LANSING, Mich. – During a legislative hearing at Michigan’s state capitol last week, a member of the education establishment made a stunning admission about how parents are viewed by the “experts.”

Debbie Squires, associate director of the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association, explained to members of the House Education Committee why her association opposed allowing more cyber (or online) schools to operate in the state.

“Educators go through education for a reason,” Squires said. “They are the people who know best about how to serve children. That’s not necessarily true of an individual resident. I’m not saying they don’t want the best for their children, but they may not know what actually is best from an education standpoint.”

Committee chairman Tom McMillin, a Republican, seemed taken aback by Squires’ comments.

“Wow … Parents don’t know what’s best for their child?” McMillin asked.

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Tim Scott (R-South Carolina)

Earlier this week, Congressmen Allen West and Tim Scott, former congressman J. C. Watts, congressional hopeful Star Parker, and other prominent black conservatives held the Black Conservative Forum to discuss blacks and the Republican Party. The forum, broadcast by C-Span, was well attended, though neither Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee bothered to show up. Rep. Jim Jordan of the Republican Study Committee showed up with only a few minutes to spare and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, showed up late.

It’s a shame that the talent scouts in our party didn’t bother showing up. Had they, they would have noticed this exchange in which Tim Scott demolished the latest lie about school choice: that racist prep schools, are not intransigent prep schools, are the impediment to educational progress in the black community.

“There are still those schools that would deny access to African-Americans. They are fewer than when I was there, but they are still there.”

Scott quickly showed the silliness of Cleaver’s question by pointing out that waiting for mythical racist schools to become non-racist would mean waiting forever because they don’t exist.

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“I think we ought to give our children the best we possibly can and I think we’re moving in that direction,” says renowned political operative James Carville. ”Yes, I’m very excited about it.”

Reason caught up with the Louisiana native at the New Orleans kickoff event for National School Choice Week (NSCW), which runs from January 22-28 and features hundreds of events around the country designed to increase support for allowing parents to pick what schools their children attend. The Big Easy was the ideal location for the event as all children attend schools of choice in New Orleans, a radical – and so far incredibly sucessful – response to decades of failed approaches and the devasation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

Carville emceed an event that also featured performers such as The Temptations, Trombone Shorty, and Ellis Marsalis along with speakers such as MSNBC’s Michelle Bernard, former Arizona education head Lisa Graham Keegan, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

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National School Choice Week, a grass roots effort, will be held this year from January 22-28. Activities and events sponsored throughout the nation will focus on effective education options for all children and support of school choice options in all states. This is an opportunity to educate local school boards and state legislatures about the need for education reforms that empower parents to choose the best educational environments for their children, whether those environments are public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, virtual schools, private schools, homeschooling and more.

If you own a business, company, or farm, sign in to sponsor National School Choice Week. Ask your local educational parents’ organization to be a sponsor and, perhaps, to host an event or activity focusing on school choice. Share this video with your local school boards, private schools, and parent groups.

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INDIANAPOLIS – Would you like a vivid example of how dysfunctional leadership and top-heavy bureaucracy can cripple an inner-city school system?
Just take a good look at Indianapolis Public Schools. The horrifying results speak for themselves.

Less than 60 percent of IPS students graduate high school on time, third- and eighth-graders score more than 20 percentage points below the state average on math and English tests, and six out of seven of Indiana’s worst schools are within the district.

Those sobering statistics are the impetus behind an encouraging new proposal to remake the district, drafted by education reformers at The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis nonprofit charter school advocacy group.

In the report – “Creating Opportunity Schools, A Bold Plan to Transform Indianapolis Public Schools” – The Mind Trust outlines how excessive and illogical labor spending in the district could be redirected into classrooms, where it belongs.

The report calls for drastic restructuring of the district, including decentralizing of the administration, expanding school choice, and giving high performing schools greater control over their budgets and staffs.

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FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Board members at Fort Wayne Community Schools have found a crafty way of preventing charter schools from moving in on their territory, despite new laws designed to help the schools acquire underutilized public school buildings.

They voted to simply transfer the title of their closed elementary school, Pleasant Center, to the Fort Wayne Allen County Airport Authority, which is expected to vote on a resolution to acquire the school building next week.

Unfortunately, it’s the area’s low-income students and their parents who will ultimately pay the price.

Last month, officials at Timothy L. Johnson Academy – a charter school that serves primarily low-income students in southeast Fort Wayne – expressed interest to FWCS officials in moving to Pleasant Center under new laws that allow charters to lease or buy underutilized public school buildings for $1.

Johnson Academy currently operates out of a church and another former school downtown, but enrollment has continued to increase and school officials are looking for room to grow.

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Remember when we used to have a legislative process?  Lately, the Obama Administration has me wondering if Congress even has a job to do anymore. Between Obamacare, card check, cap and trade, net neutrality, and massive financial regulations, among many others, it’s crystal clear that the Administration would prefer to ignore the limits of the Constitution than abide by it.

