Spending money we don't have on stuff that won't work

American heroine Phyllis Schlafly -- George Gilder says "she changed the political landscape of her country" -- was in Oklahoma City last week and said it was a mistake for Oklahoma to apply for a federal grant from the Obama Administration dealing with children from birth to age five. No surprise there; analysts from The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the Home School Legal Defense Association have said much the same thing.

Oklahoma policymakers who applied for the grant will be hard pressed to look at this chart and argue that Oklahoma students will benefit from Washington giving us more money.

Education forum this week at Langston-OKC

Bob Bowdon, the award-winning documentarian who produced and directed The Cartel, will be speaking at a forum Thursday evening at Langston University-OKC. Larry Sand, director of the California Teachers Empowerment Network, will also be speaking, and I will be giving a brief presentation on “Why Oklahomans from A to Z Should Embrace School Choice.” More information about the event is available here.

Somewhere Tocqueville is smiling

There's a groundbreaking for a new classroom at San Miguel School this week, the Tulsa World reports. "Since 2004, San Miguel School has been educating children who are most at risk of dropping through the cracks of educational, social and economic systems. The school is mission-driven, not tuition-driven, supporters say, and is funded entirely by donations from the community."

More Oklahoma districts need improvement

"As federal standards steadily make it tougher for schools to meet academic performance requirements," The Oklahoman reports, "more and more schools and school districts in Oklahoma have found themselves on the notorious list of schools in need of improvement."

Owasso superintendent's tolerance only goes so far

"In what has increasingly become a troubling sign of the times, an Oklahoma public school district has barred a community-led Christian club for students from publicizing its before-school meetings," writes Matthew Sharp, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund.

Other similar clubs that teach values, self-esteem, and morality to students, like the Boy Scouts and the Young Men's Christian Association, are still allowed to publicize their events in the Owasso schools. Even a business like Baja Jack's Burrito Shack can promote its "tasty Mexican food for breakfast" to the students at Northeast Elementary.

But the Christian club, "Owasso Kids for Christ," which teaches the same values, self-esteem, and morality as the Scouts and YMCA but from a biblical perspective, is barred on the basis that it is "religious." ...

The bottom line: For some reason there appears to be some degree of animus aimed at Owasso Kids for Christ. So much so, in fact, that the district superintendent discouraged the more-than-100-member club from publicizing its activities in the larger Owasso community through signs and banners and through local media and advertising outlets because he believed such publicity would "stir up trouble."

What kind of power does a school district wield when it not only prohibits a Christian organization from announcing its Bible club for students while allowing dozens of other community groups to access the district's communicative mediums, but also takes upon itself the role of suggesting that the Christian organization not advertise at off-campus locations either?

Needs-improvement list

Here are the Oklahoma districts and schools on the needs-improvement list.

Personal digital learning

Is changing the world.

Freedom of conscience requires school choice

Freedom of conscience requires school choice, writes Charles Glenn, a professor of educational leadership at Boston University and the former director of urban education and equity efforts for the Massachusetts Department of Education. "Today, every country in Western Europe has well-established policies providing public support to parental choice, including on the basis of religious preferences, and educational freedom was incorporated as a basic human right into international covenants after World War II."

Even as school superintendents in Jenks and Union continue to stick up for discrimination on the basis of religion, Dr. Glenn says the "state 'Baby Blaines' are a major barrier to expanding parental choice, and it is important to the cause of educational freedom that they be challenged at the state level."

'Our school system is like the Trabant'

"When government runs things," John Stossel explains, "consumers suffer."

Socialism's finest

Owasso Kids for Christ sues Owasso Public Schools

"A Christian club which meets at an Owasso elementary school has filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming Owasso Public Schools has violated the group's first amendment's right of free speech and free exercise and the Fourteenth Amendment's right for due process and equal protection," the News on 6 reports.

A nation (still) at risk

[Click infographic to enlarge.]

Schools teach how to do less with more

"The problem with public education is not lack of money," Mark Steyn writes, "but that so much money is utterly wasted."