Trump to push for school choice

David Jackson reports in USA Today,

President Donald Trump plans to use next week's State of the Union speech to renew a call for tax breaks designed to provide more scholarships for students to attend private schools, two administration sources familiar with the address told USA TODAY Thursday.

Trump's emphasis on school choice – a popular issue with his core supporters – will be part of a speech in which the president is likely to discuss themes central to his reelection message, including the economy, immigration and health care.

In Tuesday's prime-time speech, Trump will call for passage of long-pending legislation that would offer tax credits to people who donate money to nonprofit groups that provide scholarships to private schools.

The Education Freedom Scholarships legislation would provide up to $5 billion in federal tax credits to individuals and businesses who donate to scholarships for families to use at private, faith-based schools or to fund homeschooling. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has championed the proposal since taking office under Trump.

Read more here.

Why did 100,000 African American women favor DeSantis over Gillum?

William Mattox reports in the Wall Street Journal that newly elected Florida Governor Ron DeSantis owes his victory to minority women.

...about 100,000 African-American women who unexpectedly chose him over the black Democratic candidate, Andrew Gillum.

...What explains Mr. DeSantis’ surprising support from African-American women? Two words: school choice.

More than 100,000 low-income students in Florida participate in the Step Up For Students program, which grants tax-credit funded scholarships to attend private schools. Even more students are currently enrolled in the state’s 650 charter schools.

A social-media campaign by the Florida Federation for Children reminded voters of Mr. Gillum’s strong opposition to school choice. The issue also helped solidify Mr. DeSantis’s support among Latinos at an impressive 44%.

The unexpected outcome of the Florida governor’s race should encourage Republicans nationwide to pitch their education agenda to minority voters. It should also prompt Democrats to rethink their blind allegiance to teachers unions.

Read more here.

School choice items included in 2017 budget

Trump and Pence both joined a press conference Betsy DeVos was holding to announce school choice items included in the budget resolution.

An education revolution

Gloria Romero writes in the Orange County Register,

President Obama travels to New Orleans this week to commemorate Katrina’s 10th anniversary and the city’s rebuilding.

I wonder if Obama will notice what has happened to the New Orleans education system. Romero reports,

Following Katrina, the Legislature acted boldly, enacting a transformative measure to expeditiously transfer more than 100 chronically failing New Orleans schools to the RSD. State leaders, confronted by unprecedented natural disaster, chose to not only rebuild, but to boldly reimagine, New Orleans’ schools and acted with urgency.

City schools were closed, and all teachers removed from their posts. Rather than reopening the same failed schools, a comprehensive network of charter schools was authorized and opened. New teachers were hired.

This action led to the innovative “portfolio” system of schools found today in New Orleans, with 92 percent of students attending independent, charter schools.

RSD is Recovery School District.

Romero continues,

Undoubtedly, the RSD response to Katrina has become one of the most important education reformations in America. Academic outcomes for public school students in New Orleans have improved significantly in the 10 years since Katrina.

New Orleans in 2005 was the second-lowest-ranked district in one of the lowest-ranked U.S. states. Today, New Orleans students are closing the achievement gap with their peers, graduation rates have dramatically increased accompanied by major boosts in achievement tests, and students are going on to college. Whereas just slightly more than 30 percent of RSD schools were above failing status in 2008, more than 80 percent were in 2014 – a significant turnaround.

Read more here.

Should Republicans continue to write off urban voters?

Jill Homan asserts in the New York Post that the GOP's

political future is bleak if it continues to write off urban areas as political losers.

...Indeed, current drama over Uber and the “sharing economy” perfectly illustrates the GOP’s opportunity.

Uber’s innovative business model has proved a challenge for Democrats, who are boxed in by powerful constituents like the taxi industry, as well as labor unions who have long had a bone to pick with businesses who use independent contractors.

Republicans like Jeb Bush have enthusiastically embraced the new “sharing economy,” while Hillary Clinton has been forced to offer caveat-filled statements of tepid support and even criticize the business model.

The stakes are high: Republicans control just four of the mayoral seats in the nation’s 25 largest cities and fewer than 20 percent of the city council seats.

These cities represent 35 million people, or roughly 11 percent of the population, and they’re a key component in Democrats’ strategy to flip red states to blue, and to swing “purple” states permanently to the left.

In urban centers like Raleigh, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Virginia Beach, an expanding Democratic base is making it more difficult for Republicans to offset their losses in the city with larger victories elsewhere in the state.

