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Private school vouchers mesh with progressive Democratic Party values
The late Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once crafted a tuition tax credit measure with Republican Sen. Bob Packwood that garnered 50 co-sponsors, including Sen. George McGovern and 23 other...
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Marco Rubio pitches federal private school choice (“voucher”) program
America’s long-running, state-by-state battle over parental empowerment in education may be going national. In what could be the most far-reaching school choice legislation in U.S. history, Sen. Marco...
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Increasing school choice demand will increase pressure for change
I am grateful to Rebecca Sibilia and Sean Gill for their thoughtful response to my blog post encouraging Michelle Rhee to replace her failing schools model of school choice with an approach based on...
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Local NAACP president defends Sen. Rubio’s scholarship bill
Editor’s note: The Rev. Manuel Sykes is pastor of Bethel Community Baptist Church and president of the St. Petersburg NAACP, an active chapter on Florida’s west coast. In this commentary, he responds...
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‘I’m an advocate for what works’
Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts about Lake Wales Charter Schools. Part one here. Robin Gibson Robin Gibson counts one legendary Democratic governor as a close friend, and helped run the...
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On school choice frontier, lessons from Lake Wales
The community takeover of Lake Wales public schools feels so much like an educational Camelot that it is easy to forget this romance was spawned by Florida’s charter school conversion law. It’s also...
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redefinED roundup: Tax credit scholarships in Alabama, vouchers in Tennessee,...
Alabama: Gov. Robert Bentley signs the tax credit scholarship bill into law after the Alabama Supreme Court lifts a restraining order from a circuit court judge that prevented the bill from being sent...
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A dose of reality on Planet BAEO
I did not see any of these evil alien privatizers at the BAEO Symposium. Only 76 miles separate the Step Up For Students office in Tampa and the Orlando hotel where the Black Alliance for Educational...
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Former Democratic lawmaker joins Step Up For Students board
Al Lawson, an iconic Democratic lawmaker who served in the Florida Legislature for nearly three decades, has joined a nonprofit board that oversees state-supported scholarships for low-income...
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Why school voucher opponents should reconsider
In a blog entry last week, “I’m rethinking my opposition to school vouchers. Convince me,” Nicole Stockdale, the assistant editorial page editor at the Dallas Morning News, said she is grappling with...
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Florida roundup: parent trigger, teacher pay, district charter schools & more
Charter schools. Some big ideas on tap for today’s discussion in the Senate Education Committee, including a proposal to let school districts start their own charter schools. Tampa Bay Times. Tax...
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School choice debate isn’t all conflict
If you think the school choice debate in Florida is all us vs. them, maybe you’re not listening carefully enough. Here are three examples just from the past few days. Sen. Montford: “We know that the...
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Common ground on strategies for high-poverty students
Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of an ongoing dialogue between Doug Tuthill, president of Step Up For Students, and John Wilson, a former National Education Association official who...
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Florida roundup: Florida Virtual School, parent trigger, Common Core & more
Parent trigger. Rep. Joe Saunders, D-Orlando, writes in this Orlando Sentinel op-ed that parents should have the choice to keep their child with a teacher with a bad eval. In this Tampa Bay Times...
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Education profiteers? These folks?
These folks were among those who attended the school choice rally in Tally earlier this month. It’s true: ALEC likes school choice. Walton likes school choice. Jeb Bush likes school choice. Some of...
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Democrats should be leading charge for school choice
Rep. Morgan Say school choice and some Democrats say profits, privatization, Republican plot. Democrat Alisha Thomas Morgan says equal opportunity. “We’ve got to put policies in place to ensure that...
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Joe Williams: Teachers themselves will push unions to better models
Joe Williams Editor’s note: This is the second of four guest posts on the future of teachers unions. When I was a cub reporter in my 20’s at a unionized (but open shop) newspaper in the Midwest, I...
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Time for a ‘Brown’ ruling on religious discrimination in education
Charles Glenn: it’s time for a ruling on par with Brown v. Board of Education to end legalized discrimination in education on the basis of religion. New Hampshire joined other states in adopting a...
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The school where Bible truth & evolution built a bridge
Editor’s note: This is a sidebar to Monday’s profile post about Daniel and Suzette Dean, a Tampa, Fla. couple whose private school is at the heart of their community development vision. At Bible Truth...
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Great conference! But where are the parents?
Recently I attended the American Federation for Children’s policy summit in Washington, D.C. This event was an exciting, informative, two-day conference filled with panel discussions, keynote speakers...
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