https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1368188283264581636
March 7, 2021. Tags: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Education, lockdown, lockdown is a scam, lockdown scam, lockdowns, School choice, School vouchers, Ted Cruz, Unions. COVID-19, Education, Unions. .
In my opinion, successful schools should not be shut down.
Instead, they should be copied.
Every child should be allowed to attend a school as good as this one.
The fact that the teachers’ union tried to shut down this successful school, instead of copying it, is despicable.
This is the complete article from the Wall St. Journal:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081014175429/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122394095677630803.html
Charter Success in L.A.
School choice in South Central.
October 14, 2008
With economic issues sucking up so much political oxygen this year, K-12 education hasn’t received the attention it deserves from either Presidential candidate. The good news is that school reformers at the local level continue to push forward.
This month the Inner City Education Foundation (ICEF), a charter school network in Los Angeles, announced plans to expand the number of public charter schools in the city’s South Central section, which includes some of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in the country. Over the next four years, the number of ICEF charters will grow to 35 from 13. Eventually, the schools will enroll one in four students in the community, including more than half of the high school students.
The demand for more educational choice in predominantly minority South Los Angeles is pronounced. The waitlist for existing ICEF schools has at times exceeded 6,000 kids. And no wonder. Like KIPP, Green Dot and other charter school networks that aren’t constrained by union rules on staffing and curriculum, ICEF has an excellent track record, particularly with black and Hispanic students. In reading and math tests, ICEF charters regularly outperform surrounding traditional public schools as well as other Los Angeles public schools.
ICEF has been operating since 1994, and its flagship school has now graduated two classes, with 100% of the students accepted to college. By contrast, a state study released in July reported that one in three students in the L.A. public school system — including 42% of black students — quits before graduating, a number that has grown by 80% in the past five years.
Despite this success, powerful unions like the California Teachers Association and its political backers continue to oppose school choice for disadvantaged families. Last year, Democratic state lawmakers, led by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, tried to force Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign a bill that would have made opening a new charter school in the state next to impossible. Mr. Nunez backed down after loud protests from parents in poorer neighborhoods.
School reformers in New York, Ohio, Florida, Connecticut, Utah and Arizona have faced similar challenges of late. Last year in Texas, where 81% of charter school students are minorities (versus 60% in traditional public schools), nearly 17,000 students had to be placed on charter waiting lists. Texas is currently bumping up against an arbitrary cap on the number of charters that can open in the state. Unless the cap is lifted by state lawmakers, thousands of low-income Texas children will remain stuck in ineffective schools.
Back in California, ICEF says that its ultimate goal is to produce 2,000 college graduates each year, in hopes that the graduates eventually will return to these underserved communities and help create a sustainable middle class. Given that fewer than 10% of high-school freshmen in South Los Angeles currently go on to receive a college diploma, this is a huge challenge. Resistance from charter school opponents won’t make it any easier.
February 24, 2021. Tags: California, Dumbing down, Education, Los Angeles, School choice, Unions. Dumbing down, Education, Unions. .
Although this wonderful news happened three months ago, I just found out about it now: the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against Obama’s attempt to keep low income black children trapped in horrible government schools.
Some background information…
In August 2013, the Obama administration sued Louisiana to try to bring an end to its school voucher program – a program which had just been passed in 2012.
Under the Louisiana program, both of the following criteria had to be met in order for a student to get a school voucher. First, the student must come from a family whose income is below 250% of the poverty level. And second, the current public school that the student is attending must be rated as “C” or below.
86% of students who received vouchers had used those vouchers to flee from public schools which had been rated as “D” or “F.”
Only the most vulnerable children were eligible for the vouchers – the poorest students attending the worst schools.
Obama’s reason for filing the lawsuit was that “many of those vouchers impeded the desegregation process.”
However, in response to Obama’s claim that the vouchers discriminated against blacks, Louisiana Education Superintendent John White pointed out that almost all of the students using the vouchers were black, and said that “it’s a little ridiculous” for Obama to claim that these vouchers caused discrimination against blacks. The Washington Post reported that 90% of the students who received the vouchers were black.
It’s also worth noting that only students whose parents requested such vouchers were eligible to participate in the voucher program. Obama was therefore claiming that parents wanted their own children to be discriminated against. Obama was extremely wrong on this. These parents did not want their children to be discriminated against. In reality, what these parents wanted was for their children to have a chance at a better education.
This also makes Obama a hypocrite, because while he was living in both Chicago and Washington D.C., he always sent his own children to private schools. Does Obama really want us to believe that he subjected his own children to racial discrimination by sending them to private schools?
