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 'education system'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:43:37 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4570529&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fcnzw0qxG7QQ%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonLast night's vote by the Wisconsin-based portion of the Wisconsin Senate has received enormous attention. The scope of collective bargaining by school district and other government employees has been narrowed, and the state will no longer automatically garnish workers' wages to pay union dues. This was the right thing to do. But how much of a difference will these changes actually make to the state's bottom line? As I've noted, the presence or absence of collective bargaining is not strongly correlated with school district spending. Instead, unions have won their massively (42%) above- market compensation through well-funded political action; which brings us to the question of automatic paycheck deduction of union dues. Without automatic dues withdrawals, will public sc... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4570529 Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:14:14 +0100 4570529 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4343115&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3L7zMFO6ORM%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonThe Washington Post‘s Valerie Strauss asserted yesterday that “public education is a civic institution” and laments that it is seldom talked about as such (kindly citing our upcoming Cloning “Superman” event in the process). Certainly the way children are educated can have a powerful impact on the kind of society they go on to build. And there are many social goals on which Americans strongly agree: that schools should prepare children for the responsibilities of citizenship as much as for success in private life; that they should encourage harmonious relations among people of different backgrounds (or at least not foment conflict); and that they should ensure that every child, regardless of background, has access to a quality education. Bu... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4343115 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:58:03 +0100 4343115 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4330997&cid=t_230666_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=4162958&cid=t_230666_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2F12%2Fthe-legal-policy-situation-of-continued-inequality%2F Judge Michael Wolff posted his article “Stories of Civil Rights Progress and the Persistence of Inequality and Unequal Opportunity 1970-2010” (forthcoming in William Mitchell Law Review) on  SSRN.  Here is the abstract. * * * In this article, Missouri Supreme Court Judge Michael A. Wolff, who also is distinguished visiting professor at St. Louis University School of Law, outlines the judicial and legislative victories and failures of civil rights advocates over the last forty years at both the federal and state level. He details the reform efforts through personal anecdotes of many of his own cases that he pursued as a legal services lawyer and has seen as a judge. Judge Wolff’s stories focus on the rights that legal services programs fought for and obtained and the battles... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4162958 Fri, 12 Nov 2010 04:01:01 +0100 4162958 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4155229&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F8cuexlB0bA0%2F This study compares the percentages of students scoring at advanced levels across countries, and it controls for the confounding effects of differing populations of disadvantaged groups. When the researchers looked exclusively at white students and at students with at least one parent with a college degree, the results remained largely the same. Among white students, for instance, 8 percent of Americans scored “advanced” in math, landing us in 25th place among nations for which scores were available–behind nearly every other advanced industrialized nation on Earth. And the highest ranked U.S. state, Massachusetts, trails the overall averages of 14 nations. This may come as a shock to those who imagined that America’s educational shortcomings were restricted to inne... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4155229 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:55:45 +0100 4155229 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4086251&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F2UrKo7TBWGM%2F By Neal McCluskeyThe edu-documentary Waiting for ‘Superman’ continues to generate lots of noise about fixing American education. Unfortunately, like the film itself, most of the noisemakers ultimately ignore reality: The only way to make educators truly put children first is to require that they satisfy parents — the customers — to get their money. And that can mean only one thing:  transforming our education system into one in which parents control education funding and educators have to earn their business. You would think that would be clear to members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Think again: In a new report, the Chamber demonstrates that what’s really needed is not a visit from Superman, but for Realityman to give it a superpowered kic... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4086251 Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:57:28 +0100 4086251 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4036622&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtH6P4GPzYM0%2F By Neal McCluskeyYesterday, President Obama hosted the White House Summit on Community Colleges, and in-your-face love was in the air. President Obama and Second Lady Jill Biden, a community college professor, couldn’t keep their hands off their signficant other, lavishing all sorts of praise on their favorite little schools. Swooned Dr. Biden about the dreamy things community colleges do for their students: They are students like the mother who shared her experience with us on the White House website of working towards a degree while raising three children and straddling financial challenges.  Now employed and the holder of a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree, she wrote, “Community colleges didn’t just change my life, they gave me my life.” Community colleges do that e... