Texans for Parental Choice in Education

Another good WSJ editorial about what to do with “failing schools.”

Some highlights:

“Like its predecessor, the Obama Administration is focusing its education policy on fixing failed schools. … but a new study shows that school turnarounds have a dismal record that doesn’t warrant more reform effort.”

“… examples of large-scale, system-wide turnarounds are nonexistent.”

“… the reasonable conclusion is that children would be better served by closing these schools and starting new ones.”

“The good news is that some bad schools are closing under the direction of reform-minded officials in some cities. New York Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has closed around 100 schools and opened more than 300 new ones.”

“… the evidence argues against throwing billions more at turnaround schemes that fail as consistently as the schools they target.”

Here is my letter to the editor that was published in the WSJ on March 30.

Some highlights:

“The legislature in Austin, Texas can’t possibly know what Johnny in Houston and Mary in El Paso need.”

“Since parents have been stripped of all authority, they also have no responsibility.”

“In contrast, a free-market accountability system encourages common sense … because it is a voluntary-contract system.”

“A contract system provides for mutual responsibility, not entitlement.”

Phillip K. Howard’s WSJ Op-Ed article explains why our “teachers and principals are immobilized by … centralized legal dictates.”

Some highlights:

“Manuals of 200 pages describe the ‘rights’ of students.”

“…daily decisions made by teachers and principals are dictated by thousands of regulations.”

“One effect is paralysis: Educators will do almost anything to avoid yet another legal argument.”

“…principals must have the freedom to get rid of bad teachers.”

Marilyn Jackson’s opponent, Rep. Eddie Rodriguez was arrested for DWI!  Let’s help Marilyn leverage this for a conservative win!

Here is Marilyn Jackson’s Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=245198534389&ref=ts

Below is what was reported in the newspaper the Austin American-Statesman:

State Rep. Rodriguez charged with DWI
By Corrie MacLaggan | Saturday, March 20, 2010, 05:36 PM

State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated Thursday night, he said today.

Rodriguez sent the Statesman this written statement:“As an elected official, I want to be as open and up-front as possible to the public. Regrettably, on Thursday, March 18, I was charged with DWI. While the legal process runs its course, I will continue to serve my district in the same diligent and responsive manner that I have served since I was first elected in 2002.”

A spokeswoman for Rodriguez said that he was arrested at about 11:15 p.m., spent Thursday night in jail in Travis County and was released Friday morning on a personal recognizance bond. The spokeswoman declined to say where Rodriguez had been Thursday night and said that he had no further comment.

Here is the KXAN news link.

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/texas/kxan-state-rep-rodriguez-arrested-for-dwi

Read about Star Charter School located in north Austin for young “professional” high schoolers.

Some highlights:

“I think we’re one of Austin’s best-kept secrets,” Principal Marsha Hagin said. “We have actresses, gymnasts, musicians. Each is invested in their own thing, but they’re also invested in their education.”

[Star's] campus, which received the highest academic rating under the state accountability system, offers small classes and four-hour days.

A gravel road also takes you to the tan portables housing 16 classrooms where some of Austin’s Olympic hopefuls, future Broadway stars and up-and-coming musicians receive their education.

Star lets [Kevin] Fish pursue his goal of becoming a world-class mountain biker and a London 2012 Olympian, he said, while “setting me up for the future. I’ll have a good education to fall back on.”

Barrel racer Caitlin Harrington , ranked 10th in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association junior division, transferred to Star in her sophomore year of high school. The traditional high school schedule kept her from going to all of her races…

Dr. Paul Peterson has an excellent OpEd in the WSJ.  Some highlights.

• To uncover what is wrong with American public schools one has to dig deeper than … recent developments in education. One needs to consider the impact of restrictive collective bargaining agreements that prevent rewarding good teachers and removing ineffective ones, intrusive court interventions, and useless teacher certification laws.
• …today there are 350,000 families on charter-school waiting lists, enough to fill over 1,000 additional charter schools.
• Among African Americans, those who favor charters outnumber opponents four to one. Even among public-school teachers, the percentage who favor charters is 37%, while the percentage who oppose them is 31%.
• Harvard’s Martin West and German economist Ludger Woessmann examined the impact of school choice on the performance of 15-year-old students in 29 industrialized countries. They discovered that the greater the competition between the public and private sector, the better all students do in math, science and reading.

Read WSJ article about the “Race to the Top” state finalists.

One doesn’t even have a charter law.  Another bars student test scores from being used to influence teacher tenure decisions.