With No Child Left Behind (NCLB) “waivers,” the President has topped even his own high bar. The “waivers” plan is a misnomer because it does not give states more freedom. Rather, the plan forces states to comply with nearly 40 new government mandates. This is the nationalization of education policy, which will affect all 50 states and tens of millions of students.

In announcing the waiver scheme, the President explicitly said “given that Congress cannot act, I am acting.”  The President must have missed the memo that it’s not his job to make laws, which is, of course, exclusively Congress’ responsibility.  Yet Congress did not even hold one hearing on the waiver scheme, let alone actually pass legislation to authorize this move.  The Obama Administration continues to legislate through regulations in every aspect of policy, regardless of whether or not the federal government has authorized authority to do so by either the Constitution or Congress.

I’m certain there’s nothing in the Constitution saying that a President can do whatever he wants because Congress is taking too long. If the President wants to change the law, fine, but he needs to actually work with Congress to change the law — not just make proclamations from the White House. (more…)

Last week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R-IN) reviewed the reforms Indiana has instituted since he took office in a wide-ranging speech at The Heritage Foundation. From education reform to challenging public employee unions, Daniels has strived to make government work well. In an interview following his speech, Daniels discussed the reforms he made to state government, the Democrats’ walkout from the legislature this year, and what the federal government can learn from Indiana.

And the effort seems to have paid off. As we discussed in the interview, a recent Manhattan Institute poll revealed that 77 percent of Hoosiers rate Indiana’s government as “efficient.” That’s the highest percentage of any state surveyed and a stark contrast to neighboring Illinois’ 23 percent.

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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is living in Big Labor’s head – rent free.

The state’s public sector employee unions recently suffered an embarrassing rebuke from voters when four of the six targeted Republican lawmakers survived their recall elections. Big Labor took back two seats, but it was not enough to regain control of the state Senate.

If you thought Big Labor would be chastened by the defeat, think again.

Do you recognize this thug unionist?

The unions are so angry and have become so obsessed with Scott Walker, that a contingency of union thugs followed him to Milwaukee’s Messmer Preparatory Catholic School last Friday where the governor was to read to students and tour the school.

An unidentified union thug tried to prevent the visit from occurring by tampering with the school’s door locks. Media reports indicate that the vandal put super glue and sticks in the locks of eight school doors late Thursday night. Things went downhill from there.

Protestors spent the day on the sidewalk outside the school, chanting and displaying anti-Walker signs, such as “War on Walker, not on workers.” One protestor was even arrested on battery charges.

The protests got so raucous that at least one parent said that she felt unsafe entering the school with her child.

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Sigh.

Look what happened when Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker dared to go to a successful inner city school to read to a group of young kids.

The event was a perfect storm for the unhinged Left: A chance to combine their absolute hatred of the Republican governor with their complete disdain for the nation’s longest running school choice program.

SEIU, AFSCME and Milwaukee Public School officials combined forces with Students for a Democratic Society, self-professed Hippies and others to march, sing, chant and yell at not only the governor, but the students and staff of Messmer Preparatory School.

The Messmer story is inspiring, and one I’ll tell in greater detail here soon. What’s really striking to me is this obnoxious display of thuggery comes onthe heels of the release of the MacIver Educational Choice Census, which shows that throughout Wisconsin, parents are embracing educational options. In Milwaukee, nearly 4 out of 5 children attend a school other than the one geographically assigned to them by the public school bureaucrats.

The Left and the perpetually offended, who despite spending millions of dollars in national money have been losers now in several consecutive elections and policy debates in Wisconsin, must resort to civil disturbances, vandalism and thuggery.  Their well of vitriol has no bottom, apparently.

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Last week, Andrew Breitbart sat down exclusively with EAGtv and shared the purpose of BigEducation.com, his next website to be launched.

Parents in Wisconsin are voting with their feet. Or at least their kids’ feet.

More than 260,000 Wisconsin K-12 students exercise some form of educational choice, according to a new study by the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy.

Choice in education is not the exception, it is the norm in Wisconsin,. Our MacIver Educational Choice Census shows that parents across Wisconsin embrace alternatives to the public school that bureaucrats dictate upon them based solely on where they live.

The MacIver Educational Choice Census reveals that 261,301 Wisconsin school children are educated in a place other than their traditional, geographically-assigned public school. This includes private schools, choice schools, virtual schools and other public charter schools, those who are homeschooled and those who participate in the state’s cumbersome and narrow open enrollment window. That figure is up 17.7 percent from the 222,086 children from the last MacIver census.

Statewide, more than 25 percent of students exercised choice, and in Milwaukee, almost four out of every five students exercised some form of choice over where they’ll attend school. That’s right. Nearly eighty percent.

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Last week, Andrew Breitbart sat down exclusively with EAGtv to discuss the state of American education, school choice and a new movie that will show the battle for a better education.

He said the “status quo is deplorable.”

At FreedomFest in July, Reason’s Matt Welch talked with political consultant and Fox News contributor Dick Morris about the school choice movement.

