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IN THIS EDITION |
What to Watch
Watch the new video from The Heritage Foundation: The Future is Brighter with School Choice. | Number of the Week
SAT scores are down, despite increasing per-pupil spending. | Quote of the Week
Competition works in everyday life; it works in education too. | Don't Miss
School lunch regulations are just the start of the Administration's overreach into local schools. | |
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Five Questions for Education Secretary Arne Duncan
By Rachel Sheffield
 |  | On Tuesday morning, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will address the National Press Club. We have five questions we’d like him to answer:
- You said the outcome of the Chicago teachers strike was “great for children.” Considering that the union hindered a merit-pay proposal that would have awarded the most effective teachers and that the proposals demanded by the unions, such as step increases in pay and across-the-board pay raises—have no impact on academic achievement, just exactly how do children benefit from the union’s deal?
- The Obama Administration has pushed aggressively to implement Common Core national education standards. While the standards have been touted as a state-led reform, the Administration continues to condition federal education funding—and most recently No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waivers—on whether states adopt the standards. Isn’t this an overreach of the federal government into state and local authority?
- The momentum for school choice continues to increase. Support for private school choice is at an all-time high—44 percent—in the U.S, and studies show that voucher students are succeeding. Many of the children currently benefiting from school choice are those from the worst performing schools and from low-income families. Why does the Administration continue to oppose private school choice?
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| Heritage’s Opposition to National Education Standards Advances Public Debate
By Lindsey Burke
Federal intervention into education has been a growing problem over the past four-and-a-half decades and is being supersized by the Obama Administration’s current efforts to push states to nationalize their standards, tests, and, ultimately, curriculum.
Heritage has been sounding the warning bell about the Common Core national standards push and has been particularly critical of federal efforts to incentivize their adoption. It is part of our effort to restore good constitutional governance in education and promote conservative public policy solutions to improve our nation’s education system.
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Number of the Week
34
The average reading (verbal) SAT score is down 34 points since 1972, a four-decade low.
Low SAT scores aren’t the only bad news. U.S. student graduation rates haven’t budged since the 1970s and academic achievement rates have remained essentially flat. Yet federal per-pupil spending has nearly tripled since that time.
See SAT Scores at Historical Low; Education Spending at Historical High
| | | Quote of the Week |  | “As every parent knows, each child is different. In education, one size does not fit all…. When parents have the ability to leave if a school is not working for their child, all schools perform to a higher standard. Competition works in our everyday lives and it does work in education, too."
-–Greg Gianforte, the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice
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 | 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. | |
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