Head Start, Chicago Finance, Scholarship Tax Credits, DeVos Debate, Bradford On The Suburban Strategy, BASIS, Deer, More!

Sara Mead on 50 years of Head Start. Max Marchitello thinks Illinois Governor Rauner’s Chicago school finance strategy isn’t cricket. Jason Weeby wants more innovation talk from Betsy DeVos.

I wrote in U.S. News that while the for-profit charter sector isn’t going to win any awards for excellence right now banning those schools is not the solution. Earlier this week in The 74 I asked why Betsy DeVos was avoiding real questions.  And here’s a defense of Betsy DeVos.

Kate Stringer on BASIS – the successful and controversial school operator. It’s definitely not a model for everyone – kids or adults – and points up some hard but essential questions about how to balance school diversity, excellence, and equity.

Derrell Bradford on whether the charter sector needs a suburban strategy to add some ballast to its politics. I asked a similar question recently. It’s an issue worth discussing both on the merit but also to ensure that charters don’t lose an equity focus.

More concern that personalized learning may be on a path to being anything but.

Not confirmed, but apparently the Trump administration is cutting education programs on the discretionary side of the budget while putting forward a tax-credit proposal on vouchers as soon as next week. Sure, why stop at one bad policy idea when two will do? Worth reflecting on this quote in The Times story about the problems with poorly-designed scholarship tax credit programs:

“We wouldn’t be having this discussion if we just funded kids to go wherever works for them,” said Robert Enlow, the president of EdChoice, a group that supports private school choice. “This is just trying to keep a basic power structure that doesn’t work best for them.”

Don’t miss Willard Fair on school choice and why he’s been a supporter for so long.

Low prices, and deer tackling, all the time.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.