...And conservatives have more to offer cities than they might think. As longtime urban outsiders, Republicans have the advantage of being the reform candidates, standing up against one-party hegemony and a lack of accountability.

School-choice programs, for instance, have improved the fortunes of low-income students in New York City, Milwaukee and Washington, DC. Every parent, no matter their political ideology, wants the best education for their children.

Longtime residents of cities in working-class neighborhoods want safe streets, affordable housing and a city government that balances the concerns of Wall Street and Main Street.

Democrats offer simplistic, but ultimately harmful, mandates like “living wage” requirements.

As an alternative, Republicans should champion tax incentives that encourage businesses to relocate to struggling communities.

Georgia’s “opportunity zone” credit, for example, has allowed cities like Atlanta to provide a tax credit of $3,500 per job created for businesses that invest in blighted areas.

A “road map” for city success could include the elimination or reduction of occupational-licensing requirements that stifle entrepreneurship by forcing small, minority-owned businesses to meet costly training requirements just to open their doors.

Read more here.

"Do what you think is best"

Ace of Spades has been enthusiastically supporting Breitbart's Mike Flynn's run for Congress in Illinois. One of Flynn's ideas is to follow the Dutch model of education. Ace writes,

What's the Dutch system? Well, the government gives each parent a check to pay for school, and the parent can use that for any school -- including religious schools. There is no church-state question because the decision is up to the parent. All the state did was cut a check and say "Do what you think is best."

Mike is very fond of referring to this as "the Dutch model" because he knows that the liberal media is overly-smitten of ENLIGHTENED EUROPEAN WAYS OF DOING THINGS. So he always says, "Well, of course, I favor the Dutch model. Obviously, you know?"

Which is Pure School Choice -- the government's role is to deliver a check, and the money follows the student to whatever school his parent wants.

Read more here.

What can be done when children escape teachers' unions

Stephen Moore writes in the Wall Street Journal,

The scenes of Baltimore set ablaze this week have many Americans thinking: What can be done to rescue families trapped in an inner-city culture of violence, despair and joblessness?

There are no easy answers, but down the road from Baltimore in Washington, D.C., an education program is giving children in poor neighborhoods a big lift up. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which George W. Bush signed into law in 2004, has so far funded private-school tuition for nearly 5,000 students, 95% of whom are African-American. They attend religious schools, music and arts schools, even elite college-prep schools. Last month at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, I met with about 20 parents and children who participate in the program. I also visited several of these families in their homes—which are located in some of the most beaten-down neighborhoods in the city, places that in many ways resemble the trouble spots in Baltimore.

These families have now pulled together to brace for a David vs. Goliath fight to save the program. For the seventh straight year, President Obama has proposed eliminating this relatively tiny scholarship fund, which at $20 million accounts for a microscopic 0.0005% of the $4 trillion federal budget.

The parents and students point out that the scholarship program has extraordinary benefits—they use phrases like “a godsend for our children,” “a life saver” and “our salvation.” One father, Joseph Kelley, a tireless champion of the program, says simply, “I truly shudder to think where my son would be today without it.”

Read more here.

Give the kids the choice to choose a better school

Hoodwinking voters

Paula Bolyard has an excellent column at PJ Media explaining how Hillary Clinton has a record of vehemently opposing opportunities for parents of poor and minority children to choose what schools they wish to attend.

Hillary Clinton’s presidential announcement video featured a lineup of ordinary Americans talking about things they’re getting ready for, including a mother and daughter who were packing up their belongings and preparing to move.

“My daughter is about to start kindergarten next year,” the mother says, “so we’re moving, just so she can belong to a better school.”

Someone — actually everyone — on Team Hillary apparently missed the irony of a family being forced to move to a different school district to find a better school when it’s well known that Hillary is vehemently (and irrationally) opposed to school vouchers.

In the video above Clinton says that if school vouchers were allowed, parents would be lining up to get government money to pay for (imaginary) white supremacist schools and the “School of the Jihad.” That hasn’t happened anywhere in the country where vouchers are allowed, but it’s a scary bogeyman opponents like to use to counter those who say poor children in failing schools ought to be allowed to take their funding dollars to the school of their choice.

If Hillary really wanted to be the “champion” for that little girl in her video — and for families across the nation — she’d stop supporting policies that force families to move in order to escape failing, sclerotic school systems. She would support school choice in all forms, including school vouchers, instead of standing in the way of progress.

Go here to view the video.