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4036622 Wed, 06 Oct 2010 20:57:54 +0100 4036622 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4013142&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fd2dWTU5JOFk%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonThis week, President Obama called for the hiring of 10,000 new teachers to beef up math and science achievement. Meanwhile, in America, Earth, Sol-System, public school employment has grown 10 times faster than enrollment for 40 years (see chart), while achievement at the end of high school has stagnated in math and declined in science (see other chart). Either the president is badly misinformed about our education system or he thinks that promising to hire another 10,000 teachers union members is politically advantageous–in which case he would seem to be badly misinformed about the present political climate. Or he lives in an alternate universe in which Kirk and Spock have facial hair and government monopolies are efficient. It’s hard to say. Pres... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4013142 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:21:18 +0100 4013142 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3885331&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtVvBZIljiAY%2F Yesterday, FoxNews.com posted a story on what appears to be a growing problem for public school systems across the country: accommodating Muslim holidays. Unfortunately, the report didn’t contain the solution to the problem. It did, though, contain a very succinct discussion of the root of the problem; an example of the good intent that causes people to ignore the problem; and the kind of “solution” that is ultimately at odds with the most basic of American values. A quote from New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg captured the essence of the problem: One of the problems you have with a diverse city is that if you close the schools for every single holiday, there won’t be any school. There you have the basic conundrum in a nutshell: Whenever you have a divers... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3885331 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:03:02 +0100 3885331 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3671671&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FypkWBVPe8Fw%2F By Neal McCluskeyFinished with my woman ‘Cause she couldn’t help me with my mind People think I’m insane Because I am frowning all the time - Black Sabbath, “Paranoid” According to the Fordham Institute’s Chester Finn, I and others like me are “paranoid.” So why, like Ozzy Osbourne, am I “frowning all the time?” Because I look at decades of public schooling reality and, unlike Finn, see the tiny odds that “common” curriculum standards won’t become federal standards, gutted, and our crummy education system made even worse. Finn’s rebuttal to my NRO piece skewering the push for national standards, unfortunately, takes the same tack he’s used for months: Assert that the standards proposed by the ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3671671 Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:35:45 +0100 3671671 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3467936&cid=t_230666_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2FvcDlHl0EI6w%2F Image courtesy of "The Rubber Room" trailer You’re a New York City public school teacher and – for whatever reason – find yourself in The Rubber Room: Post from: BlissTree You Know You're Unwell If … (Source: Genetics and Health) Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3467936 Wed, 14 Apr 2010 12:02:35 +0100 3467936 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096826&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FPOXrOhebBeI%2F By Neal McCluskeyI’ve been fretting for some time over the growing push for national curricular standards, standards that would be de facto federal and, whether adopted voluntarily by states or imposed by Washington, end up being worthless mush with yet more billions of dollars sunk into them. The primary thing that has kept me optimistic is that, in the end, few people can ever agree on what standards should include, which has defeated national standards thrusts in the past. So far, the Common Core State Standards Initiative – a joint National Governors Association/Council of Chief State School Officers venture that is all-but-officially backed by Washington — has avoided being ripped apart by educationists and plain ol’ citizens angry about who’s wri... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096826 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:07:30 +0100 3096826 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3052124&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F6rKC1HVQq2I%2F The Ethan Allen Institute has just published a report suggesting that Vermont could save $80 million a year by voucherizing its education system. What’s most interesting is how generous the prospective vouchers would be: $10,000 for K-6, and $14,900 for grades 7-12. How could such a system save money? The main reason is that Vermont was already spending $14,000/pupil on public schools across all grades four years ago. Taking into account the inevitable increase since then and the effects of inflation to 2009 dollars, the state is no doubt spending well over $15,000 per pupil today, so EAI’s ample voucher funding would still cost far less than the status quo. The only problem is that, as the EAI report notes (see p. 10), Vermont’s state supreme court has ruled against st... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3052124 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:08:03 +0100 3052124 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2943766&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FeqxSRn-xIZQ%2F In an exchange I had with Charles Murray earlier this month, he complained that there was no bulletproof scientific research documenting miraculous improvement in student achievement attributable to great schools like those of Ben Chavis. At the time, that objection was beside my point, which is that there is copious evidence that competitive market education systems yield very substantial (if not “miraculuous”) improvements over the status quo government monopoly. We don’t need miracles to prove that there is a much better way of organizing and funding schools. But that wasn’t enough for Ben Chavis. He called yesterday to pass along a proposition to Charles: come perform the research yourself. In fact, Ben offered to put Charles up in his own house. I don’t k... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2943766 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:51:54 +0100 2943766 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2674227&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FpFlmb-PJlf4%2F Historian Diane Ravitch drives me nuts. She has written numerous, terrific books chronicling the ills of government control of education, including the wrenching social conflict it has caused; the ejection of meaningful content from textbooks and tests it has required; and the dominance of educrats over parents and children it has enabled. She has been, essentially, the official historian of government-schooling’s failure. And yet, in a new blog interview with journalist John Merrow, she appears not to comprehend the most important lesson her copious works have to offer: that government education is doomed to fail. Why the huge disconnect between her historiography and willingness to act on its clear implications? Because, it appears, as much as she knows that government schooli... