Recruiting and retaining excellent teachers is hindered by a system that rewards tenure instead of performance. Despite the extreme measures of teachers’ unions to promote teacher working conditions and compensation, research reveals that right-to-work laws positively improve worker well-being. Read More ›
However well-meaning, affirmative action is not the answer. It fails to address the root causes of educational performance disparities, creates an atmosphere of unequal opportunity and protection, and can even have negative effects on the very students who are meant to reap its benefits. We should instead come together and focus our efforts on reforming and redesigning K-12 education. Read More ›
House Bills 1591 and 1962 would address the two major weaknesses in Washington’s charter school laws. If passed, more charter schools could be created, and charter public schools would receive funding equal to traditional public schools. Read More ›
Parents want the student learning loss remedied. They are no longer satisfied with the ineffective one-size-fits-all approach. What will it take to make up for the learning loss and set the United States’ K-12 education system on a better trajectory? Read More ›
This was a year of growth for the American Center for Transforming Education as we significantly increased our network and expanded our influence. Read More ›
McAuliffe’s candor about his desire to keep parental influence out of the classroom during a September 29 debate against Glenn Youngkin set parents on fire, and likely cost him the election. But more broadly, it symbolized the struggle over who should have authority over children — parents or the government and teacher unions. Read More ›
America, a world leader in free enterprise, maintains an educational system that more closely resembles that of communist countries. The irony is significant. American businesses were built by entrepreneurs of vision, creativity, innovation, and persistence. Read More ›
The corrupting power of government is an issue too seldomly discussed in the context of public education. A corrupt government will use its control of the education of its future adult citizens for its own political ends at the expense of the best interests of its people. Read More ›
Get vaccinated or get fired. This was the ultimatum issued by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee in August that took effect on October 18, impacting thousands of the state’s public servants and community heroes — doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers, schoolteachers, and beyond. Read More ›
Today’s high school graduation requirements remain based on a seat-time measurement implemented in 1904. While our world has drastically changed over the past hundred and seventeen years, our K-12 schools maintain an antiquated approach to measuring student achievement. Read More ›
Operating at odds with its stated mission, the United States Department of Education is failing our children on every major front. Students aren’t receiving equal access to quality schools or a learning experience characterized by educational excellence. Read More ›