My brief talk Saturday at FreedomFest identified those who try to deny school choice to the children of America and the tactics they use to do it.  On a recent panel at FreedomFest, a libertarian gathering held yearly in Las Vegas, I along with National School Choice Week President Andrew Campanella, Friedman Foundation State Programs...

The public employee pension problem isn’t new, but a teacher union leader’s defense of it has sunk to new depths. According to the Federal Reserve, public employee pensions in aggregate nationally are in serious trouble. Currently totaling $5.8 trillion, they are underfunded by $1.7 trillion. While all these pensions are draining public resources, Don Boyd, director...

National School Choice Week aims to end our Zip-code Mandated Education System (Z MESS) and promote parent-power.  You: I’m going out to dinner tonight. Me: You are going to the restaurant down the street from where you live, right? You: No, it’s not very good. I am going to a restaurant across town; it has...

The state known for flashy neon, quickie divorces and Wayne Newton shows is now ground zero for private school choice. On its website, the Nevada State Education Association informs us that vouchers (and other private school options) are unworthy because, among other things, they offer “no real ‘choice’ for the overwhelming majority of students.” This...

Using testing as a backdrop, NEA president promotes 1950s industrial-style education. The American Enterprise Institute’s education policy maven Rick Hess has been traveling around the country promoting his new book The Cage-Busting Teacher. So last week he left his Education Week blog in the hands of National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen García. Interesting choice,...

Teachers unions turn to “facts” as they desperately cling to their monopolistic, anti-privatization narrative. Last Thursday the “non-partisan” Center for Tax and Budget Accountability rolled out a report that slammed vouchers, claiming that there is “no statistical evidence proving that students who use vouchers perform better than their public school counterparts.” The “study,” as reported...

As the need for vouchers increases, the politics of school privatization gets interestinger and interestinger. “Some NYC teachers: ‘Don’t send your kids here!’” screamed the headline in a New York Post article last week. The damning story goes on to explain how over 80 percent of the teachers in eight public schools – including charters...

The system of government-controlled public education has failed in its mandated task to prepare America’s youth for adulthood. High school graduates are grossly undereducated and unprepared for work, career and responsible citizenship. The failure is recorded in their poor scores on international assessments of academic competence. Numerous studies have demonstrated the continuing decline in high...

When it comes to education and civil rights, NEA and AFT are part of the problem; the solution is choice. Last Saturday was the 60th anniversary of the Brown v Board of Education decision, which outlawed state-sponsored segregation in schools. Never missing an opportunity to grandstand, the teachers unions groused all last week about various...

Why are vouchers okay for college students, but not for K-12ers? Recently, the National Education Association posted an interview with Wes Moore on its website. Two boys are named Wes Moore. Both grow up in fatherless homes in Baltimore. Both struggle in school, and run into trouble with the police. But one Wes Moore wins...