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Education News for Wednesday, July 19

Spellings promotes voucher program – USA Today: Children in poorly performing public schools need the chance to attend private schools, and taxpayers should pick up the tab… (more)

PBP editorial: Bush-suppresed study dispells voucher myth – The U.S. Department of Education, meaning the Bush administration, last week turned an important study comparing public and private schools into a case study on how to bury bad news. (more)

NYT: Republicans propose national school voucher program – The legislation, modeled on a pilot program in DC, would pay for tuition and private tutoring for some 28,000 students seeking a way out of public schools that fail to raise test scores sufficiently for at least five years. (more)

Check back later for more education news.

UPDATE:

NY Times editorial – Public vs. private schools – The national education reform effort has long suffered from magical thinking about what it takes to improve children’s chances of learning. Instead of homing in on teacher training and high standards, things that distinguish effective schools from poor ones, many reformers have embraced the view that the public schools are irreparably broken… (more)

GOP unveils school voucher plan – Wash Post – Spellings, flanked by Senate and House leaders on Capitol Hill, said the "opportunity scholarship" plan would be aimed at helping low-income students "trapped" in poor schools… (more)

Ed Week – Public schools on par with, outperform private schools in some areas, federal study says – (subscription required) When scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress are adjusted for socioeconomics, race, and other characteristics, public school students do as well or better in some categories—such as 4th grade math—as students in private schools. (more)

Civic, business groups oppose LA school takeover – A Valley association and the Independent Cities alliance cite concerns about Villaraigosa’s plan for mayoral control of L.A. Unified. (more)

Gov. Bush, FCAT hang over race – Gov. Jeb Bush is popular. The FCAT isn’t. The race to replace him may turn in part on which icon is more potent.The Democrats – U.S. Rep. Jim Davis and state Sen. Rod Smith – slam virtually every change Bush has made to Florida’s school system… (more)

UPDATE:

Public education will meet challenge with level playing field – This thinly disguised effort to funnel public money to schools that serve only limited populations plays well to the "sound bite" of school choice. (more)