Dear Colleagues:
February was a particularly busy month for our education team.
  
Let’s do more than a “rebranding.” Virginia lawmakers are considering a long-overdue proposal that would help parents, educators, and other community leaders create public charter schools. But to do so, they will need to give charter operators independence from assigned school districts. Jonathan Butcher explained the details for Virginia Works. Read on <[link removed]>. Jonathan also explained how public charter schools come in different shapes and sizes and can meet the needs of students and families in Virginia with different interests. See here <[link removed]>. Virginia lawmakers have still more ways to help families by improving the state’s “lab school” provisions—along with the charter school law. See his column in the Virginia Pilot <[link removed]>.
 
Now that’s a welcome change. While President Joe Biden’s administration dismisses parents and works with special interest groups to intimidate families, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) introduced a proposal during National School Choice Week to empower children from low income families with flexible access to their share of federal education spending. Jonathan explained the proposal in reimaginED <[link removed]>.
  
Protecting students and teachers from racial discrimination. Jonathan reviewed proposals from states where lawmakers are considering ways to reject school officials’ application of critical race theory in K-12 classrooms. Here’s what you need to know <[link removed]>.
  
“Free meals” sounds less appetizing after this. Writing in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Jonathan explains that proposals to expand federal school meal programs would result in expanding a wasteful, error-prone
program. And it would also mean providing free meals to children from middle- and upper-income homes, not more children from disadvantaged backgrounds because they are already eligible. Read on <[link removed]>.
   
Washington keeps finding ways to make taxpayers pay for federal student loans. Writing for RealClearPolitics <[link removed]>, Jonathan says “President Biden says that student loan payments, which federal
officials paused during the pandemic, will resume in May. With little more than two months to go, however, his administration is doing everything it can to make the process of meeting this deadline look impossible – both for students and the Department of Education.” Read on <[link removed]>.
  
Erasing redlines. Writing for the Washington Times, Jonathan explains that federal officials can reverse any lingering effects from education redlining—which resulted in students who are ethnic minorities being assigned to persistently failing schools in Washington, D.C. “With or without the remaining effects from education redlining, lawmakers must stop assigning students to persistently failing schools. By disconnecting housing and education, lawmakers can unleash the potential of the next generation of District children,” Jonathan writes. Read on <[link removed]>.
  
Indiana and missed opportunities. In The Daily Signal, Jonathan says Indiana lawmakers had the opportunity to protect teachers and students from racial discrimination, but a revised version of a proposal that would have rejected critical race theory’s prejudice missed the mark. Here are the details <[link removed]>.
The Secret Strategy to Transform America. The Goldwater Institute hosted Jonathan and our colleague Mike Gonzalez to discuss their new books. Jonathan’s book, Splintered: Critical Race Theory and the Progressive War on Truth <[link removed]> is available for preorder now. You can watch the video of the Goldwater event here <[link removed]>.
Yes, our kids are watching—so listen to the parents who are advocating for their children. Jonathan spoke with WFAA Channel 8 News in Texas about the ways in which parents are speaking up for their children at school board meetings. Special interest groups and the Biden administration have dismissed their concerns so far. You can watch the clip here <[link removed]>. 
  
Time for the School Choice Movement to Embrace the Culture War. Jay Greene and James Paul released a new Heritage Backgrounder that made the case for why conservative education reformers should engage cultural controversies to help make the case for expanding school choice.  You can read that report here <[link removed]>.
  
Mackenzie Scott Believes Schools Should Raise Your Kids – Jay also had a piece in the Washington Times <[link removed]> about the $133 million gift made by the ex-wife of Amazon head, Jeff Bezos, to an effort called Communities in School (CIS).  Despite the nice sounding name, the actual goals of CIS are to offer a full range of government social services in schools, displacing the role of parents. Jay discusses how this approach undermines education quality and is socially dangerous.
  
Kids Benefit from Culturally Enriching Activities.  Jay co-authored a new study in which over a thousand students were randomly assigned to go on multiple culturally-enriching field trips or not. In this New York Daily News <[link removed]> piece, Jay describes why students benefit from these experiences and how museums and other cultural institutions could strengthen the quality of education.
  
Panel Discussing DEI and Antisemitism at CPAC.  Heritage had a significant presence at the CPAC gathering last week at which Jay led a panel featuring our work on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and how it contributes to antisemitism and other hateful ideologies.  The room was packed with an interested audience that provided valuable feedback.
 
As always, follow us on Twitter @HeritageOnEd <[link removed]> !
Warmly,
Jay P. Greene, Ph.D.
 
Senior Research Fellow
Center for Education Policy
Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity
The Heritage Foundation

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