Furthermore, two different studies, one by Ph.D. students at the University of Arkansas, and the other sponsored by the state of Louisiana, both found that this voucher program made racial integration better, not worse. This further proves that Obama is a liar, and that his entire claim against these vouchers is bogus.
In September 2013, the Washington Post editorial board criticized Obama in this editorial, which is titled, “The Justice Department bids to trap poor, black children in ineffective schools.”
In April 2014, the Daily Signal published this article, which is titled, “Meet one of the students Eric Holder is blocking by standing in the schoolhouse door.”
Fortunately, in November 2015, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Obama’s attempt to keep low income black children trapped in horrible government schools. The court’s ruling can be read here.
February 17, 2016. Tags: Barack Obama, Dumb lawsuits, Education, Federal court, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Lawsuits, Louisiana, Obama, Politics, School choice, School vouchers, vouchers. Barack Obama, Dumb lawsuits, Education, Politics. .
In August 2013, the Obama administration sued Louisiana to try to bring an end to its school voucher program – a program which had just been passed in 2012.
Under the Louisiana program, both of the following criteria had to be met in order for a student to get a school voucher. First, the student must come from a family whose income is below 250% of the poverty level. And second, the current public school that the student is attending must be rated as “C” or below.
86% of students who received vouchers had used those vouchers to flee from public schools which had been rated as “D” or “F.”
Only the most vulnerable children were eligible for the vouchers – the poorest students attending the worst schools.
Obama’s reason for filing the lawsuit was that “many of those vouchers impeded the desegregation process.”
However, in response to Obama’s claim that the vouchers discriminated against blacks, Louisiana Education Superintendent John White pointed out that almost all of the students using the vouchers were black, and said that “it’s a little ridiculous” for Obama to claim that these vouchers caused discrimination against blacks. The Washington Post reported that 90% of the students who receive the vouchers are black.
It’s also worth noting that only students whose parents request such vouchers are eligible to participate in the voucher program. Obama is therefore claiming that parents want their own children to be discriminated against. Obama is extremely wrong on this. These parents do not want their children to be discriminated against. In reality, what these parents want is for their children to have a chance at a better education.
This also makes Obama a hypocrite, because while he was living in both Chicago and Washington D.C., he always sent his own children to private schools. Does Obama really want us to believe that he subjected his own children to racial discrimination by sending them to private schools?
September 4, 2013. Tags: Barack Obama, Dumb lawsuits, Dumbing down, Education, Louisiana, Obama, Politics, Private schools, Public education, Public schools, Racism, School choice, School vouchers, Stupid lawsuits. Barack Obama, Dumb lawsuits, Education, Politics, Racism, War against achievement. .
This is from the Wall St. Journal:
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September 17, 2012. Tags: Education, Education degree, Education major, Math, Math education, Politics, Public education, Public schools, School choice, School of education, Science, Science Education, Teach for America. Education, Math, Science. .
The Pittsburgh public schools have an enrollment of 26,649 students, and an annual budget of $529.8 million. That works out to $19,880 per student per year.
By comparison, the Catholic schools in Pittsburgh charge approximately $7,500 tuition per student per year. The low-income minority children who get scholarships to Catholic schools in Pittsburgh through the privately funded Extra Mile Education Foundation have much better attendance rates, graduation rates, and academic performance, than the students at the Pittsburgh public schools.
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August 14, 2012. Tags: Catholic schools, Education, Pittsburgh, Politics, Public schools, School choice, School vouchers. Education, Pittsburgh, Politics. .
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Spitting in the eye of mainstream education
Three no-frills charter schools in Oakland mock liberal orthodoxy, teach strictly to the test — and produce some of the state’s top scores.
Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this: “We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multi-cultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots, and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply.”
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August 14, 2012. Tags: Academic achievement, Charter schools, Education, Political correctness, Politics, Public schools, School choice. Education. .
In 2008, the Wall. St Journal wrote the following about a real world example of a charter school which has done an excellent job of teaching low-income black and Hispanic students who live in South Central Los Angeles, California. As is always the case with successful charter schools, the teachers’ unions want it to be shut down, because they are terrified of competition. The teachers’ unions want these low-income students to be trapped in the horrible public schools:
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August 13, 2012. Tags: Charter schools, Education, Politics, Private schools, Progressive politics, Progressivism, Public schools, School choice, Teachers union, Teachers unions. Education, War against achievement. .
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 