Bailey Takacs

Bailey Takacs currently serves as program coordinator to Discovery Institutes' American Center for Transforming Education. Bailey has experiences which also include: campaign management and administrative roles with elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels of the government. He holds a B.A. in Politics and Government from Pacific Lutheran University.

Archives

New Education Resource for Mississippi Parents

_{Bailey Takacs
June 18, 2020}

Empower Mississippi, a nonprofit educational advocacy group, along with other in-state partners, has created a helpful new tool called the Mississippi School Finder. The website “offers users a complete picture of public, private, and alternative education options available in their communities.”

Do What’s Best for Children

_{Bailey Takacs
May 22, 2020}

Liv Finne, Director of the Center for Education at the Washington Policy Center, recently explained how State Superintendent Reykdal is abandoning families who enrolled in online schooling.

Achievement-Based Education System

_{Bailey Takacs
May 15, 2020}

Moving to an achievement-based system of learning would force a complete change in how we organize the school day and school year, as well as how the classroom is operated.

Children Need Education—Re-Open Now

_{Bailey Takacs
May 11, 2020}

Debra J. Saunders is right to say, “there’s an antidote to this problem. Schools.” The specific problem she is referring to in the Public school closures may be a big Mistake is that caused by school closures. Namely, some children lack supervision and others are simply not participating in online alternatives. Just last month the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that 21 percent of students enrolled in Clark County schools had no contact with the district after schools were shutdown. We cannot expect students to come back with the knowledge required to be successfully in today’s world. Even before the coronavirus mayhem arrived at our front door, the U.S. ranked 27th of all developed nations in overall education proficiency of our students—just behind the …

Consider Year Round School

_{Bailey Takacs
May 7, 2020}

The Coronavirus has upended nearly every aspect of our lives—forcing thousands of businesses to close (many permanently), shuttered most schools until next fall, and skyrocketed unemployment. Add to this the social and emotional cost. I can only wonder how the children and families who were already experiencing hard times are now handling this. While this crisis presents a near-term national challenge unlike any other, we need to also think about the future beyond the virus. This leads to an educational concept we should consider: year-round school. While current educational schedules may meet the needs of some, it’s clear that some children need to more hours per day and more days per year in class in order to achieve even today’s academic standards. Not all …

Preparing to Reopen Schools

_{Bailey Takacs
May 4, 2020}

The American Enterprise Institute just released its Blueprint for Back to School report, recommending that state and federal leaders be prepared for another atypical school year by offering regulatory flexibility regarding seat time, graduation requirements, and procurement rules to permit schools to remain operational in unprecedented circumstances.

Elitists Want to Ban Homeschooling

_{Bailey Takacs
April 30, 2020}

Elizabeth Bartholet, Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law and Faculty Director of Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, is sponsoring an upcoming invitation-only summit that features a lineup of outspoken homeschool critics. The topics of discussion?

Gem Prep Charter Schools Shine in Idaho

_{Bailey Takacs
April 24, 2020}

Amidst the educational difficulties the coronavirus has spurred, one Idaho charter network has thrived. Gem Prep, a K-12 free public charter school with four on-campus locations and an online school in Idaho, is using the opportunity to adapt and fine-tune their educational model. Gem Prep schools have only one high school at this point—the online school. The physical schools are K–8. However, Gem is planning to add a new grade each year moving forward to make all of them K–12. With the arrival of Coronavirus, Gem was prepared to shift to full-time online. Gem’s approach is to provide educators the specific training they need to teach effectively online. Laurie Wolfe, the network’s Chief Academic Officer, comments that “we trained our online teachers over …

Impact Public Schools are the Gold Standard

_{Bailey Takacs
April 23, 2020}

Thanks to Jim and Fawn Spady, the creators of the Washington Charter School Resource Center (WCSRC), for highlighting the novel concept of Washington’s Impact Public Schools (IPS). The Spadys are perhaps best known for their leadership of the Seattle area’s beloved Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants. But they are also long-time, stalwart advocates of education reform. IPS operates a charter public school in Tukwilla and will open another one this fall in South King County. The school serves 280 students in grades kindergarten through second grade, comprised of 83% students of color, 67% low income, and 32% English learners. IPS effectively pivoted to distance learning in early March and are now sharing their technology and lessons learned with everyone interested — whether public …

Seattle Public Schools Bureaucracy Lets Students Down

_{Bailey Takacs
April 22, 2020}

Getting computers into the hands of students has become imperative in this time of Coronavirus school closures. Yet according to The Seattle Times, SPS delivered only 1,000 laptops to their nearly 52,000 students. By comparison, just to the south, Highline Public Schools gave out 12,000 to their 20,000 students. SPS officials mentioned that they don’t know which families are without internet or laptops. This is unacceptable. Even Los Angeles, the second largest school district in the United States, is monitoring this. Dahlia Bazzaz of The Seattle Times, writes, “In a 2019 survey of 42 districts in Washington state, many of them large, Seattle was one of six that reported that it didn’t give laptops to students of any grade level.” In one of the world’s great …

Reopen Schools State by State

_{Bailey Takacs
April 17, 2020}

What’s good for one state may not be good for the next. Authority over schools rests with governors. They should decide when schools open in their states. For example, Alaska, having the least amount of coronavirus cases is not comparable to the hot bed of New York, even though both Alaska and New York have shut down schools for the rest of the year. On Tuesday, President Trump publicized an “Opening the Country” council, which will provide counsel regarding social distancing efforts moving forward. Participants include hundreds of leaders from business, technology, health care, agriculture, and sports. Yet no one from education in on the council. This is a mistake. An educational leader from each state should be included in this group—possibly each …

Teachers’ Union Runs LA

_{Bailey Takacs
April 14, 2020}

Michael Burke of EdSource, an education information media platform in California, highlights some major problems in the new union agreement that make it abundantly clear who’s in charge of Los Angeles schools. Specifically, the agreement allows teachers to create their own schedules, doesn’t require them to use live video for lectures, requires them to work only four hours each day, and stipulates they won’t lose any pay during the Coronavirus closure. This agreement is one sided. Initially, the district had proposed that teachers use video chat to engage with students whenever possible. The document also included that administrators be given access to this live video engagement. In the end, neither of these pieces were included. Most troubling was a …

With Schools Closed, How Will Washington Address the Connectivity Gap?

