Newsweek magazine did a cover series titled, "Why Public Schools Are Flunking." 

Listen to this:  The roll call of problems is almost as familiar as the ABCs. (more…)

One of the objections to charter school legislation I'm hearing more and more is that the regular school districts ought to be given the same freedoms that charter schools would have. (more…)

One of the concerns about charter schools is that the money will follow the child to the school. Whatever would be spent on a child in public school A would now be spent on that child in public charter school B. If the money going to a child's current school - money which is supposedly appropriated to educate that child - is not accomplishing that goal, wouldn't it be better to use that money at a school where he or she will learn? (more…)

Let's get a few things straight about charter schools. First of all, there is no such thing as a private charter school. Charter schools are, by definition, public schools. They cannot charge tuition, they administer the same tests and are rated under the same system as regular public schools, and they must accept all students who apply, unless there's not enough room, in which case they draw names, giving all students an equal chance. (more…)

A statistician says if you have one foot in a bucket of scalding water and the other in a bucket of ice, on average you're pretty comfortable. That seems to be the attitude of the people who don't want charter schools near so-called "successful" schools. If there are enough high-scoring students to offset the low-scoring students, on average the school is doing pretty well, and no other options are needed. But what about those students who are not doing well? (more…)

When a school district is rated Successful by the state, you might be tempted to think it's doing well. But there are twelve districts in our state where at least half the schools are underperforming but the district is rated Successful. Even worse, in two districts, all the schools are rated below Successful, but the district itself is rated Successful. This happens because those districts took their schools from being really awful to being just pretty awful. (more…)

The year 2011 was declared by the Wall Street Journal to be "The Year of School Choice," as twelve states and the District of Columbia gave parents more opportunities to choose the best education for their children. (more…)

How well are we educating children in Mississippi schools?

In many cases, we are doing quite well. Judging by test scores and graduation rates, many students are showing they can compete with the best students in the world. In some instances those are isolated schools, but in many cases, there are entire districts where most of the students are highly successful. (more…)

Turn on the evening news these days and within minutes you're likely to hear an elected official talking about job creation.

It's understandable that they would do that. People are rightfully concerned about the state of our economy and the job market, and they are demanding that politicians "Do something - anything!" to fix the problem. (more…)