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2674227 Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:59:08 +0100 2674227 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2610892&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FersmG340Lew%2F In an IBD op-ed today, I point out that we’re spending twice as much per pupil as we did in 1970, despite no improvement in achievement at the end of high school and a decline in the graduation rate over that same period. What difference does that make? If public schools had just managed not to get any less efficient over the past 40 years, we’d be saving $300 billion annually. Our education monopoly is a luxury we can no longer afford. When the economy was booming, it didn’t matter that it cost us more and more every year for the same or even inferior results. These days, it’s becoming imperative that we find ways for our education system to enjoy the same relentless increases in efficiency that we take for granted in every other field. This, for instance, would ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2610892 Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:59:19 +0100 2610892 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2405035&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FH5MmIyIwdlc%2F The South Carolina legislature is currently considering a tax credit bill intended to give parents an easier choice between public and private schools. It would do this by cutting taxes on parents who pay for their own children’s education, and by cutting taxes on anyone who donates to a non-profit Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO). The SGOs would subsidize tuition for low income families (who owe little in taxes and so couldn’t benefit substantially from the direct tax credit). Charleston minister Rev. Joseph Darby opposes such programs, and I support them. We’ve decided to have this dialogue to explain why. Our initial comments were posted Tuesday. Our next responses will appear on Friday afternoon, followed by closing comments next Tuesday. Rev. Joe Darby First Response S... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2405035 Wed, 13 May 2009 16:19:47 +0100 2405035 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2375849&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FiyijaVNde-Y%2F A commenter at Joanne Jacobs’ edu-blog wonders “how serious this ‘collapse’ is.” I offered the following response: How serious of a collapse is it? Total k-12 expenditures in this country were about $630 billion two years ago (see Table 25, Digest of Ed Statistics 2008). The efficiency of our education system is less than half what it was in 1971 (i.e., we spend more than twice as much to get the same results — see Table 181, same source). So if we’d managed to ensure that education productivity just stagnated, we’d be saving over $300 billion EVERY YEAR. If we’d actually seen productivity improvements in education such as we’ve seen in other fields, we’d be saving at least that much money and enjoying higher student achievement at the same time. M... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2375849 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:10:21 +0100 2375849 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2364915&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FPyJ99_aPjrg%2F I was in South Carolina yesterday testifying before a state committee in support of a great piece of education tax credit legislation. The turnout and energy down there was impressive. The fight for educational freedom has dragged on for years in SC, but the movement seems to have grown in strength considerably over that period. Parents are now more organized, homeschoolers and private school groups are more integrated and active, and the votes are a lot closer. More than 200 supporters showed up to support the bill and testify, and their stories were compelling and sometimes heart-rending. Our public education system just doesn’t work for everyone. And when I say “doesn’t work,” I mean that a child with severe learning disabilities ends up unable to function in society or a child... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2364915 Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:03:58 +0100 2364915 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2284352&cid=t_230666_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=2284362&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0wDqEywRCRU%2F Following up on Dana Goldstein’s American Prospect blog post, Matt Yglesias calls the Swedish system and U.S. charter schools better education policy models than education tax credits. He doesn’t say why, and I’d be interested to hear his reasoning. As I documented on Cato-at-Liberty in response to Goldstein, the econometric evidence shows that the greatest margin of superiority over state-run schooling is enjoyed by truly market-like education systems. By that I mean systems that are minimally regulated with respect to content, staffing, prices, etc., and which are funded at least in part directly by the families they serve. Yglesias also claims that choice supporters want to “eliminate public education.” On the contrary, choice supporters are fundamentally... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2284362 Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:13:12 +0100 2284362 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2263785&cid=t_230666_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FGBrR3Itt0qA%2F Education secretary Arne Duncan testified before Congress today on the president’s 2010 budget for the Department of Education. One of the first things he said was this: We also plan to work very hard at scaling up success in our education system. Under our 2010 budget, the Department would continue to use the Innovation Fund created by the Recovery Act to identify and replicate successful models and strategies that raise student achievement. We know that there are many school systems and non-profit organizations across the country with demonstrated track records of success in raising student achievement, and our 2010 request would help bring their success to scale. Duncan and President Obama are so, so right to focus on this challenge. Sadly, their efforts will so, so utterly fail, ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2263785 Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:46:28 +0100 2263785