_{Bailey Takacs
April 9, 2020}

Governor Inslee announced at a press conference on April 6 that Washington State in-person schooling is closed for the rest of the year. Commenting on the subsequent need for connectivity, Superintendent Reykdal added that “everyone needs connectivity and access,” and that “students have the right to be connected like their right to clean water.” For those schools that have experimented with online learning, this should provide an opportunity to scale up the experience. But others may be left behind. This is an uneasy time for families. Many will be wondering how their children will be educated for the rest of the year. Surprisingly, when asked about equity, Inslee mentioned that they have made the difficult decision to get most kids education as opposed to no kids …

Virtual Schooling: No Time for Excuses

_{Bailey Takacs
April 6, 2020}

The coronavirus should not hold back any school from providing education to their children. Yet across the nation there has been reluctance to embrace alternatives to traditional in-person education.

Online School and the Possible Rural Fallout

_{Bailey Takacs
April 1, 2020}

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the country, schools are heading online to stay productive. But rural communities with meager broadband Internet access are stuck in digital wastelands with no clear path out. The Pew Research Center reported that for 2019, 73% of American adults had a home broadband connection. But access is not evenly distributed. While 79% of suburban and 75% of urban Americans enjoy a broadband connection, only 63% of rural Americans have broadband internet access. According to Pew, rural areas continue to be stuck far behind urban areas in broadband access: Roughly three-quarters (76%) of adults who live in rural communities say they use the internet on at least a daily basis, compared with more than eight-in-ten of those in …

Schools Fundamentally Unchanged Since 1918

_{Bailey Takacs
March 31, 2020}

“All parents should be able to know what their children are learning, and for those paying attention in the coming weeks, the virus offers a chance for them to do just that.” So concludes Jonathan Butcher, senior policy analyst in the Center for Education Policy’s Institute at The Heritage Foundation in his recent essay on social distancing and parents witnessing their children’s education. Butcher’s points about parents’ need to understand what their children are learning and the opportunity afforded by this period of Coronavirus response are well taken. Tough times can spur educational innovation. Now is the time for a complete reassessment regarding how we educate—and the students have to come first. Someone once said, “If Rip Van Winkle had gone to sleep …

Will Education Leadership Adapt?

_{Bailey Takacs
March 30, 2020}

The Coronavirus has caused great uncertainty and change — especially in schools. It has also given us an opportunity to pause and think about how we can improve education in America. Ryan Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of Qualtrics, wrote in a recent Forbes article, “Data shows that workers are looking to their own employers and managers to lead even more than they are looking to governments and other organizations.” Unfortunately, one of key features of today’s public education system is a lack of effective leadership that can help us navigate these stormy waters. ACTE program chair Don Nielsen explains that we have an ineffective system of training, hiring, and promoting leaders within public education. The core of the problem is this: It is the “only …

Eliminate the Education Monopoly

_{Bailey Takacs
March 24, 2020}

Laws that mandated the hiring of only certified teachers gave schools of education monopoly control over the supply of human capital entering our public schools. Like any monopoly, over time the business of certifying teachers became bureaucratized, bloated, inefficient, and ineffective. According to Program Chair, Don Nielsen, “Today, there are over 1,400 schools that are licensed to grant teacher certifications and the spectrum of quality between the best and the worst is substantial.” The state of Idaho has recognized the bureaucratized and bloated monopoly and has crafted legislation that would scale back teacher certification requirements. House Bill 599, in essence, will lessen the strangle hold of public education institutions over teacher certifications. The …

Equity Concerns for Education Access During COVID-19 Closures

_{Bailey Takacs
March 23, 2020}

Clearly, closing school doors can bring both positive and negative results. The obvious positive: closing may slow the peak of the spreading virus. However, the CDC reports that 19-year-olds and younger appear to have milder COVID-19 illness, with almost no hospitalizations or deaths reported to date in the United States in this age group. However, the fear is that they can still carry and spread the virus. On the flip side, for a large number of children, the best place for them to be is actually in school. Many parents remain working, and some children may lack access to educational materials or even meals at home. And what is to limit children from contacting others when they’re away from school? Beyond the basic public health risks that vulnerable students …

Idaho is Right to Abandon the Common Core

_{Bailey Takacs
March 20, 2020}

Idaho has recognized that Common Core has not improved schools. Wayne Hoffman, executive director of the Idaho Freedom Foundation recently stated, “The days of Common Core in our public schools appear to finally be numbered.” This comes after a joint letter from the House and Senate education committees to the Governor and the two education agencies in the state, in which legislators are urging for new standards. Standards will not improve schools any more than a budget will improve a business. Neither will change how the organization performs. But they can be tools to assess effectiveness. ACTE Program Chair Don Nielsen argues, “Unfortunately, many believe our schools will improve with more rigorous standards and that was one of the drivers for the development of the Common …