The Heartland Institute

Permanent regulations governing California's landmark Parent Empowerment Act are still months away. The State Board of Education has instructed the state s Department of Education to combine suggestions for final " Parent Trigger" rules from several different and opposing groups, with the goal of reaching some kind of agreement by ...

A Parent Trigger amendment to a parental responsibility bill was voted down in a Colorado state senate committee, signaling what the amendment s sponsor said was the end of parent empowerment legislation in the Rocky Mountain State for the 2011 session. It s totally dead for the year, said state Sen. Nancy Spence (R-Centennial ...

The United States Supreme Court on Monday sidestepped the direct question of whether Arizona s 14-year-old tax credit scholarship program violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, ruling instead that opponents had no standing to challenge the program. Justices voted 5-4 in Garriott vs. Winn and Arizona Christian ...

In an apparent policy reversal, California State Board of Education President Michael Kirst announced plans to accelerate the timetable for approving permanent regulations for the state s landmark Parent Empowerment Act, also known as the Parent Trigger. Kirst says the board s April 21 meeting would be devoted exclusively to discussing ...

Compton, California seems an unlikely place for black and Latino parents to unite for fundamental education reform. But the Los Angeles area city known best for its political corruption, racial division, and gang violence is the first proving ground for California s Parent Empowerment Act, also known as the parent trigger. A ...

Wisconsin s State Senate was scheduled to vote on a budget bill Thursday that would eliminate most collective bargaining rights for public employee unions. Senate Democrats, however, said they would boycott the vote, denying a quorum and putting the bill s immediate fate in question. Although the GOP has majorities in both houses ...

California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and his staff say the state s groundbreaking parent empowerment law may be too vague for the state department of education to write clear regulations. Torlakson announced at the state board s February meeting he was forming a working group with Assemblywoman Julia Brownley ...

Without question, Gov. Jerry Brown has the right to make his own appointments and craft his own policies. But his picks for California s powerful state board of education could jeopardize one of the most innovative and empowering if controversial education reforms to come along in years: The parent trigger that gives parents ...

California Gov. Jerry Brown s seven appointments to the state board of education could undermine permanent regulations for the state s year-old parent trigger law, say a recent board member and a former state senator who authored the legislation. Brown s appointees, announced one day after the Democrat governor took office, replace ...

California s parent empowerment law turns one year old in January, but it is already inspiring imitators and improvements across the country. Legislators in Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, and West Virginia have introduced or are planning to introduce bills modeled after California ...

Republican victories in the U.S. House of Representatives and statehouses and legislatures in 19 states will have widespread implications for President Obama’s education agenda, Race to the Top, No Child Left Behind, charter schools, and school choice. But there is little likelihood of radical change, such as abolishing the U ...

The U.S. Supreme Court has heard arguments in a combined case challenging the constitutionality of Arizona s tax credit scholarship program. It was the first school choice case to reach the Court in nine years. Arizona s scholarship program offers individuals a 100 percent tax credit up to $500 (or $1,000 for couples filing ...

Vermont tops the states when it comes to test scores but ranks at the very bottom in school reforms, while Florida earns a solid B+ for its sweeping and sustained reform efforts, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council’s report card on American education . ALEC’s report card, now in its 16th year, offers a ...

New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler has become a high-profile casualty of Race to the Top. Gov. Chris Christie (R) announced Friday that Schundler, the former Jersey City mayor and outspoken proponent of school choice, has been fired because of the poor explanation the state gave for an error on its federal grant ...

Greg Forster, a senior fellow with the Indianapolis-based Foundation for Educational Choice, said the Obama administration s August 2 deadline for states to adopt the Common Core State Standards Initiative comes from people in Washington sending a clear signal that if you don t get with the program, you re going to be in trouble ...

With little public discussion or opposition, 23 states have adopted voluntary national reading and math curriculum frameworks ahead of an August 2 deadline imposed by the U.S. Department of Education. New Hampshire, Georgia, Connecticut and Rhode Island are the latest states officially to embrace the common core standards, all ...

A bipartisan group of governors and state school superintendents gathered in Georgia earlier this month to unveil the final draft of proposed national math and English curriculum frameworks. The Common Core State Standards Initiative is the latest attempt to impose order on the supposed chaos wrought by 50 states and the District ...

The final draft of proposed national school curriculum standards was released to the public on Wednesday. Officials, including several state governors and school superintendents, unveiled the completed Common Core State Standard Initiative frameworks during a press event at Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee, Georgia. Forty-eight ...

Closing out a controversial legislative session that drew worldwide headlines, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed a law Tuesday banning ethnic studies classes from the state s elementary and secondary school curriculum. Specifically, House Bill 2281 bars any courses that Promote the overthrow of the United States government; promote ...

Lasting education reforms require more than simplistic, one-size-fits-all policies. Colorado s Senate Bill 191 is neither simplistic, nor one-size-fits-all nor the bogeyman the bill s critics in the Colorado Education Association have tried to make it. The House education committee on Friday passed SB 191, after the Senate passed ...