Today's Washington Post features the good, the bad, and the ugly in 3 letters to the editor on the progress of the Opportunity Scholarship Program.
1) The good
Former D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams continues with the broad-minded approach that helped the voucher program pass--that the mayor of the city must do all he can to help every child in the city get educated, whether or not if they are in public or private school. Back when I was at Fight For Children, we started to use the slogan "All Schools, One City." Unfortunately, because folks were content to talk matters to death, some talked themselves out of using that slogan.
2) The bad
James Forman, co-founder of the Maya Angelou Public Charter School, argues...well, he is kind of all over the place. His main points seem to be that voucher programs need to be rigorously assessed and that voucher proponents haven't kept their "promise" that vouchers would raise test scores. If Forman really knows anything about education research then he'd know that researchers will never really come to a consensus about findings from research. If capitalism or free trade had to be evaluated by researchers, we'd still be waiting for the findings...
3) The ugly
CJL
Also see Mark Lerner's rant about Delegate Norton.
1) The good
Former D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams continues with the broad-minded approach that helped the voucher program pass--that the mayor of the city must do all he can to help every child in the city get educated, whether or not if they are in public or private school. Back when I was at Fight For Children, we started to use the slogan "All Schools, One City." Unfortunately, because folks were content to talk matters to death, some talked themselves out of using that slogan.
2) The bad
James Forman, co-founder of the Maya Angelou Public Charter School, argues...well, he is kind of all over the place. His main points seem to be that voucher programs need to be rigorously assessed and that voucher proponents haven't kept their "promise" that vouchers would raise test scores. If Forman really knows anything about education research then he'd know that researchers will never really come to a consensus about findings from research. If capitalism or free trade had to be evaluated by researchers, we'd still be waiting for the findings...
3) The ugly
CJL
Also see Mark Lerner's rant about Delegate Norton.