Charter Schools For The Spread Of Education
American Chronicle, California, January 30, 2008
It is to be noted that while charter schools are a variant of public schools, there are certain essential differences.

Congressional Hypocrisy on School Choice
Heritage.org, DC , January 30, 2008
But while liberals are quick to support school vouchers for higher education, they are much less enthusiastic about giving students younger than 18 the same power to choose their school.

Charter School Hustle
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia, January 31, 2008
Lawmakers bristle over dictates to the hinterlands from the state folks in Atlanta. Except, of course, when the lawmakers themselves are the ones in Atlanta trampling local control.

Per-Pupil Funding Increase Sought
Washington Post, D.C., January 31, 2008
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said he will seek a 5 percent increase in per-pupil funding for the more than 70,000 students enrolled in the D.C. system and charter schools, a $52.9 million effort to improve city education.

Rally at MO Capitol Calls For School Choice
KWMU, Missouri, January 30, 2008
Around 200 students and parents from St. Louis traveled to Jefferson City by bus on Wednesday and held a rally inside the State Capitol for school choice.

Harp Rips Into School Leaders
New Haven Independent, Connecticut, January 30, 2008
Wading into an ongoing education battle, State Sen. Toni Harp blasted city officials for fighting with charter school proponents rather than working with them and emulating their success.

More Public Funds For Charter Schools?
Portsmouth Herald News, New Hampshire, January 31, 2008
The state’s endangered free-standing public charter schools would get a financial windfall from the school districts their students come from under a bill filed Wednesday.

Compromise On Virtual Schools Protects New Ways To Educate
The Reporter, Wisconsin, January 31, 2008
Bipartisan agreement on a proposed bill may have paved the way for peace between the state of Wisconsin and the burgeoning virtual schools industry - or at least, for now, an uneasy truce.

Flight Of Students Reflects Need For Change
Albany Times Union, New York, January 31, 2008
I was amazed to read that the Albany Board of Education members have not yet figured out why there is an enormous "exodus" from the city school district to the charter schools that are cropping up and flourishing throughout the city.

House Bill Puts School Districts In Charge Of The Cyber Schools
Evening Bulletin, Pennsylvania, January 30, 2008
School officials complain while the cyber charters receive the same annual stipend from the district per student enrolled as do the regular charter schools, they don’t have the same bricks-and-mortar overhead costs the other charters do.

Grants Would Finance Private Schooling
New York Times, January 29, 2008
President Bush's call for a $300 million program called Pell Grants for Kids is the latest effort by his administration to channel tax dollars to low-income parents to help them send their children to private or religious schools.

Pay to Study
Findlay Courier, Ohio, January 29, 2008
The motive is motivation. Financial incentives have been tried in other locations, with varying degrees of success.

Not-So-Liberal Teachers
Washington Post, D.C., January 28, 2008
Teachers, of course, are classic liberals, right? After all, consider the politics of teachers' unions, the trendiness of curricula and the generally left-leaning nature of academia. Well, maybe not.

Harmony Organizes Rally To Protest Closure Lawsuit
Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio, January 29, 2008
Ohio's attorney general wants to shut down Harmony Community School, one of Cincinnati's oldest and largest charter schools, but school leaders and parents say they'll fight to keep it open.

A Tough Choice For L.A. Teachers
Los Angeles Times, California, January 29, 2008
As an urban high school teacher, I'm ceded the moral high ground in most encounters with people in more highly compensated fields; invariably, they tell me how much they admire what I do.

Teachers Abandon a Democrat Over School Choice
New York Sun, January 29, 2008
Lawmakers in Albany were given a powerful reminder of the political danger of siding in favor of school choice measures when the state's largest teachers union yesterday endorsed the Republican candidate…

Study: Milwaukee Voucher Students Have Diploma Edge
Education Week, January 28, 2008
Students who participate in Milwaukee's private-school-voucher program graduate from high school at significantly higher rates than those who attend regular secondary schools in the city, a new study contends.

Endorsement From Unions Offers Boost, but How Big?
New York Times, January 27, 2008
As endorsements go, Hillary Rodham Clinton has hit a trifecta in New York, getting an edge before the Feb. 5 primary by winning the backing of the state’s three most powerful unions.

Successful Charter Schools Giving Families Reason To Stay In Cleveland
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, January 28, 2008
After a rocky start, charter schools — independent, tuition-free schools that are publicly funded but privately operated — are taking root in Ohio neighborhoods.

New Route To Charter Status Sought
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia, January 27, 2008
The best hope of circumventing hostile school boards is passage of pending legislation, HB 881, that would set up a separate state body to pass judgment on charter school applications, said Tony Roberts, chief executive officer of the Georgia Charter Schools Association.

No Place For Ethics?
Hudson Reporter, New Jersey, January 27, 2008
Last week, supporters of a proposed charter school for Jersey City with an "ethics"-based curriculum were dismayed over the state's rejection of their application.

Mr. Fenty's First Year
Washington Post, D.C., January 26, 2008
Assuming responsibility for the public schools is the great accomplishment of Mr. Fenty's first year in office, but it remains his most formidable challenge and biggest political risk.

Proposal Could Restore School Vouchers, Lift Religion Spending Ban
Sun Sentinel, Florida, January 25, 2008
An unconstitutional school voucher program could be restored and a ban on state aid to religious organizations and institutions could be at least partly lifted through a proposal introduced Friday.