Morris argues that past reforms – such as increased spending, changes in curriculum, and standardized testing, have failed because they don’t create the sort of competition and innovation that would come with the implementation of robust school choice that is already happening around the country. The former adviser to Bill Clinton believes school choice is a “game-changer” regarding partisan voting patterns, with Democratic-leaning women voters increasingly interested in broadening the ways in which K-12 education is delivered. As important, he says that the once-immoveable object of the teacher’s union “ain’t so immoveable.”

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At FreedomFest 2011, Reason’s Matt Welch spoke with Fox News’ Juan Williams about his passion for school choice reform, which Williams describes as the “civil rights issue of our time.”

Williams is the author of the new book Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate, which recounts in part his controversial firing from National Public Radio. He’s also the author of the critically acclaimed 1988 history of the civil rights movement, Eyes on the Prize.

Williams says he first came to the issue of education reform in the 1990s, when he was astonished by the level of dropout rates in inner-city schools, which disproportionately affects low-income and minority students. He credits George W. Bush for coining the phrase “the soft bigotry of low expectations” to describe the educational status quo and remains surprised by the lack of widespread outrage from parents whose children are stuck in such failing schools. Still, he believes that the forces of school choice are making huge headway in breaking up a public school monopoly that fails to serve students and parents.

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In his recent address at the National Summit for the American Federation for Children in Washington D.C., Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett made an important point about the state of public education.

“For years, we’ve talked about failing schools,” Corbett said. “Now, in addition to talking about failing schools, we find ourselves talking about dangerous schools. How on Earth –how on Earth—is a child whose own parents see no other kind of school other than a failing school, supposed to learn basic mathematics, reading and literature?”

Many Americans are asking that same question.

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Upon learning that average per pupil spending in the public education system is $9,000, recent Rasmussen poll takers overwhelming stated their dissatisfaction with the return on their investment.

It’s hard to blame them.  Per pupil spending on education has tripled since the 1960s and increased 138 percent since 1985, but test scores and academic achievements remain stagnant and unchanged.

Noticing this trend, taxpayers and parents have found other options—an alternative to the status quo.  Americans are used to variety and choice and thought the education system should offer nothing less.

“In our society choice is something we’ve all been used to,” says Jeff Sands, senior manager of school development for Northeastern and Central California for the California Charter Schools Association.  “Now you can find schools that fit your needs and styles.”

The charter school movement has grown to 4,600 schools serving more than 1.4 million students nationally.

Charter schools have been a welcomed change for taxpayers, parents, students and those states and local governments who have adopted them.

What makes charter school different than public schools?

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Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed an expansive new voucher law today. It’s a disaster for educational freedom. Read the full explanation here.

The voucher program has been widely praised as a momentous victory for school choice and Gov. Mitch Daniels on the brink of his long-awaited presidential campaign announcement. In reality, the voucher program is a tactical victory for highly constrained choice won at the price of a broad strategic defeat for educational freedom. This program will greatly expand state regulation of and authority over participating private schools.

In our efforts to expand educational choice across the country, we can’t lose sight of what makes that choice valuable; educational freedom and the diversity of choices it allows to develop. School choice is meaningless if all the choices are the same.

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Who likes the sound of a school bell? Sheldon Richman certainly doesn’t.

“Schools, by their structure, are preparing kids for some sort of authoritarian lifestyle,” he says.

Richman is critical of the school choice movement, saying that even in charter schools, money is still being provided by the state.

He edits The Freeman and TheFreemanOnline.org, publications from the Foundation for Economic Education. Richman also is the author of Separating School and State and is a contributor to The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.

Topics include: Unschooling; critiquing charter schools; for-profit private schools; and home schooling.

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When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker curtailed collective bargaining privileges for public sector workers (formerly known as public servants), it resulted in all-out political war in Madison.

Walker won the showdown, and now the state can get its financial house in order.

But that doesn’t mean Walker is done taking on the unions.

One of the governor’s next goals is to improve the state’s public education system by giving more kids access to quality schools. That means expanding Milwaukee’s wildly successful voucher program to even more families. And that means a raucous showdown with the teacher unions.

As part of his budget proposal, Walker wants to lift income restrictions on the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program so that families earning up to 325 percent of the federal poverty line would quality for vouchers, the School Reform News reports.

Walker also wants Milwaukee voucher students to have access to all private schools in Milwaukee County, not just those within the city.

The voucher program was established in 1990, and is the oldest program of its kind in the nation.

The reality is vouchers are working in places like Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. because it gives kids a way out — an alternative to the drop out factories known as public schools.

The Milwaukee voucher program has been enormously successful. EAGtv recently visited a school in Milwaukee that takes kids of all races, economic backgrounds and social classes and  prepares them for life. The school, Eastbrook Academy, graduated its first high school class last spring, and reports that each graduate is currently studying in a four-year college program.

Those who value “social justice” should be the biggest supporters of school choice and vouchers. As EAGtv’s Milwaukee story shows, school choice benefits kids by allowing them to attend a school they otherwise couldn’t afford.  It’s “spreading the wealth around,” in the form of quality schooling.

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