 |
IN THIS EDITION |
What to Watch
Why teacher unions don’t like school choice. | Number of the Week
Five rules for reforming teacher compensation. | Quote of the Week
School choice can boost urban student graduation rates without straining cash-strapped public school systems. | Don't Miss
No Child Left Behind Waivers: Bogus Relief, Genuine Overreach. | |
|
Fact Checking Duncan on Education Cuts
By Lindsey Burke
During remarks to attendees in Charlotte last week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan claimed that the budget passed by the House of Representatives would mean “fewer teachers in the classroom, fewer resources for poor kids and students with disabilities, [and] fewer after school programs.”
However, the House budget does not designate specific cuts to K-12 education programs; it simply calls for reductions in non-defense discretionary spending over the next decade. Duncan, as he did in testimony earlier this year, is using unspecified spending reductions suggested in the budget to assume reductions in specific education programs—something the budget proposal does not do.
But even if federal education spending were to be cut by 20 percent—a goal worth pursuing—would that mean fewer teachers, fewer resources for poor and disabled students, and fewer after-school programs, as Duncan suggests?
|
| What To
Watch |  | An Honest Union Man: Why Unions Don’t Like School Choice
Unions oppose vouchers because they allow students to attend non-union schools. The fact children given vouchers are substantially more likely to finish high school is a secondary concern. | |
| 25,000 Chicago Teachers Walk Off the Job
By Amy Payne
This morning, about 350,000 students in Chicago Public Schools will be without teachers. While the 25,000-plus unionized teachers take to the picket lines in a strike over benefits and teacher evaluations, working parents are scrambling to figure out what to do.
“We know a strike is really going to be painful. People will be hurt on both sides,” Jay Rehak, a union delegate and high school English teacher, told the Chicago Tribune. “But in the end, it’s like saying, ‘I’ll be bloodied and you’ll be bloodied, but at least you’ll know not to bully me again.’”
Among other demands, the Chicago Teachers Union had asked for a 30 percent pay increase—despite the facts that just 15 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading and just 56 percent of students graduate in the district. The school board ended up offering a 16 percent pay increase over four years, but as last night’s midnight deadline for strike negotiations neared, the union rejected the offer.
|
| |
Number of the Week
Five What are the five rules for reforming teacher compensation?
These include avoiding across-the-board pay increases and rewarding teachers based on effectiveness, explains The Heritage Foundation’s Jason Richwine.
See A Better Way to Pay: Five Rules for Reforming Teacher Compensation | | | Quote of the Week |  | “Here in Illinois…a voucher bill to free 30,000 Chicago public school students has been bottled up in the Legislature for more than two years. Those are two years during which 30,000 students have been relegated to often low-performing schools. Two years those kids can't get back. Two years during which many of their parents desperately sought an alternative…."
| | |
Don’t Miss
No Child Left Behind Waivers: Bogus Relief, Genuine Overreach
The Obama Administration’s No Child Left Behind waivers pose serious legal questions, circumvent the normal legislative process, significantly grow federal intervention in local school policy, and fail to offer genuine relief to states suffering from Washington mandates and red tape. Read the Issue Brief on heritage.org >> |  | |
 | About The Heritage Foundation
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute -- a think tank -- whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. | |
No comments:
Post a Comment