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Senator Durbin used Wednesday’s hearing on Washington, DC public schools to broadcast what feels like a last ditch effort on his part to remove continuation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program from consideration, and frankly, making thinly veiled accusations of mismanagement and fraud when he himself admits to lacking all of the details speaks of […] Read more »

(This post originally appeared on Politico‘s The Arena) The noise about President Obama’s impending speech to schoolchildren Tuesday is muffling the real issues.  While the President has every right to address any segment of the nation on any subject – and we all have the right to voluntarily listen or not – it’s both the […] Read more »

If the Race to the Top is to have an influence on making sure schools get better, someone has got to figure out how districts can be held accountable directly for their behavior when it comes to reform. Nowhere is this more clear than in South Carolina’s Richland School District – an area where the […] Read more »

It looks like RNC Chariman Michael Steele beat us to the punch and hit one out of the park for DC kids on last night’s Hardball when he pointed out the disconnect between President Obama’s incredible speech to the NAACP and his near sweeping under the rug of the successful DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. “You […] Read more »

A challenge to the NAACP, African-American parents and all Americans… To rousing applause, the president gave what was perhaps his best education speech to date last night, making it clear that “government programs alone…” won’t solve our problems, instead asking this community in particular to adopt  “a new mind set”, one that doesn’t tolerate failure. […] Read more »

(a folk song for DC school choice) If I had a hammer I’d hammer in the morning I’d hammer in the evening All over this land I’d hammer out danger I’d hammer out a warning I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters All over this land Read more »

Bad news Fridays are becoming a theme for Sec. Arne Duncan and his public affairs team. News of an April 6th letter to parents serving notice on the potential for their children’s participation in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program for the upcoming school year wasn’t made public until the Washington Post brought the situation to […] Read more »

Two interesting education conversations on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning: 1) Walter Isaacson speaks some truth about NCLB, charter schools, mayoral control and teachers unions, but his argument that deep down Duncan supports the D.C. voucher program coupled with a sunny outlook on the affect $timulus money will have in the classroom raised this viewer’s […] Read more »

I have many colleagues who insist that deep down, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is a real education reformer, and is a reflection of an administration that is reform-minded on critical education issues.  Because he hired this or that person, because he talks about charter schools, and because he told the press he thought […] Read more »

The IES impact evaluation of the 3rd year of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program was quietly released today. A Friday. And Congress is on a two-week holiday. Think it made a big splash? Hiding in the bland research language are some nice findings: Opportunity Scholars are outpacing their former public school classmates on reading tests […] Read more »