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Center for Education Policy |
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Dear Colleague,
Welcome back. We are excited to share the latest from The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy.
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The Washington Times, Jonathan Butcher
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Think your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion will win you support from activists? Earn you favorable reviews in the media? "Think again," Jonathan Butcher argues, "ask the foundations that donate money to groups for social causes." Like schools, businesses, and hospitals, charities in the U.S. and around the world today have embraced racial preferences.
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The Wall Street Journal, Jason Bedrick & Corey DeAngelis
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Is school choice bankrupting Arizona? "That’s what Gov. Katie Hobbs and Democratic legislative leaders would have you believe, but simple math says otherwise," Jason Bedrick and Corey DeAngelis write. With an ESA, parents can use a portion of their child’s state education funds—typically about $8,000 a year—to pay for private-school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, online courses, home-school curricula, special-needs therapy, and other expenses.
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The Daily Signal, Adam Kissel
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The current version of the federal debt ceiling deal does a bad job addressing student debt, despite the fact that the Biden administration’s student debt cancellation schemes will cost the taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars. While the yearslong student loan “pause” will finally end, the biggest schemes are left untouched. "The debt ceiling deal is, therefore, a model of fiscal irresponsibility and missed opportunities in this area," Adam Kissel argues.
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Houston Chronicle, Jonathan Butcher & Mike Gonzalez
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Less than a week remains in the legislative session. Despite Gov. Greg Abbott's commitment to school choice this year, some legislators are still wondering what will happen to rural schools under a policy that gives parents choices over how and where their children learn. Will additional private education choices force a mass exodus from assigned schools in these areas? Or everywhere across the state? "The answer to the first question is no," Jonathan Butcher and Mike Gonzalez argue, "as best as we can determine, private learning options implemented in states including Arizona and Florida have never resulted in a public school shutting down."
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Law & Liberty, Lindsey M. Burke, Ph.D. & Jason Bedrick
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The window of opportunity for school choice is still open, but who knows for how long? "Highlighting the gap between what parents want and what district schools are doing bolsters support for school choice because it is a solution to an immediate and deeply felt problem… To build majority support to enact choice policies in state legislatures, the low-hanging fruit has been rural Republicans, not urban Democrats. By avoiding the values-based arguments that would particularly appeal to conservatives, the choice movement unnecessarily prolonged success," Linsey Burke and Jason Bedrick write.
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The Daily Signal, Jason Bedrick
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The momentum for school choice is continuing to build nationwide. "Eight states have enacted new education choice policies or have expanded existing ones so far this year, including Indiana, Montana, and South Carolina earlier this month alone," Jason Bedrick explains. Of the eight, four states—Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah—enacted school choice policies that will be available to all K-12 students, joining Arizona and West Virginia in making every child eligible for education savings accounts or ESA-like policies that allow families to choose the learning environments that align with their values and work best for their children.
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National Review, Jason Bedrick & Matthew Ladner, Ph.D.
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For Texas lawmakers, it's a time for choosing. Governor Greg Abbott's education-choice proposal has passed the Texas Senate, but it is in jeopardy in the house, where several rural Republican legislators have balked. "Abbott's proposal would create K-12 education savings accounts (ESAs) that would allow families to choose the learning environments that work best for their children," Jason Bedrick and reimaginED's Matthew Ladner write. With ESAs, Texas families would receive about $8,000 per K-12 student annually to pay for private-school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, online courses, special-needs therapy, and numerous other educational expenses.
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reimaginED, Jonathan Butcher
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South Carolina has become one of more than a half-dozen states where policymakers created or expanded parent options in K-12 education this legislative session through education savings accounts or account style learning options. "Allowing families to choose how and where their children learn not only can satisfy those justifiably frustrated by assigned schools' bureaucracy and seemingly routine parade of disappointing results," Jonathan Butcher writes. It also can hem together the lining of freedom and virtue, our permanent institutions, which allow us to find meaning in the living and working, and striving Americans do each day.
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The Daily Signal, Jay P. Greene. Ph.D. & Madison Marino
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It is simply false that 2,532 books were removed from schools during the 2021-2022 school year. A more realistic description of the situation is that classic works of literature continue to be available in the libraries of virtually every school district while we have some disagreements over a limited number of graphic works. "Manufacturing a book-banning crisis where none exists only serves to undermine public discourse and fails to protect democratic freedom," Jay P. Greene and Madison Marino explain.
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The Daily Signal, Jonathan Butcher and Lindsey M. Burke, Ph.D.
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President Joe Biden's administration is continuing the work of President Barack Obama's team and trying to put as many students as possible on federal school meal programs. The current administration is proposing a significant expansion of school meals, turning a program meant for children from low-income families into an entitlement—akin to welfare— for all students. "The White House wants every K-12 student to be part of the welfare system," Jonathan Butcher and Lindsey Burke argue.
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The Daily Signal, Jason Bedrick
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Education choice is on the march. So far this year, four states have enacted education choice policies that will be available to all K-12 students. Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah have now joined Arizona and West Virginia in making every child eligible for education savings accounts or ESA-like policies that allow families to choose the learning environments that align with their values and work best for their children. "The education choice movement has already made more progress this year than ever before," Jason Bedrick explains, "and the year is far from over."
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The Daily Signal, Adam Kissel
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Parents in the pandemic era have asserted themselves with new vigor for the sake of their children. Parents no longer presume that the zoned public school is the right fit or that the public school puts students first. Nor do parents presume that most teachers wish to reproduce the values of the community. Since 2020, American's satisfaction with K-12 education has plummeted. "Their skepticism is warranted: All too many schools seek to undermine, destroy, and rebuild American society in a revolutionary neo-Marxist image," Adam Kissel writes.
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Heritage Expert in the Media:
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Education Freedom and Work Opportunities as Catalysts for Increasing the Birth Rate Among Married Couples
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Heritage experts Lindsey Burke, Ph.D., alongside Rachel Greszler and W. Bradford Wilcox explain that pursuing new, commonsense approaches to education reform and work-family policies, from childcare and early education through higher education and workforce flexibility, will foster the conditions for family flourishing and increase birth rates for married couples.
Read the full report here.
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How America's Great Philanthropic Foundations Are Corrupting Their Missions Under DEI Pressures
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Heritage expert Jonathan Butcher explains that principles of individual character, merit, and personal responsibility have been replaced with identity politics and accusations of systemic inequities. He further writes that American philanthropies must reposition themselves to help their beneficiaries to achieve personal and professional success instead of deepening societal division and discrimination.
Read the full report here.
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