Digital learning in Oklahoma

In this podcast, recorded at the "Education in the Digital Age" symposium hosted by OCPA, Patrick McGuigan and Peter J. Rudy discuss digital learning with state Rep. Jason Nelson (R-Oklahoma City) and Bill Price, chairman of the Oklahoma School Choice Coalition.

Surprise: Teacher unions holding a rally

"With declining membership, unilaterally negative press, and countless brewing legislative and legal battles, union leaders are struggling to win the messaging war."

OCPA to host digital-learning symposium

CapitolBeatOK has the details.

Because it's easier for the grown-ups

Schoolteachers want to "stop students from becoming this advanced."

Public education = Educating the public

"'Public education' is not limited to what happens in government-owned buildings," writes Richard W. Garnett of South Bend, Indiana.

It is, instead, "the education of the public, with public support," and it takes place every day in private, religious and publicly operated schools. Public education funds belong to all of us; they are for our children, not only our public employees. The education that private and parochial schools provide serves the public interest of the community (at a lower cost to taxpayers) and offers options and opportunities to thousands of Indiana children. It is unfair and unwise to exclude this public service from public support.

The important idea of separation of church and state is about protecting religious freedom from government interference. It does not require discrimination against religious schools, and it does not mean that governments and religious institutions may not cooperate to provide valuable public goods, like health care, refugee services and, yes, education.

Maybe he should turn his attention to reforming the U.S. Postal Service

"Ten years into his record-breaking philanthropic push for school reform, Bill Gates is sober—and willing to admit some missteps," The Wall Street Journal's Jason L. Riley reports. "The reality is that the Gates Foundation met the same resistance that other sizeable philanthropic efforts have encountered while trying to transform dysfunctional urban school systems run by powerful labor unions and a top-down government monopoly provider." Says Mr. Gates:

It's hard to improve public education—that's clear. As Warren Buffett would say, if you're picking stocks, you wouldn't pick this one.

Good question

"If a child with a tablet computer, assisted by a talented teacher, can access the knowledge base of the entire world," The Heartland Institute's Bruno Behrend asks, "why do we even need a superintendent class, or more importantly, the useless and expensive school district?"

'The front lines in the battle for capitalism'

Education and health care are the two sectors on "the front lines in the battle for capitalism," Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz write in National Affairs.

At stake is not only an ideological or theoretical point, but also American prosperity. The historical record makes this clear: In the nations where it was practiced, government control of the old commanding heights of the economy made those industries less efficient and less innovative—bringing overall economic performance down with them.

Today, America risks following the same course. Looking to the coming decades, it will simply not be possible to maintain a genuine free market—or a thriving, innovative, growing economy—if our education and health sectors are controlled by the government. Champions of the market thus have their work cut out for them.

Study? Who needs to study? Let's go to Disney World!

"Despite pre-dating Oklahoma statehood," Senator Tom Coburn points out in a new report, "Riverside Indian School (RIS) in Anadarko, Oklahoma is one of only a handful of schools in the nation with an even more unusual distinction: it is run directly by the federal government."

Taxpayers may wonder, then, why hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on video games, amusement parks, and recreation when the school is failing basic academic standards.

Operated by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) at Department of the Interior, it is the agency's largest off-reservation boarding school with 540 students representing over 70 tribes. ... Unfortunately, Riverside Indian School has been plagued by low student performance. Its student dropout rate of 8.05 percent is nearly four times the Oklahoma average of 2.2 percent. The average Riverside composite score for the ACT, the primary college entrance exam administered to Oklahoma students, was 14.5 in 2010, well below the state average composite score of 20.7.

Given these serious challenges, it is unclear why the school has made so many purchases seemingly unrelated to improving academic performance:

• $27,290 on a Positive Gaming iDance System. iDance markets its latest system as the "most advanced dance game ever."
• $30,000 for "movie theater services" and movie passes.
• $25,926 for an "incentive trip" to Disney World in Orlando, Florida for students who maintain at least a "C" average.
• $20,000 for cell phone service.
• $6,000 for a pilates/yoga instructor.
• $5,337 for a plasma television.
• $5,412 for mirrors for the high school gym.
• $10,000 for "bowling and restaurant service."
• Over $150,000 for sports apparel, including $9,950 for basketball shoes and $24,254 for NIKE basketball apparel.
• More than $28,000 for tickets to Six Flags and Frontier City amusement parks.
• $4,035 for lodging in San Antonio, Texas for "end of year incentive trip."
• $2,181 for "prom services" and prom screen printing.

Parental authority in education

The Catholic Civil Rights League (Canada) has drafted a very impressive document called the "Declaration on the Authority of Parents and Guardians in the Education of their Children."

Jay Greene on why America needs school choice

OSU professor says 'nonprofit' universities are profitable

State universities are actually quite profitable, OSU professor Vance Fried said this week at a Cato Institute forum.

Rahm Emanuel practices school choice

Albeit grouchily, Andrew J. Coulson points out.

Chicago's new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, has followed in the footsteps of President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, choosing to send his kids to the elite private UC Lab School. It's a very good school by all accounts, so it's probably an excellent choice. So why did Rahm get so grouchy when asked about it?

I think it might have something to do with the obvious hypocrisy of cherishing and exercising educational choice for one's own kids while advocating a one-size fits-few state monopoly school system that makes private schooling unaffordable to the majority of your fellow citizens. Just a thought.