options from which to choose. The focus of policymakers should be on ensuring that more and better education options are constantly coming within reach of all children, regardless of the contents of their parents’ wallets, the pigmentation of their skin, or their ethnic back... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2800371 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:03:32 +0100 2800371 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2796413&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FdK67S63RD0Q%2F Next Sunday, MSNBC will feature a sort of townhall meeting on how great schools can pull kids out of poverty. Though headlined by Bill Cosby, perhaps the most electrifying panelist will be charter school principal Ben Chavis. On October 2nd at noon, you can come to Cato to see Ben live, and ask him how we can replicate his stunning success. Also joining us will be Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews, who’ll talk about the growing KIPP network of (now 82!) charter schools. Other than perhaps KIPP’s founders, nobody knows more about them than Jay. I’ll be simultaneously acting as cheerleader (I love these schools) and devil’s advocate (I’m skeptical that they can be brought to the masses within the charter sector). To register, just visit the event page he... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2796413 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:05:35 +0100 2796413 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2522835&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0MYKxrEgRdY%2F I’ve just discovered that my calculation of DC education spending per pupil was wrong, and I have to publish a correction. I wrote back in March that total DC k-12 spending, excluding charter schools, was $1,291,815,886 during the 2008-09 school year. That still appears to be correct. But to get the per-pupil number I divided total spending by the then-official enrollment count: 48,646. It now turns out that that number was rubbish. PRI’s Vicki Murray just pointed me to this recent DCPS press release that identifies a new audited enrollment number for the same school year:  44,681 students. If that number excludes the 2,400 special education students that the District has placed in private schools, then DC’s correct total per pupil spending is $27,400. If the new audited... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2522835 Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:46:46 +0100 2522835 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2510285&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F6HVyQZl27Os%2F For years we’ve been told that charter schools are the future of public schooling. The reverse is true. The pattern in publicly funded education, both domestically and internationally, has always been one of increasing regulation over time, and of the triumph of producer interests over the interests of parents and children. Public schools in the late 1800s had considerably more autonomy than do most modern charter schools. Over time, public schools have come under the sway of centralized bureaucracies dominated by employee unions. That same pattern is playing out in the charter school sector. As the Associated Press reports today, the American Federation of Teachers has just signed several more collective bargaining agreements for charter school teachers in New York City and Chicago.... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2510285 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:23:53 +0100 2510285 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2389806&cid=t_289594_97_f&fid=35606&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theangriestpharmacist.com%2F2009%2F05%2F05%2Fpink-plague-creates-irrational-idiots%2F So, it’s been a while! Sorry about that. My last post of substance was on April 5th (where I gave up arguing with some crazy bitch and filled scripts early against my better judgment), and that was exactly one month ago. Oddly enough, my short post from April 21 has been one of my most commented on posts! Where have I been you ask? Well, I moved for one! Same town, different neighborhood. Got a great deal! In the move, however, I hurt my back and have been dealing with that — as well as the complete bitch that it is to move any damn way. [And I didn't have internet for almost 2 weeks because Charter continued to show their incompetence.] Things have started to settle back down, and I’m on the mend. If you have emailed me since early April, and your email is something wh... The Angriest Pharmacist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2389806 Tue, 05 May 2009 07:54:54 +0100 2389806 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2375850&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FLnHTq4wp_Y0%2F Bloggers from all over are discussing Cato’s research and commentary. Here are a couple we found: Stephen Littau wrote about Glenn Greenwald’s paper on drug decriminalization at The Liberty Papers. At the U.S News and World Report’s “Risky Business” blog, Matthew Bandyk discussed Ilya Shapiro’s Supreme Court coverage in the Washington Examiner. Net Right Nation editor Adam Bitely has linked to Cato commentary and analysis regularly over the past few months. Writing for the Libertarian Party Blog, Donny Ferguson discussed the new Cato study, “Bright Lines and Bailouts: To Bail or Not To Bail, That Is the Question.” Tom Jackson just started The Libertarian News Network and has linked to many Cato events and commentaries. At the Show... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2375850 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:44:55 +0100 2375850 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2364924&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FS_BtNDfuhwE%2F It’s an interesting problem for charter-school afficianados: many want charters to have all the freedom of private schools, but go to pains to let people know that charters are public schools whenever the schools are under fire (or want money). Well I’ve just learned — perhaps before reporters have even been able to write their stories, because I haven’t yet found a news link to it — that New York’s Public Employee Relations Board will force the KIPP AMP charter school in New York City to let its teachers unionize. This will be a tough pill for KIPP AMP to swallow, especially since an integral part of the famous KIPP model is requiring employees to be available far beyond the normal working hours of traditional public school teachers — not som... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2364924 Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:39:57 +0100 2364924 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2356869&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FMBCesGj7x-0%2F Arne Duncan has an op-ed in the WSJ today headlined, “School Reform Means Doing What’s Best for Kids: Let’s have an honest assessment of charter schools.” So how about an honest assessment of how the DC voucher program is doing? I guess I won’t hold my breath, since Duncan already neglected to bring the findings to light during the debate in Congress and then he tried to bury and spin away the positive results when they did come out. And then he needlessly prevented 200 poor kids from enjoying good schools for at least next year. President Obama and Duncan’s unwillingness to address the facts show that they have been hypocritical and dishonest on education. I can’t say it any better than Juan Williams did: By going along with Secretary Duncan’s plan to holl... