Education

Aren't you just dying to know what Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is saying about his friends in high places at Arizona State University? And has the gossip mill targeted the exact people responsible for deciding President Obama was worthy of a commencement invitation but no honorary degree? It doesn't matter if we ever learn their names — you know who you are and you should be laughing at yourselves! Read more...

It took me a minute to get off of the floor Sunday morning after reading The Washington Times, from which I learned that the government’s newest great idea has been released: cutting out the Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Would someone please show me the logic behind crippling a program that is so widely supported and that is doing so well? Why is the government going to hinder a program that secures private funds to allow people with low incomes to go to private schools? Even the argument that it’s using government money is only partially true if the donations are tax-deductible. The argument that we should not abandon public schools is hypocritical, since we all know that President Obama’s daughters are going to private school. One could only hope that one’s president would practice what he preaches. Read more...

Let's start with full disclosure: I have known Joel Klein for nearly 30 years and consider him to be one of the smartest, most grounded, most public-spirited people I have ever known — right up there with the other two old friends I would include in that characterization, Bill and Hillary Clinton.

In 2002, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg exhibited his well-known impressive powers of persuasion and political boldness by convincing Mr. Klein, a former Clinton White House deputy counsel and assistant attorney general for antitrust, to leave a seven-figure job as chief executive of an international corporation and become chancellor of the New York City public school system, which pays less than one-tenth of that. Read more...

Sidwell Friends is one of the nation’s top schools. Students come from Washington’s most prominent families, and the school provides a positive environment that expects the best from its students. The campus could be mistaken for stately Wayne Manor.

As Bill McGurn noted in The Wall Street Journal, two of its students, Sarah and James Parker, enjoy going to Sidwell Friends. They’ve made friends there and are excelling in their studies. It’s a world away from the public school they would otherwise attend — where test scores are well below the national average and barely half of students graduate. The schools themselves are unsafe, with metal-detector checks a part of the average day. Read more...

The president said an interesting and important thing in his speech last night. He called for more people to go to college: “That is why we will provide the support necessary for you to complete college and meet a new goal: By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.”

The jobless rate for people with a college degree is well below 5 percent. The jobless rate for people without a college degree is well above 5 percent. Read more...

It was the best of times and the worst of times for America’s labor movement.

It was the best of times, because they now have the political muscle that they have been working so hard for over the last decade. Both the House and Senate are dominated by labor-friendly Democrats and the Obama administration is expected to appoint Labor-friendly David Bonior to be the new Labor secretary.

But it is also the worst of times, because the labor movement is now being exposed for what it has become: out of touch, counterproductive, inefficient, unnecessary, corrupt and anachronistic. Read more...

”The country made a mistake after 9/11. Instead of telling Americans to take a trip or go shopping, I think we had an opportunity to call Americans to serve.”

Coinciding with the election of Barack Obama to be president of the United States is a phenomenon whose time has come.

The United States Public Service Academy now has 19 co-sponsors in the United States Senate, a mixed group that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), among others. In the House, there are 96 co-sponsors. They have the support of varied state agencies (the New Mexico House of Representatives and the New Jersey Senate), numerous national organizations (the Florida League of Cities, Virginia State Police Association and National Urban League are examples), a broad collection of politicians (mayors, state senators and representatives, former governors, college presidents, military leaders, educators and philanthropists). Read more...

"Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” I certainly don't have to remind anyone that's the fundamental ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. I definitely don't need to refresh the memories of Barack and Michelle Obama. Even so, as they decide on school for their daughters, in their new Washington home, maybe it's worth discussing again.

Fifty-four years ago the issue was racial segregation, but then and now, the issue is also economic segregation. The point was and is that when the children of the more privileged do not attend, their parents have no stake in the quality of a school, or in a school system. When they go elsewhere, those of lesser means are not as able to force officials to maintain high standards. They lack the clout and wherewithal. Read more...

There is always a surprise issue when a new president takes office, one not debated during the campaign, and which says much about the tone and style and character of the White House.

Of course, President-elect Barack Obama must not wait to turn his attentions and estimable skills to dealing with the economic woes he will inherit from his predecessor and ending the war in Iraq as he promised. No doubt, he will. Read more...

I was in attendance at the last presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York and was most intrigued about the exchange between the two candidates on the D.C. Scholarship program. The attention given to the role of vouchers and school choice in education reform in the last presidential debate notwithstanding, the magnitude of the worldwide financial crisis was a powerful confirmation of the essential importance of choice to the future strength of the United States.

What was most interesting about the debate was Barack Obama's position that we should not find out whether vouchers should play a central role in education reform and state the facts about how vouchers have single-handedly empowered families and drastically improved the educational experience of many young people. Read more...