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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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Longview News Journal, Matthew Ladner and Jason Bedrick
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Gov. Greg Abbott will call a special legislative session this fall in hopes of joining a national trend toward expanding families’ K-12 options via school choice policies. Opponents claim that school choice will “destroy” rural school districts, but the available evidence says otherwise. Matt Ladner and Jason Bedrick argue, "Texas should demonstrate the same confidence in rural teachers and communities to create a vibrant set of schools. Texas school districts won’t go away, but Texas teachers and students would benefit."
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Wall Street Journal, Jason Bedrick
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Public schools often can’t meet the needs of religious students, particularly religious minorities. Even within attendance boundaries, public schools aren’t designed to serve every child, but rather the lowest common denominator—or lowest common denomination. Jason Bedrick argues, "The only system that truly serves all students is one that allows families to choose schools that align with their values: universal school choice."
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The Daily Signal, Jonathan Butcher
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So-called DEI departments are withering as whistleblowers reveal that the offices have promoted racial prejudice and operated with little transparency for years. Jonathan Butcher states, "Students and employees are exposing DEI’s biased activities on campus and in the workplace, and lawmakers should close these offices. Americans value diverse opinions—all of them, not just woke ideas."
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The Daily Signal, Jay Greene and Jason Bedrick
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On Milton Friedman’s 111th birthday, we should celebrate the remarkable growth toward a free market in education that we have seen in recent years. Jay Greene and Jason Bedrick write, "But we should also heed Friedman’s warning that those benefits of freedom can only be enjoyed if we avoid the coercion of racial preferences."
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Newsweek, Jason Bedrick and Max Eden
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If you're reading this, you're probably a hateful extremist. "At least, that's what liberal pundits and many in the media would have Americans believe," writes Jason Bedrick and Max Eden. Not long ago, America was a country that welcomed civil discourse and afforded a presumption of respect to positions held by vast swathes of citizens. Today, majority positions— and the groups that advocate for them — are simply labeled as "hateful" and declared beyond the pale.
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The Daily Signal, Jonathan Butcher
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School is not even back in session yet, but some state education officials are still trying to restrict parents’ influence over their children. Jonathan Butcher writes, "At a school board meeting Thursday in Chino Valley, California, about 35 miles from downtown Los Angeles, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond tried to stop the board from considering a policy that would improve communication between educators and families."
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The Washington Examiner, Jonathan Butcher
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The U.S. Supreme Court is finished for the term, but questions about accuracy should follow some justices into the next session in October. Jonathan Butcher writes, "For example: Was Justice Sonia Sotomayor correct in her description of a key historical event in a recent dissenting opinion—or did she obscure details to suit her purposes? And with the revelation that her colleague, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, incorrectly cited research findings in a dissent, Americans are right to ask whether the justices bend facts to fit their arguments."
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Washington Times, Jay Greene and Jim Carafano
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In June, the Biden administration released its “National Strategy for Countering Antisemitism.” Crafted in part with the help of groups that promote antisemitism, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, it should come as no surprise that the policy was moribund at birth and dodged the difficult issues, such as offering an appropriate definition of the term itself. Jay Greene and Jim Carafano argue, "Rather than simply mock the Biden strategy, which was never intended to do much more than shore up the support of liberal Jewish voters, conservatives must craft their own innovative, modern campaign to address this ancient hatred."
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Tribune News Service, Adam Kissel
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When librarians at local public libraries decide which books to keep and which to exclude, they often violate the public trust by doing so based on ideology. Adam Kissel explains, "To avoid potential legal liability, these public officials should avoid viewpoint discrimination and suppress their personal biases. Instead, they should select materials that represent the full range of local viewpoints and interests."
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The Daily Signal, Jason Bedrick
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In a year when the school choice movement has racked up a string of victories in red states, Pennsylvania was on track to become the first state to see a Democratic governor sign a publicly funded school choice policy into law. But the supposed new era of bipartisan support for expanding school choice remains a mirage. Jason Bedrick writes, "Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that he would line-item veto the $100 million allocated in the state budget by the Republican-controlled state Senate for the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success scholarship program."
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RealClear Education, Adam Kissel
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How are universities reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision against racial preferences in admissions? Adam Kissel writes, "At one of the losing institutions, the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, the chancellor has hastily announced a new income-based tuition giveaway without prior approval from his overseeing board."
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Christian Families Against Destructive Decisions, Jonathan Butcher
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Parents are pleading with judges to stop schools from keeping secrets about children, desperate cries signaling that our culture has lost hold of the meaning of “family.” Jonathan Butcher explains, "Some state lawmakers are stepping in to help as concerned parents find themselves out-lawyered by the K-12 bureaucracy."
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Heritage Expert in the Media
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From Surviving to Thriving: K–12 Choice and Opportunity for Rural Texas Students and Teachers
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Heritage experts Matthew Ladner, Ph.D. and Jason Bedrick explain that rural students in Arizona enjoy far more education choice options than rural students in any other state. They argue that when families have many options to choose from, district schools will have a strong incentive to improve. If Texas lawmakers empower their educators to create new schools, educators will rise to the challenge, both inside and outside the school system.
Read the full report here.
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The Politicization of Higher Education Accreditation
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Heritage expert Adam Kissel and the Manhattan Institute's Tim Rosenberger explain that accreditors of institutions of higher education exercise quasi-regulatory authority as gatekeepers of federal student aid. They argue that they often abuse this power and provide a catalog of abuses in which accreditors have used their authority to create accreditation standards that promote or require diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and to stop conservative or even neutral reforms at U.S. colleges and universities.
Read the full report here.
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Fiscal Year 2024 Education Appropriations: A Guide for Policymakers
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Heritage experts Madison Marino, Lindsey M. Burke, Ph.D. and Sarah Parshall Perry explain in the FY 2024 appropriations process, Congress has an opportunity to restore fiscal sanity to federal education spending. They argue that Congress should curtail the (mis)appropriation of taxpayer dollars for unnecessary and ineffective education spending. Doing so would be a step toward restoring fiscal sanity after decades of ever-increasing federal spending on K–12 schooling and higher education, which will better serve the needs of American students and taxpayers.
Read the full report here.
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