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2356869 Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:15:53 +0100 2356869 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2284352&cid=t_289594_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FNkK2SMqTNos%2F I am not a particularly avid fan of charter schools. As I’ve previously written on this blog, I see reason to fear that their long term result will be the growth rather than the contraction of the state schooling bureaucracy. That said, RAND has just published a relatively positive new study about their short-term effects. While the RAND study finds no significant difference in achievement gains in charters versus regular public schools, it finds that charter students for whom they have the necessary data are 7 to 15 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school and 8 to 10 percentage points more likely to enroll in college, after controlling for student characteristics. While this is wonderful news, it will be a Pyrrhic victory if charter schools gradually succumb to r... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2284352 Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:01:22 +0100 2284352 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1960634&cid=t_289594_111_f&fid=34712&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitaldoorway.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F11%2Fcharter-for-compassion.html A new organization and movement have been founded with the goal "to build a peaceful and harmonious global community".Utilizing the minds of some of the greatest religious thinkers of our time---including Archbishop Desmond Tutu---The Charter for Compassion "seeks to remind the world that while all faiths are not the same, they all share the core principle of compassion and the Golden Rule. The Charter will change the tenor of the conversation around religion. It will be a clarion call to the world."The following video clearly illustrates the goals of this burgeoning global movement, and simply and coherently verbalizes the widely accepted need for a universal propagation of compassionate tolerance.The Charter for Compassion will be collaboratively created using input from people from ever... Digital Doorway blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1960634 Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:31:00 +0100 1960634 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1508535&cid=t_289594_133_f&fid=35096&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAutismVox%2F%7E3%2F309949770%2F Last day of school for Charlie tomorrow and I’ve been reflecting a lot about what a big difference it makes to have the right school program, with teachers trained to focus on where each student is at rather than some idealized norm. It’s been heartening to read about two students on the spectrum—19-year-old Stefan Kravan in New Prague, Minnesota, and 18-year-old Jeremy Ernstoff of Squirrel Hill, Pennsylvnia—who are graduating from high school and moving on. Also in the news recently has been a new autism school, the Soaring Eagle Academy in Chicago (which uses the DIR® (Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based)/Floor time approach), as well as a number of autism schools in Manhattan, including a charter school, New York Center for Autism; a private... Autism Vox blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1508535 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:13:00 +0100 1508535 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1237810&cid=t_289594_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F236535598%2F Joanne Jacobs, educator, blogger and author of Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea and the Charter School That Beat the Odds, participates today in our Author Speaks Series with an excellent article on how "Schools won’t improve until administrators and teachers can admit the problems, analyze what’s going wrong and try new strategies. Students won’t improve if they think they’re “special” just the way they are." Enjoy, and feel free to add your comment to engage in a stimulating conversation. ----------------------- The First Step Is Failure By Joanne Jacobs When self-esteem became an education watchword in 1986, I thought it was a harmless fad. I was wrong: It wasn’t harmless. Many teachers were persuaded that students should be pumped u... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1237810 Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:38:14 +0100 1237810 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1187329&cid=t_289594_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F225396989%2F We are pleased to announce that we'll have 2 additional excellent contributions during February: - Adrian Preda, M.D., will write about a brain plasticity topic. Adrian Preda, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in the UC Irvine School of Medicine. His expertise in human behavior, psychology and spirituality is based on years of experience working as a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, teacher and researcher in a variety of academic clinical and non-clinical settings, including Yale Psychiatric Institute, Yale New Haven Hospital, Yale Health Plan, UT Southwestern and UC Irvine Neuro-Psychiatric Research. - Joanne Jacobs, education expert and great blogger, will participate in our Author Speaks Series.  Once a Knight Ridder columnist, Joanne is now a freelance w... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1187329 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:47:25 +0100 1187329 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1084258&cid=t_289594_133_f&fid=35096&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAutismVox%2F%7E3%2F198128592%2F Lionsgate Academy is a new charterschool for autistic children in grades 6 to 10 in the Twin Cities in Minnesota and is set to open its doors in fall of 2008, as noted today’s Star Tribune (subscription only; the school’s website provides more information). Currently, Lionsgate Academy is searching for a location; according to its newsletter, it is seeking a site and building that will be best suited for the learning and sensory needs of autistic children. Some of the criteria include “sufficient flexible indoor space, with minimal distractions”; proximity to “other community resources (such as businesses, sites of worship, or other schools) that can serve as places of integration and inclusion for our students with the greater community at large”; and a... Autism Vox blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1084258 Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:39:26 +0100 1084258