Grant Allen once lamented, “What a misfortune it is that we should thus be compelled to let our boys’ schooling interfere with their education!” These words, often attributed to Mark Twain, encapsulate a sentiment that education transcends the walls of a schoolhouse, echoing the belief that learning should not be confined to a classroom. Increasingly,...
The school choice movement is accelerating across the nation as more state legislatures pass laws that empower parents to use tax dollars to send their child to the best school for them. Support for school choice is also skyrocketing among voters across demographics. Among likely voters, a survey by the Invest in Education Coalition found...
You can add Arkansas to the list of states that have enacted universal school choice legislation this year. In just three months, Republican governors in Iowa and Utah, and now newly-elected Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, have signed laws creating statewide Education Savings Account (ESA) programs that empower parents to use state education dollars to...
This month, we celebrated and honored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a man who fought for equality and a quality education for all children. More than fifty years later, too many of our district schools are failing Latino families. This is the social justice issue of our generation. More than half of...
As we transition into 2023, we can see that the field of education will once again be a contentious one, as too many government-run schools are failing, and parents are not happy. In Chicago, for example, great numbers of students are avoiding their local schools. In fact, more than one-third of the city’s public schools...
Election results show that parental freedom is on the move, but too many children are still stuck in government-run schools with few options. The election on November 8th was good for the school choice movement. As Corey DeAngelis, senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, explains, 76% of candidates supported by his organization won...
Political observers speculated there was just one reason many schools re-opened this fall: teachers union leaders wanted to help Gov. Gavin Newsom, then fighting off a campaign to remove him from office. Were Newsom to win, they argued, California’s teachers unions would have a loyalist in office, allowing teachers unions to work from home, and...
Editor’s note: This column is an expansion of a piece the author previously published in CalMatters on July 22, 2021. You can read that piece here. A massive battle is about to hit California school districts, and parents must prepare to fight for their students. Through a series of federal relief packages passed in Washington,...
In a true testament to the impact engaged parents can have, California officials chose in two separate instances this week to put kids and their education before woke politics. It’s something not seen enough these days, and certainly worth celebrating when it happens. The first student-centric victory came on Tuesday, when the Los Angeles Unified...
United Teachers Los Angeles President Cecily Myart-Cruz has been talking for months about the “transformational change” she wants to bring to California schools through the COVID-19 pandemic. Golden State voters, according to a new poll commissioned by the California Policy Center, want changes, too. Unfortunately for Myart-Cruz, the changes voters want could dismantle the government...
Prepared by Golden Together, a Movement to Restore the California Dream Edward Ring, California Policy Center Steve Hilton, Founder of Golden Together Published March 20, 2025