National School Choice Week raises awareness about the different types of schools and educational opportunities for parents and their children. School choice options include traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, private schools, online academies and homeschooling.
Today, school choice programs in the states include education savings accounts, tax credits, and vouchers, and are accessed by about 482,000 students. That’s a more than twofold increase in participating students from 2011, the year National School Choice Week was launched.
The Wunderlich family wanted to do what thousands of families in America do with no questions asked: educate their children at home. But homeschooling is not allowed in Germany, and the state has relentlessly pursued the Wunderlichs and even seized their children.
A group of lawmakers led by Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, presented two bills this afternoon that would act as a moratorium on enforcement of Act 46 regarding forced school mergers.
If the objective is to eliminate a lot of the mid-level bureaucracy at the supervisory union level while — and this is key — devolving decision-making power back to local principals and local volunteer school boards, this would be great.
On a recent episode of Vote for Vermont, host Pat McDonald had two education experts talk about Act 46 and the impact that district consolidation and potential school closures are going to have on small communities.
“Most colleges impose burdensome conditions on expression by maintaining policies that restrict students’ free speech rights,” said FIRE Senior Program Officer Laura Beltz, lead author of the study.
A basic knowledge of civics and belief in American exceptionalism are in startling decline among younger Americans, a new report suggests. About half of those surveyed under age 38 said they view the United States as a “sexist” or “racist” nation.
“It’s like a roulette wheel: If you call black and get black you are good, but if you call black and get red … [then you are not so good]. In this case, the roulette wheel is the economy.”
According to the nonprofit Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, its GEAR UP program has a proven record of increasing high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment rates.
The survey shows that 79 percent of undergraduate students said the First Amendment’s protections for free speech need to be respected and followed, yet 41 percent said it was appropriate to shut down or disrupt a speaker on campus.
We have the oldest, and I would argue, the most comprehensive and dynamic school choice system in the country. Maybe it’s time to shout that fact from the rooftops and let the country know of our role in “the civil rights issue of our time.”