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Federal Overreach into American Higher Education

If allowed to take effect, three regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Education will raise costs for students and limit their educational opportunities. These regulations would require state authorization of higher education institutions, impose gainful employment requirements, and dictate a one-size-fits-all definition of a credit hour. Instead of restricting competition in higher education and discouraging innovation, the Education Department should explore fresh ideas in measuring educational outcomes and improving quality. To read full report from The Heritage click here.

College Dropouts Cost Taxpayers Billions

Dropping out of college after a year can mean lost time, burdensome debt and an uncertain future for students. Now there’s an estimate of what it costs taxpayers. And it runs in the billions. States appropriated almost $6.2 billion for four-year colleges and universities between 2003 and 2008 to help pay for the education of students who did not return for year two, a report released Monday says.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/10/11/report-college-dropouts-cost-taxpayers-billions/#ixzz13NjZLpfC

Three Reasons Obama’s Education Vision Fails

President Barack Obama is making his bid to be “the education president,” yet Obama’s education vision deserves an F, says Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of Reason.tv and Reason.com.

In a new video, Gillespie gives three reasons for Obama’s failing grade:

Money talks. 

  • Obama says that the educational system needs new ideas and more money.
  • Despite a doubling in inflation-adjusted per-pupil spending since the early 1970s, student achievement is flat at best.
  • While he brags constantly about his Race to the Top initiative, in which states competed for $4 billion to fund innovative programs, he’s spent more than $80 billion in no-strings-attached stimulus funds to maintain the educational status quo.

Continue reading from NCPA…

Broke—and Building the Most Expensive School in U.S. History

Los Angeles

At $578 million—or about $140,000 per student—the 24-acre Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools complex in mid-Wilshire is the most expensive school ever constructed in U.S. history. To put the price in context, this city’s Staples sports and entertainment center cost $375 million. To put it in a more important context, the school district is currently running a $640 million deficit and has had to lay off 3,000 teachers in the last two years. It also has one of the lowest graduation rates in the country and some of the worst test scores.

The K-12 complex isn’t merely an overwrought paean to the nation’s most celebrated liberal political family. It’s a jarring reminder that money doesn’t guarantee success—though it certainly beautifies failure.

Continue reading…

The Quiet Education Overhaul

Yesterday, President Obama delivered a major speech on education in an effort to garner support for his Race to the Top grant program and his push for national education standards and tests. The President’s remarks came on the heels of a speech delivered by Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday at the National Press Club, during which Duncan attempted to paint the Administration’s policies as part of a “quiet revolution.”

Duncan certainly got the quiet part right. Since his Administration came into office, President Obama has quietly been reworking the country’s education system, doing an end-run around normal legislative procedure. Continue Reading from The Heritage…

Arrogant Washington threatens Rick Perry and Texans’ right to Govern Themselves

In one of the most outrageous displays of arrogance by Washington in recent memory – which is saying a lot, of course – the House Democrats have inserted specific language on top of $10 Billion in funding for education included in a War Supplemental bill targeted directly and solely at Texas – language that demands the money be spent in certain ways.

According to the Houston Chronicle, “The proposal would allow the federal government to give money directly to school districts, provided Perry certifies that the federal support will not replace the state money. Perry must also agree not to proportionally cut education funding more than any other item in the next budget. While the measure includes $10 billion in education funding nationally, Texas is the only state that must make such a certification before receiving the federal funding.” Continue reading…

Prolonging Education’s Race to the Bottom

In perhaps the President Obama’s most stealth campaign to date, the federal government has been slowly tightening its grip on the education sector to little fanfare. Rather than working through the democratic legislative process, this Administration has circumvented Congress to enact an ill-conceived education agenda that will weaken accountability, reduce transparency and minimize choice while only adding to the national deficit.

Continue reading…

Why National Standards Won’t Fix American Education: Misalignment of Power and Incentives

American education needs to be fixed, but national standards and testing are not the way to do it. The problems that need fixing are too deeply ingrained in the power and incentive structure of the public education system, and the renewed focus on national standards threatens to distract from the fundamental issues. Besides, federal control over education has been growing since the 1960s as both standards and achievement have deteriorated. Heritage Foundation education policy experts Lindsey Burke and Jennifer Marshall explain why centralized standard-setting will likely result in the standardization of mediocrity, not excellence. Continue reading…

WHY FREER SCHOOLS ARE BETTER SCHOOLS

President Obama’s proposed overhaul of No Child Left Behind is long overdue.  Over the past decade the regime’s rigid metrics and penalties transformed schools into testing factories.  Unfortunately, the White House proposal — which replaces NCLB’s legal sticks with new legal carrots — won’t come close to fixing America’s schools, says Philip K. Howard, chair of legal reform organization Common Good.

According to Howard:

  • A 2004 study of the rules in one New York City school by Common Good found that the daily decisions made by teachers and principals are dictated by thousands of regulations.
  • Over 60 steps and legal considerations are required to suspend a disruptive student.
  • Manuals of 200 pages describe the “rights” of students.

Continue Reading article from NCPA.

Texas Kicks Out Liberal Bias From Textbooks

“Don’t Mess with Texas” is a popular slogan in our most prosperous state. By a 10-to-5 margin, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) just told liberals to stop “messing” with social studies textbooks. Continue Reading  article from Eagle Forum.