Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Educational Choice

February 23, 2011

Call for Universal Preschool Misguided

Michigan’s State Board of Education is now calling for expanded funding to pay for universal preschool for 3- and 4-year olds. One could hope that this news story slipped through a worm hole from a parallel universe in which Michigan has a budget surplus, where businesses are flocking to the state to take advantage of a business-friendly tax structure, and where government-funded preschool strongly correlates with future educational performance. Continue Reading...
June 15, 2010

Public Schools: Adult Employment Programs

I’ve long argued that school choice is the quintessential bipartisan cause, with boundless potential to transform American primary and secondary education. Yet, for various reasons (all of them bad), it has failed to live up to that potential—its significant successes in various places notwithstanding. Continue Reading...
April 27, 2010

Dear Old Golden Rule Days

There have been many published articles lately about school curriculum, school performance, school choice, and the Obama dictates that are aimed at pumping more money and asserting more control of an already mediocre performing public school industry. Continue Reading...
March 11, 2010

Saving Catholic Schools

In many urban areas, maintaining Catholic schools and maintaining some semblance of educational choice are synonymous: the old Catholic schools represent the only alternatives to a big, clumsy, and often unsatisfactory public school district. Continue Reading...
December 29, 2009

Acton Media Alert: Schmiesing on School Choice

Acton Research Fellow Dr. Kevin Schmiesing made an appearance earlier today on The Drew Mariani Show on the Relevant Radio Network. He joined guest host Wendy Wiese to discuss school choice and the history of public education in the United states.   Continue Reading...
December 02, 2009

School Choice and the Common Good

With Afghanistan, health care, and economic distress devouring the attention of media, politicians, and the electorate, school choice may seem like yesterday’s public policy headline. Yet the problems in America’s education system remain. Continue Reading...
September 08, 2009

Speaking Truth to School Children

On the weekend I read the text of the talk Barack Obama gave on Tuesday to a public school in Virginia and through the medium of technology to students throughout the nation who wished to see and hear him on their school televisions. Continue Reading...
August 27, 2009

National Ed Care

As the fall school term approaches there were a lot of announcements this past week relating to education — both K-12 and college — including the annual publication of U.S. News and World Report’s America’s Best Colleges, a Wall Street Journal story about the SAT score results, ACTA’s College Report Card and ISI’s latest edition of “Choosing the Right College.” Continue Reading...
August 11, 2009

A Checkered Future?

Chester E. Finn Jr. served with William J. Bennett [The Book of Virtues et al] in The Department of Education under President Reagan from 1985 to 1988 — that point in Reagan’s presidency when the talk of shutting down the Department had been abandoned. Continue Reading...
March 09, 2009

School Choice in D.C.

Washington, D.C., has long been a focal point of debates about vouchers and other forms of school choice–partly because the public schools there are so notoriously bad that a working majority of politicians and parents are open to experiments that might improve them. Continue Reading...