Dear Colleagues:
At some point in your life you’ve been asked:
What do you want first? The good news, or the bad news?
I always opt to hear the bad news first. In that spirit, the bad news is that U.S. national debt is going way up, likely along with your taxes, in response to an “infrastructure” proposal announced yesterday by President Biden.
The Bad News. The colossal “infrastructure” spending package would spend $100 billion to help “upgrade or replace crumbling school buildings.” The plan also includes an additional $100 billion to expand broadband, $48 billion for workforce training, and $12 billion for community college infrastructure. School infrastructure spending is not the role of the federal government; it is the responsibility of districts—not Washington—to construct and maintain schools.
The $260 billion for education “infrastructure” in the proposal – which is just part I; part II is slated to drop later this month and will include everything from paid family leave to “free” community college – comes on top of the $282 billion doled out to schools as part of the three COVID relief packages already in place. All told, if the new proposal were to become law, taxpayers will have financed more than half a trillion dollars in additional school spending over a 12 month period. I walk through the many problems with the package here.
The Good News. OK – now that the bad news is out of the way, here’s the good news: this was an unprecedented week for school choice.
On Monday, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed into law the most expansive school choice program in the country, a nearly universal education savings account program. Less than 24 hours later, the Kentucky legislature overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill to create the Bluegrass State’s first school choice program—a tax credit-funded education savings account. And there’s more to come. In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp will soon have on his desk a bill that expands eligibility for the state’s existing voucher program for students with special needs.
And that’s just this week. Dozens of others are considering measures to expand education freedom and opportunity to students. An unprecedented 29 states have already introduced similar measures this year that will create or expand vouchers, tax credit scholarships, and education savings accounts. You can read a full rundown in a piece I penned for the Daily Signal, In a Rebuke to Teachers Unions, School Choice Is Going Gangbusters in the States.
In Case You Missed It
Jonathan Butcher talked with Bill O'Reilly's "No Spin Zone" this week about the new "Equitable Math" standards and curriculum that says "The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so. Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict."
So much for equipping students with the skills they need to be successful later in school and the workplace. Perhaps someone should mention that nearly 60 percent of 4th graders in the U.S.--more than half--cannot perform math at what is reasonably considered grade level today. Eighty percent of black students and 72 percent of Hispanic students score in this low range.
I always opt to hear the bad news first. In that spirit, the bad news is that U.S. national debt is going way up, likely along with your taxes, in response to an “infrastructure” proposal announced yesterday by President Biden.
The Bad News. The colossal “infrastructure” spending package would spend $100 billion to help “upgrade or replace crumbling school buildings.” The plan also includes an additional $100 billion to expand broadband, $48 billion for workforce training, and $12 billion for community college infrastructure. School infrastructure spending is not the role of the federal government; it is the responsibility of districts—not Washington—to construct and maintain schools.
The $260 billion for education “infrastructure” in the proposal – which is just part I; part II is slated to drop later this month and will include everything from paid family leave to “free” community college – comes on top of the $282 billion doled out to schools as part of the three COVID relief packages already in place. All told, if the new proposal were to become law, taxpayers will have financed more than half a trillion dollars in additional school spending over a 12 month period. I walk through the many problems with the package here.
The Good News. OK – now that the bad news is out of the way, here’s the good news: this was an unprecedented week for school choice.
On Monday, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed into law the most expansive school choice program in the country, a nearly universal education savings account program. Less than 24 hours later, the Kentucky legislature overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill to create the Bluegrass State’s first school choice program—a tax credit-funded education savings account. And there’s more to come. In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp will soon have on his desk a bill that expands eligibility for the state’s existing voucher program for students with special needs.
And that’s just this week. Dozens of others are considering measures to expand education freedom and opportunity to students. An unprecedented 29 states have already introduced similar measures this year that will create or expand vouchers, tax credit scholarships, and education savings accounts. You can read a full rundown in a piece I penned for the Daily Signal, In a Rebuke to Teachers Unions, School Choice Is Going Gangbusters in the States.
In Case You Missed It
Jonathan Butcher talked with Bill O'Reilly's "No Spin Zone" this week about the new "Equitable Math" standards and curriculum that says "The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so. Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict."
So much for equipping students with the skills they need to be successful later in school and the workplace. Perhaps someone should mention that nearly 60 percent of 4th graders in the U.S.--more than half--cannot perform math at what is reasonably considered grade level today. Eighty percent of black students and 72 percent of Hispanic students score in this low range.
