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Given the weight and gravity of the fiscal reality facing both our nation as a whole and individual states, it’s easy to overlook areas in which success and progress are the norm.
One of those is education reform.
The Wall Street Journal’s editors do a nice job summarizing what’s been going on in statehouses across the nation to expand choices for parents and students.
They write:
No fewer than 13 states have enacted school choice legislation in 2011, and 28 states have legislation pending.
Here’s a summary of the state reforms they cite:
- Louisiana enhanced its state income tax break for private school tuition
- Ohio tripled the number of students eligible for school vouchers
- North Carolina passed a law letting parents of students with special needs claim a tax credit for expenses related to private school tuition and other educational services
- Wisconsin has lifted the cap of 22,500 on the number of kids who can participate in Milwaukee's Parental Choice Program
- Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma have created or expanded tuition tax credit programs
- North Carolina and Tennessee eliminated caps on the number of charter schools
- Maine passed its first charter law
- Colorado created a voucher program in Douglas County that will provide scholarships for private schools
- Utah created the Statewide Online Education Program, which allows high school students to access course work on the Internet from public or private schools anywhere in the state
- And Indiana, where “choice proponents may have had their biggest success,” has passed legislation that removes the charter cap, allows all universities to be charter authorizers, and creates a voucher program that enables about half the state's students to attend public or private schools
The wisdom of school reform lies in the fact that it has evolved beyond a debate about “choice” to activism regarding “choices” (plural).
As in just about every other area of life, people want to be in charge of the decisions that affect their future. Instead of being told where and how their children are to be educated, parents want to have a say in the matter. And the reforms we’re seeing across the nation are moving decision-making authority toward parents and away from the education bureaucracy.
In the midst of everything else going on it’s worth taking a moment to celebrate this progress. It’s also worth reflecting on the lessons it teaches us for other areas of life, such as health care.
This is of course music to my ears.You will not get a proper improvement in school standards until it is obvious to educators that they will lose funds unless they use public funds to raise standards.If you just keep dishing out funding & let the 'progressive' brigade ensure that children cannot read,write or do sums then schooling will stay pretty poor in the government sector.Parents who care about their children's schooling should not be vilified by left-wingers who went to private and/or selective schools.Rather we should empower parents to get the best education for their children.It is a bit two-faced for left-wingers to oppose school choice for the majority having gained from a private education themselves.We must ensure equality of opportunity by raising standards for the poor & those in the middle to as close to those of the rich as possible.By devolving power & extending choice by getting new providers in you smash the present system & rebuild a better one in its place.
It is wonderful that this is happening because it shows that the right are winning the argument on education.Just as they won the debate on fiscal policy last November.
The American people are showing that they want greater freedom from Obama's nanny state.That must favour the GOP- I hope !
Posted by: Matthew Reynolds | July 05, 2011 at 04:28 PM