Education

By Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute.

Yesterday, I offered the Fordham Foundation’s Andy Smarick an answer to a burning question: What is the proper federal role in education? It was a question prompted by repeatedly mixed signals coming from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about whether Washington will be a tough guy, coddler, or something in between when it comes to dealing with states and school districts. And what was my answer? The proper federal role is no role, because the Constitution gives the feds no authority over American education.

Indianapolis, IN - School choice and educational reform were at the center of the budget fight, and in the end, the taxpayer and students won. This budget ends the unquestioned support of the failing public education system, and creates a spark for alternative educational choices to be created. The General Assembly passed a pilot program for online virtual schools, and created a $2.5 million a year tax credit for private schools. The destructive caps for charter schoolson charter schools have been removed, which may provide additional future funding through grants.

WESTVILLE, IN -- Purdue University North Central celebrated Constitution Day with a variety of activities this past week.

On Sunday, Sept. 14 at 7:30 p.m., the Sinai Forum Presented by Purdue University North Central featured Tucker Carlson who looked at the 2008 presidential election. Carlson, a senior campaign correspondent for MSNBC, is a longtime journalist who has reported news from around world, most recently from Iraq and Lebanon .

On Wednesday, Sept. 17, the PNC Westville campus honored Constitution Day with activities presented throughout the day. All events were free and open to the public and took place on campus in Library-Student-Faculty Building Room 144.

The day's schedule included:

7:30 a.m. – Indiana State Senator Jim Arnold of LaPorte County discussed how the Indiana Constitution is affected by the United States Constitution.

11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. – PNC students presented a fun and informal challenge to test your knowledge of the Constitution.

Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well. This article was reposted from Townhall.com.

FAIRFAX, VA -- Hard Times at Douglass High," is an HBO documentary that aired last June. It captured much of the 2004-2005 school year at Baltimore's predominantly black Frederick Douglass High School. The tragedy is that what is seen in the documentary is typical of most predominantly black urban schools.

ATLANTA, GA -- Sweden, of all places, is enjoying the fruits of a school choice system. Although Swedes are a true cradle-to-grave welfare society, their reformed system of school choice is gaining a lot of attention abroad. The program came to be in 1992 when a conservative government briefly had power. While that didn't last long, their school choice system did – it was so popular among Swedes that the opposing party kept the program once in retained power of the government.

The system is easy ... you decide what school you want to attend. What a concept! These "independent schools" can choose their own teaching methods, staff and manage their own buildings. And since the program was instituted back in 1992, the number of private high schools has increased from 1.7% to 17%.

Reprinted from the Indianapolis Star.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Eugene White came to a public forum Wednesday armed with details about his plan to ask voters to approve $278 million in bonds for school improvements -- but few people were there to hear.

Despite the big price tag and recent property tax concerns, fewer than a dozen taxpayers showed up. Most of them supported the project.

Spurred on by that lack of concern from the community, IPS will hold a hearing Tuesday to officially decide whether to proceed with the proposal, which would place the question before voters in the Nov. 4 election.

That would be the first test of a new law requiring voters to sign off on major school building projects, a system common in other states but which had been fought by school organizations here.

David Kirkpatrick is a senior fellow for education at the U.S. Freedom Foundation in Washington, DC. His article highlighting school corporations paying students for outstanding performance comes from the April 2008 "School Reform News" published by The Heartland Institute.