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Teacher tenure in New Jersey

The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey is running a series of articles on pay scales for public employees.  Today's installment: a hair-raising look at tenure.  Daryl DeNitto is one of those teachers.The kind who coaches the debate team and chaperones the prom. The kind who stays after school when he doesn't have to. The…

Left vs. right on school reform: the divide breaks down?

Back in June, Peggy Noonan mentioned this in passing (hat tip to Hispanic Pundit):I was at a Manhattan Institute lunch this week at which Rudy Giuliani spoke. He impressed the audience of 200 or so, which was not surprising as it was his kind of group, urban-oriented thinkers drawn not to ideology but to what…

Choice hits Capitol Hill

The school choice movement has enjoyed a great deal of success so far this year, as witnessed in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and, most recently, Arizona (along with Rhode Island, Utah, Florida and Pennsylvania).  And with so many states introducing school choice, it was only a matter of time before the juggernaut hit Congress: Congressional Republicans…

Our driving principle

Reaction to the NCES study has been understandably triumphant from the anti-school-choice side of the aisle, especially from the likes of the AFTies, UFTies and likeminded folks.  But amidst all the discussion--indeed, among most edudebate these days--one party in particular is mysteriously removed from the discussion.  Parents.  More specifically, low-income minority parents.  The school choice…

New Jersey union power

A good look at starving teachers in the Garden State:Cops and teachers who, a generation ago, were underpaid and overworked are now enjoying compensation and working conditions that are the envy of the private sector. Experienced patrolmen in North Jersey routinely make $100,000 or more, and public-school teachers can top out at more than $90,000…

What the NCES study says about itself (and some other odds n' ends)

This comes directly from the study.  First off, from the executive summary, p. v: When interpreting the results from any of these analyses, it should be borne in mind that private schools constitute a heterogeneous category and may differ from one another as much as they differ from public schools. Public schools also constitute a heterogeneous…

The School Choice Movement’s Greatest Failure (Andrew Coulson)

Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times jumped on the release of a new study by the National Center for Education Statistics this weekend. The WSJ’s headline was particularly dramatic: “Long-Delayed Education Study Casts Doubt on Value of Vouchers.”No, it doesn’t.And it is a failure on my part, as well as a…

NCES Study: Friedman Foundation Responds

On July 14, the U.S. Department of Education released a study that the teachers’ unions are holding up as evidence that public schools are better than private schools. The study doesn’t actually show this, and is riddled with methodological flaws anyway. If you tell the average American that public schools are better than private schools,…

NCES Study: Some Preliminary Thoughts (Clint Bolick)

The edusphere is abuzz over the DOE's release of the NCES study.  We're planning to respond further to the study, but first we'd like to point out a few things. 

Cory Booker: Newark mayor, Rhodes scholar, crime fighter

Not only is Alliance board member Cory Booker a champion of school choice, nobody--nobody--messes with his town.  Mayor Booker and his guards left Newark’s City Hall around 12:30 p.m. yesterday for a meeting and stumbled upon what appeared to be a confrontation across the street: a police officer and a man in a standoff on…