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We’re shocked, shocked! Thousands of students in Inland schools are not taking advantage of the free tutoring available to them under the No Child Left Behind Act. Minimal efforts to notify parents, lack of transportation for students and low parent interest are reasons cited by many school-district officials, tutoring providers and parents. In 2004-05, about […] Read more »

Are the unions finally coming around to the idea of merit pay?  The state’s two largest teachers unions did something few expected with Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s plug for merit pay — they didn’t dismiss it. Leaders with the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers — which together represent more than 210,000 educators […] Read more »

Overall, it’s hard to complain a whole lot about this Christian Science Monitor article on the Milwaukee choice program.  A few remarks… Just because Jack Jennings and the NEA don’t like the present body of research on Milwaukee doesn’t mean it isn’t persuasive.  The article talked about the closing of voucher schools as though it […] Read more »

Jenny D.’s recent posts on school choice have sparked a whole lot of discussion.  (Check out the threads for lots of interesting commentary.)  We’re obviously just a bit late to this party, and it’s kind of hard to add a whole lot to what has already been said over there, but that obviously won’t stop […] Read more »

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that the Ohio school choice program isn’t getting many nibbles: Few public-school students have signed up for the state to pay their way to a private school this fall, and time is running out. Although there are roughly 13,000 Franklin County students eligible to apply to attend private schools on […] Read more »

In case you doubted the influence of the teachers’ unions in the Democratic Party: After a long day of campaigning recently for the state Assembly seat he seeks as the capstone to his political career, Democrat Frank Quintero sat down to a debate and, when asked if he supports school vouchers, gave what he later […] Read more »

According to Stateline, a number of states flush with unexpected tax revenues are increasing education spending: Arkansas, Georgia, and Kansas are just a few.  And take a look at how much Wyoming is about to start shelling out. On a related note, it’s interesting to see how the improved economy is forcing Washington D.C. to […] Read more »

Whitney Tilson takes the New York Times to task over their coverage of charter schools.  Read more »

Some lucid thoughts on merit pay from the Dallas Morning News: The problem is that teacher quality gets evaluated on credentials, not quality. How many hours of math classes you took in college. Whether you’ve filled out the paperwork for a certain certificate. Whether you’ve gone back to get a master’s degree. The federal "highly […] Read more »

What he said. Read more »