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We couldn’t be prouder of our own Bruno Behrend, who recently drove up to a Tea Party Rally in Sheboygan, WI (otherwise known as “real America”) to talk about school reform — getting the crowd excited about breaking up the government education complex.
Have a look and listen:
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Thanks to The Washington Examiner for publishing my piece today bout how the teachers unions in Connecticut worked behind the scenes to neuter the Parent Trigger school reform. The AFT bragged of their success on their website for days — until the cynical documents started to gather attention, at which point the union erased it from the site.
An excerpt of my op-ed:
The bill approved by Connecticut legislators allows the councils of elected community members only to advise school officials rather than empowering them to force needed reforms.
The report also touts as “karma” that “the chief legislative proponent of the original parent trigger bill lost his re-election in November 2010″ and “the House Co-Chair [who allowed the bill to move forward] lost his race for Majority Leader and has a thorny relationship with the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus on education issues.”
The report also makes clear AFT officials must be hoping Biddle’s discovery does not become more widely known because it destroys the union’s carefully erected image as reform-minded partners who love to “collaborate” with parents and communities.
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In School Reform News’ latest podcast, Dr. Lewis Andrews and I discuss why suburban parents pose an obstacle to school reform. An article in the New York Times discusses this very thing, as charter schools ease into suburbs for parents wanting more education options in return for their substantial property taxes.
Charter schools, like most school choice options, were introduced and promoted as a way for poor children to escape from terrible urban schools. Now, as Americans grow more comfortable with charters, wealthy and middle-class parents are starting to consider the opportunities they present for customizing education. Currently, only 1 in 5 charters reside in the suburbs.
Not all suburban parents appreciate the incursion.
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CLICK IMAGE TO SEE TAXPAYERS' SAVINGS GRANTS VIDEO
Heartland Institute President Joseph L. Bast was on “Wall Builders” with Rick Green Monday talking about the Taxpayers’ Savings Grants in Texas. As usual, Joe knocked it out of the park.
Some highlights of what Joe said in the 27-minute clip (which you can hear or download via the player at the bottom of this post):
One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to schools. So why do we assign kids to a single public school based on where their parents live? When it’s pretty obvious that these kids have different skills, different interests, their parents have different interests. … We ought to be able to allow parents to be able to sort their kids into the schools that they think would do the best job education their kids and the current system just doesn’t allow that to happen. …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Jay P. Greene has written a post on his blog today that should, if there were any justice, be inscribed on letters of gold blazoned across the sky. But since there isn’t any justice, I’ll quote from it liberally right here:
The problem is that foundations are no substitute for market forces in identifying what works and what doesn’t for kids. Rather than focusing on picking winners and losers, foundations should focus on pushing the idea that we need stronger market forces.
Jay is talking about the results of a new report released by Andrew Coulson at Cato today, which tracked the performance of students at various charter school networks in California. Coulson compared the most successful schools with the support given by philanthropies. Coulson’s conclusion is dire:
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If you had asked me earlier this week if I thought Indiana’s SB 496, the Parent Trigger Act, would face any difficulty in conference, I would have said, in so many words, “Ain’t nothin’ gonna stop us!” And most observers probably would have replied, “Sure looks that way!”
Famous last words…
State Sen. Dennis Kruse (R-Auburn) inserted language into a conference report late yesterday that effectively neutered the bill.
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Rock-Paper-Scissors is a game most any child can grasp. Rock breaks scissors, scissors cut paper, paper covers rock. California’s landmark Parent Empowerment Act—a.k.a. the Parent Trigger—is a little bit like the child’s game, with a concept so simple even a child could understand it and only an educrat could foul it up.
The point of the Parent Trigger is to empower parents of children at failing schools to surmount local bureaucracies that often stand in the way of meaningful reforms. If half of parents at a failing public school sign a petition, the local district must undertake one of several reforms prescribed by law. (You can read all about it here.)
In short, parents trump bureaucrats.
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Tens of thousands of people in at least 36 states this week will participate in more than 140 events touting the virtues of school choice. It’s the first annual National School Choice Week, a collaboration of more than 150 school reform groups, schools, philanthropic foundations, and businesses. The Heartland Institute is a proud participant in the effort to highlight how empowering parents to choose the best schools for their children is essential reform. 
I attended a kick-off event sponsored by KRLA 870 AM and Americans for Prosperity last Thursday at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California, where about 800 people packed into a scale replica of the White House East Room to hear Dick Morris and radio talkshow host Hugh Hewitt discuss why 2011 may well be the year everything changes in school reform.
Why this year? Because, as Morris explained, 2011 will be the year states reckon with their yawning state budget deficits.
State governors and legislatures across the United States this year are facing up to a grim financial reality: More than $100 billion in federal education stimulus money is gone. Another bailout isn’t forthcoming, and voters have no great appetite for higher taxes. After years of pumping up school spending, real cuts are overdue.
Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Indiana are among the states considering bills either to establish or expand opportunity scholarship programs currently aimed at offering low-income parents or parents with disabled children the means to attend the school of their choice.
And 2011 could also be the year of reform because, as it turns out, school choice isn’t just the right thing to do for parents. It’s also one of the fiscally sanest things legislators and policymakers can do to save their states from financial ruin. How long before fiscal basket cases such as California and Illinois follow suit?
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Subhead: It’s not about bashing teachers, it’s about changing the entire system
… At least, that was the message I conveyed on Fox News Chicago on Sunday Morning while discussing a teacher performance and tenure bill in the Illinois legislature. It was me vs. Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union.
FOX Chicago Sunday: Karen Lewis & Bruno Behrend: MyFoxCHICAGO.com
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If you’ve read Marc’s post below, you know that the Parent Trigger is going to be well represented. Of course, I couldn’t help post something similar, but I take a slightly different tack on some of the points.
Reading, or re-reading Alexander Russo’s post might provide context.
Before I go any further, please help Marc and me become the best advocates we can for this idea. Comment away on your thoughts. Throw the kitchen sink at us. Also, please come back and visit this page often to find out who’s doing what on the trigger.
[click to continue…]
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