Tom Alberg Says Schools Need ‘Radical’ Fixes
In a Seattle Times interview, Tom Alberg — co-founder of the Seattle venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group, who also serves on the Advisory Board of Discovery Institute’s new program on education reform — cites K-12 education reform as on of the most important issues of our time, and gives his recommendations on what is necessary to fix education locally in Seattle: Q: What are issues that need to be addressed? Alberg: I think the one place that a lot of tech people are really concerned about is education, K-12 education. I mean, we should have the best public schools (in the country) and we don’t. I think we need some radical steps and my two radical steps are: Transfer Read More ›
Senior Fellow Don Nielsen in The Seattle Times: Washington’s Education System Should Serve Parents Over Unions
Donald Nielsen, Senior Fellow of Discovery Institute’s newly-launched American Center for Transforming Education, thinks it’s time Washington state puts the needs of the parents—and, by extension, the children and taxpayers—first. Read More ›
Senior Fellow Don Nielsen in The Seattle Times: Washington’s Education System Should Serve Parents Over Unions
Donald Nielsen, Senior Fellow of Discovery Institute’s newly-launched American Center for Transforming Education, thinks it’s time Washington state puts the needs of the parents—and, by extension, the children and taxpayers—first. Read More ›
The Customers in Public Education Are the Parents
This has been quite a month for parents of students in our state. First, our Supreme Court, on a Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend, decides our charter-school law is unconstitutional. The law was filed as an initiative, and then voters approved it. Now, after the opening of eight charter schools, we find out the initiative was unconstitutional. Frankly, this Read More ›
Former Seattle School Board President Calls Supreme Court Ruling on Charter Schools “Unconscionable”
SEATTLE, Sept. 9, 2015 Charter schools and school choice are on the edge of extinction nationwide thanks to Washington State’s Supreme Court’s ruling outlawing charter schools, according to Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Don Nielsen. The ruling was immediately deemed “as politically driven as it is overreaching and legally flawed” by The Wall Street Journal, and Nielsen, a former Seattle School Board president agrees. “Washington’s Supreme Court made a mockery of the law. Our state’s charter school law was filed with the attorney general’s office three years ago and was fully vetted both in terms of its legality and constitutionality,” said Nielsen. “Further, the attorney general’s office worded the initiative to ensure it was clear and unambiguous, then the voters approved Read More ›
Quality Education Reform Starts in the States
By Donald Nielsen
Originally published in The Hill
Conservatives and liberals alike may rejoice at the notion that 2015 brings with it a chance to revamp the controversial 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) will be the new chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and has said that his top priority is a revision of NCLB.
Quality Education Reform Starts in the States
Conservatives and liberals alike may rejoice at the notion that 2015 brings with it a chance to revamp the controversial 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) will be the new chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and has said that his top priority is a revision of NCLB. Alexander is on the Read More ›
Every School
How would an entrepreneur reform education? In this newly revised and updated version of Every School (2019), Don Nielsen draws on his business career and twenty-five years as a school activist, to offer innovative solutions to the educational challenges facing our country. Lasting change, Nielsen argues, will not come mainly through local school boards, but rather through state legislative action that empowers Read More ›
Chasing Corporations Out Of The U.S.
Unemployment is foremost on everyone’s mind today. Yet jobs can continue to leave the U.S. because of the threat of new taxes, the convergence of technology, the ease of digital collaboration and ready access to abundant foreign engineering talent. Multinational corporate executives may have to move R&D, product development, management and manufacturing overseas when there is no longer a comparative Read More ›