Support Grows For Virtual Education
The Reporter, Wisconsin, January 28, 2008
Domingo Alonzo said leaving public school in favor of a virtual education changed his life.

Class Warfare: Schools Compete For Kids
East Valley Tribune, Arizona, January 28, 2008
About 5,000 fliers were mailed in Mesa, 4,500 DVDs distributed in Tempe and dozens of open houses were organized across the East Valley during the last few months — all in an effort to let families know it’s time to choose a kindergarten.

'Charter' Flight To Better Education
Georgetown News-Graphic, Kentucky, January 27, 2008
I wonder if strident critics of school choice pay attention to the success of charter schools throughout the nation. If they do, I suspect they choose to ignore it or dismiss it as some kind of fad - a bad experiment gone good.

Forbes reaches out to 20 leaders from industry, public policy and education to offer their vision for putting American education and American students back on sound global footing.

Jeanne Allen, President, Center for Education Reform.

Bryan Baker, Thought Leader and Enterprise Consultant for Xerox Global Services

Craig Barrett, Chairman, Intel Corp.

Todd Bradley, Executive VP, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett Packard

Cynthia G. Brown, Director of Education Policy, Center for American Progress

John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco

Clayton M. Christensen, Co-founder, Innosight Institute

Senator Michael Enzi , Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

Colonel Dean M. Esserman, Chief of Police, City of Providence, RI

Mike Feinberg, Co-founder, KIPP charter schools

Bill Gates, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Taylor W. Lawrence, Vice President, Research of Raytheon

Stanley Litow, President, IBM International Foundation

Rep. Howard McKeon, Senior Republican, House Education and Labor Committee

Rep. George Miller, Chairman, House Education and Labor Committee

Jim Miller, Executive VP, Cadence Design Systems

Michele Rhee, Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools

Margaret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education

Chris Whittle, Founder, Chairman of Edison Schools

Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize 2006, Founder of Grameen Bank

Educating Our Children: Jeanne Allen Commentary
Forbes, January 24, 2008
How is the world’s only superpower home to an education system that lacks the highly productive, competitive model that other uniquely American industries embrace?

Is School Choice Enough?
City Journal, New York, January 24, 2008
City Journal’s Winter 2008 issue, contributing editor Sol Stern wrote a piece, School Choice Isn’t Enough, that ignited a firestorm of debate within the school-reform movement. Here, some of the nation’s top education scholars discuss the story, and Stern responds.

Where They Stand On … Education
Chicago Tribune, Illinois, January 25, 2008
Hillary Clinton: Wants prekindergarten for all 4-year-olds…

Rating Teachers: Are Tests the Answer?
New York Times, January 25, 2008
There is both good and bad in many decisions that are made for the "public good." The experiment by the New York City Department of Education in which teachers at 140 schools are rated based on standardized test scores is no exception.

Sparring Continues Over NCLB Legal Ruling
Education Week, January 25, 2008
A court ruling that revived a major legal challenge to the No Child Left Behind Act is drawing sharply differing interpretations from Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and advocates for states and school districts.

School-Closing Manifesto Part One: No More Delays - Time To Get Radical
D.C. Examiner, January 25, 2008
Now let’s get down to the hard and hurtful business of closing the half empty schools that have failed to educate generations of Washingtonians.

Education Options Available For Parents Of Expelled Students
Mansfield News Journal, Ohio, January 25, 2008
In the case of Isaac’s daughter, Gold Digital Academy accepted her. She will start her online schooling this week.

Losing Patience With Bad Schools
Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio, January 25, 2008
How long should someone have to wait for a publicly funded charter school to raise unacceptably low student achievement?

State Is Shortsighted To Shortchange Schools
Atlanta Journal Constitution, Georgia, January 25, 2008
The rumblings among state leadership over Gov. Sonny Perdue’s proposed $141 million reduction in basic per-pupil funding suggest that elected officials are finally recognizing that they cannot continue to shortchange schools and expect academic excellence.

Georgians Want Fundamental Change in State’s Charter School Law
PR Newswire, January 24, 2008
A new study released today by the Georgia Charter Schools Association and My School My Choice Georgia, a new statewide grassroots charter school advocacy group, shows that a majority of Georgians are demanding fundamental change to state laws, creating more and better education opportunities for students and families.

2 High Schools Join LAUSD Reform Effort
Los Angeles Times, California, January 25, 2008
Crenshaw High, south of Leimert Park, and Westchester High, on the Westside, will join the Innovation Division, a new reform initiative of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Panel OKs Access For Online, Charter School Students
Salt Lake Tribune, Utah, January 25, 2008
The Senate Education Committee threw its support behind SB36, which would force public schools to allow charter and online school students to participate in extracurricular activities not offered at their schools.

Autistic Kids Find Safe Place to Learn
Salt Lake Tribune, Utah, January 24, 2008
The North Salt Lake City school was created because a group of parents wanted to send their children to a school that could accommodate their special needs.

Wis. Lawmakers Announce Deal To Keep Virtual Schools Open
Chippewa Herald, Wisconsin, January 24, 2008
Virtual schools would remain open under new regulations meant to ensure quality in a compromise announced by Wisconsin lawmakers on Thursday.