How Federal Programs Support Private K-12 Students and Teachers
Despite the widely held misconception that private schools are barred from all forms of taxpayer-funded support, the federal government has long recognized the need to support nonpublic school students and staff nationwide. Federal law requires that these schools have access to a number of federally funded “equitable services” through their local school districts. There are […]
Educational opportunity is a family-wide benefit
How does expanded educational opportunity impact families in terms of expectations, habits, and aspirations? This central question too often gets lost in purely data-driven debates about private school choice programs. Given the early evidence, perhaps it is time to change that. Longstanding public policy debates often begin to take on a strange feeling of deja […]
Montana high court set to rule on state’s discrimination against religious schools
The ignominious death of a critical educational choice case at the hands of a newly elected school board majority in Colorado dealt a serious blow to disadvantaged students nationwide. However, the debate about Blaine Amendments goes on. Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, a similar case in Montana, will get its day in court on […]
A suburban school board just set back educational opportunity for all Americans
Last week, the new 7-0 union-backed school board in Douglas County, Colorado, voted to repeal a first-of-its-kind local voucher program and to end the district’s role in a related constitutional case involving nonpublic parental choice. In so doing, the board drastically decreased the likelihood that the case will ever reach a final resolution — a […]
A national teachers’ union’s war machine is on the move in Colorado
For months, one of America’s most important fights over parental choice in education has been raging on suburban street corners, in school gymnasiums, and in voters’ mailboxes in Douglas County, Colo. Now, the nature of the race has been irrevocably altered in its final weeks by the full-scale deployment of a national teachers’ union’s political war machine.
As the county’s Nov. 7 school board election rapidly approaches, the nation’s second-largest national teachers union has thrown down the gauntlet in a bid to strangle parental choice. With two slates of candidates vying for four open seats on the district’s seven-member board of education, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in Washington, D.C., pumped $300,000 into the race in early October.
How a Colorado school board race has national implications for education and religious liberty
A wise man once said that all politics is local. Nowhere is that aphorism better illustrated than Douglas County, Colorado, where education politics and an ongoing constitutional fight over educational choice have converged to create perhaps the most consequential school board election in modern American history. Here, in a largely suburban county thousands of miles removed from the national stage of Washington, D.C., the futures of tens of thousands of students across America may well be decided.
The battle is over, and school choice won
Choice opponents’ protestations, sweeping statements, and heated rhetoric may serve well as a temporary balm for the fact that their rigid vision of education is rapidly fading into the mists of history, but they ultimately cannot slow the inexorable march of educational progress.
An Island of Opportunity: A Profile of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy
In An Island of Opportunity, Senior Education Policy Analyst Ross Izard profiles St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy. St. Rose is a private, PK-8 Catholic school that predominantly serves low-income Hispanic children. Most children who attend St. Rose come from migrant backgrounds. An integral part of the surrounding neighborhood for more than half a century, St. […]
Eternal LIFO: Unlawful Layoff Procedures in Unionized Colorado School Districts
Passed in 2010, Senate Bill 191 was a landmark piece of education reform legislation that garnered significant bipartisan support, including unanimous support from Republican legislators. The bill amended Colorado’s Licensed Personnel Performance Evaluation Act and the Teacher Employment, Compensation, and Dismissal Act (TECDA) to align state statute more closely with the goal of ensuring that every student is taught by an effective teacher.
Counting the Cash Again: An Update on Colorado School Finance
School finance is a constant topic of interest in Colorado education discussions. However, the complex nature of school finance means that many do not feel adequately prepared to meaningfully participate in these conversations. In his latest publication, Senior Education Policy Analyst Ross Izard provides the information needed to have honest, accurate discussions of Colorado’s school finance […]
