Police arrest Oklahoma teen in alleged school shooting threat

The Associated Press has the story.

School choice heals religious divisions

"School choice not only respects everyone’s equal rights today," Greg Forster writes in Perspective, "it helps raise up generations who will do the same tomorrow. Everyone from evangelicals to atheists benefits from that."

Oklahoma schools are awash in money

"Relatively few citizens are aware of the amount of money already going to Oklahoma's public schools," The Oklahoman correctly notes.

In the 2013 budget year, the total amount of funding for Oklahoma schools — including all state, local and federal dollars — was $8.2 billion, according to figures from the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services. That’s $1 billion more than in 2008, yet critics continue to complain that schools are "financially starved."

'Rehearsing for death'

Writing in the Washington Post about lockdown drills, a pre-K teacher laments that "we are rounding up and silencing a generation of schoolchildren, and terrifying those who care for them."

'Class Dismissed'

"A new independent film, now showing in select theaters on the West Coast and making its way to the Midwest and East Coast in November, is currently screening to sold out audiences," Christine Escobar blogs over at Huff Post Chicago. Here's a trailer:

'Thousands of Oklahoma students simply haven’t learned how to read'

Excellent editorial today in the state's largest newspaper.

Public schools are 'accountable'? Really?

"In education no one has ultimate responsibility for success," write Kent Grusendorf and Allan E. Parker, Jr. "The ultimate accountability system requires consumer choice."

We need competition, not Common Core

"Ultimately, Common Core rests on the faulty premise that a single, centralized entity knows what's best for all 55 million students nationwide," Vicki Alger writes. "Raising the education bar starts with putting the real experts in charge: students' parents."

The contributions of faith-based schools

I commend to your attention a very helpful report from Dr. Vicki Alger entitled "Faith-Based Schools: Their Contributions to American Education, Society, and the Economy."

St. John Christian Heritage Academy is changing lives

ESA program helping children with Down syndrome

Can the GOP win a third of the black vote?

Rand Paul says yes, and says school choice is one of the keys.

Southern Baptist contention

Clarence G. Oliver, Jr., Earl Garrison, and David K. Pennington are all Baptists. These Baptist gentlemen all share a history of presiding over school districts which, as a matter of law and public policy, must (like Peter) deny Christ. And as plaintiffs in a current lawsuit, they're now leading an effort to discriminate against Christians on the basis of their religion.

By way of contrast, Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is now asking the question if sending one's children to a public school is even a permissible option anymore. "For Christians who take the Christian worldview seriously and who understand the issues at stake," he says, "the answer is increasingly no."

That's a pretty big gap.