'A private school for OKC's poorest'

Megan Rolland profiles Positive Tomorrows.

'A devastating report for proponents of government-run early childhood initiatives'

"It's past time we turn to the education reform that has proven itself through multiple random-assignment studies," Adam Schaeffer writes. "School choice."

The harms of homeschooling?

Talk about lefty law professors dealing with issues above their pay grade. My friend Izzy Lyman dismantles the poor gal here.

Without HOPE in the World

Ouch. The Tulsa World reports that even Drew Edmondson and Jari Askins oppose SQ 744.

State charter-school laws ranked

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has released a ranking of all state charter school laws. Oklahoma ranks 24th.

Nice work if you can get it

OFRG has an interesting new report here which is getting some good media coverage. My favorite example from the report has to be the school superintendent earning $93,002 while overseeing ... 69 students.

Either way, Oklahoma is near the bottom

As Education Week magazine prepares to release its annual report card for states, education researcher Margaret Raymond and a team of researchers from Stanford suggest that one set of grades on the report card could be improved by looking only at indicators of school quality.

Union dues at work

Mike Antonucci -- Education Week calls him "the nation's leading observer -- and critic -- of the two national teachers' unions and their affiliates" -- reports that in fiscal year 2008-09 the NEA sent money to several state affiliates "for the specific purpose of passing or defeating ballot initiatives or legislative measures." The Oklahoma Education Association received a grant for $42,529 (to push SQ 744, I presume).

Something tells me we haven't seen the last of the national money for 744.

'Cornerstones of democracy'

Our public schools.

Socialists lament 'attack on our basic rights'

I guess you gotta admire anyone who would have the guts to stand up for the D.C. public schools.

'One of the hottest trends in education'

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Signers' remorse?

"'From conversations I've had with some of the individuals that signed the HOPE petition, they've said if they'd had a crystal ball and had been able to look down the road to see what was happening in the economy — not just here in Oklahoma but nationwide — their timing for this might have been a whole lot different,' said [Lt. Gov. Jari] Askins, who is a 2010 gubernatorial candidate."

Quote of the decade

"For an unmatched combination of hyperbole, metaphor, and faulty history," writes Mike Antonucci, "there can be only one Public Education Quote of the Decade."

"The struggle in which we are engaged is as vital to our future today as was the outcome of the Civil War to our nation in 1860 (sic). The goal of these locusts is to impose their will on state after state until they have completely demolished government as we know it. There is a time for every generation to rise to the call – when the very existence of our nation, our state, our values, our culture and our public schools are threatened with extinction."

-- Nebraska State Education Association executive director Jim Griess on Initiative 423, a ballot measure that would have limited state government spending to previous years' amounts, with allowed increases for inflation and population growth