George McGovern supported school choice

George McGovern, who died this week at the age of 90, was a strong supporter of parental choice in education.

Employment of grown-ups outpaces enrollment of children

A new Friedman Foundation report has the details.

ESAs 'will revolutionize K-12 education'

Clint Bolick describes our current public-school system as a

hidebound, bureaucratic, expensive, top-down, one-size-fits-all, command-and-control, inefficient, reform-resistant, administratively bloated, special-interest manipulated, obsolete, impersonal bricks-and-mortar system that represents the most disastrous failure of central planning west of Communist China and south of the United States Postal Service.

Bolick says education savings accounts will revolutionize K-12 education.

The worst part is that it went unnoticed for months

A school building sign in Sapulpa is misspelled.

Middle-class complacency

Reihan Salam observes that "achievement gap thinking allows the vast majority of middle-class parents to remain complacent about their own mediocre schools while focusing attention on a handful of dysfunctional urban school districts that educate a minority of America’s K-12 students. This complacency suits suburban America’s elected officials and school administrators, as it allows them to avoid contentious battles over truly innovative instructional models that could rattle the status quo."

'Fund education, not institutions'

Chester Finn says "digital learning has the potential to alter the system fundamentally and irreversibly. It’s no sideshow. It isn’t even the center ring. It’s the circus tent itself."

Per-pupil spending in Oklahoma

Daniel G. Thatcher, a policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures, recently testified before the Oklahoma Senate Education Committee, Barbara Hoberock reports.

He said based on fiscal year 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data, per pupil spending nationally was $10,615. Oklahoma ranked 48th out of 51 states, spending $7,896, he said.

But when the figure was adjusted for comparable wages, the state fared better, spending $9,390 and ranking 41st out of 51.

When the figure included comparable wages and money the state spends on prekindergarten, Oklahoma ranked 29th out 51 states, spending $10,950, Thatcher said.

Quote of the day

"Unfortunately, the public school in my area isn’t great, since my area is in America."

--TIME magazine columnist Joel Stein

Oklahoma City student stabbed in lip

"An eighth-grade student was stabbed in the upper lip by another student Monday at Roosevelt Middle School," The Oklahoman reports.

Quote of the day

"Khan is to K12+ as Craigslist is to MSM classifieds. Any questions?"

Tulsa school district has 24 pools

Tulsa Public Schools has 24 pools, the Tulsa World informs us, "but some have gone unused for a decade or longer."