EducationNews.org

Two widely known schools in Milwaukee's private school voucher program have had large payments from the state held up because the Department of Public Instruction says the schools owe the state money

By SAM DILLON

Representative Howard P. McKeon, a Republican, accused Democrats of wanting to end the Opportunity Scholarships program in Washington.
The conditions on school vouchers were quietly inserted into a huge spending bill. Republicans say Democrats want to kill the nation’s only federally financed voucher program.

Hoping no one notices, congressional Democrats step between 1,800 D.C. children and a good education. CONGRESSIONAL Democrats want to mandate that the District's unique school voucher program be reauthorized before more federal money can be allocated for it. It is a seemingly innocuous requirement. In truth it is an ill-disguised bid to kill a program that gives some poor parents a choice regarding where their children go to school.

Parents in Scotland should be handed an allowance worth up to £10,000 to send their children to the school of their choice, a think tank has concluded.

Cincinnati-area Catholics and other parents are worried about Ohio's Ed Choice program, which subsidizes private-school tuition for children who attend or live near low-rated public schools. Local parents in recent weeks received fliers urging them to attend Ed Choice meetings and sign up their children.

The solution to Florida's budget crisis is in state report No. 08-68. Prepared by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Governmental Accountability, it says we save $1.50 in education costs for every $1 we spend on school vouchers.
Last year we saved almost $39 million.

Would a President Obama listen to the D.C. parents and students benefiting from school choice? IT WOULD be nice if facts, not ideology, framed the discussion over the District's school voucher program. In an exchange during this week's presidential debate, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama airily dismissed the program, while Republican Sen. John McCain offered a somewhat jumbled defense of it. Lost was this: 1,903 poor children

How did you vote last November on the private school voucher referendum?

By LANCE T. IZUMI
In this installment of Education Watch, Bruce Fuller and Lance T. Izumi discuss John McCain’s view on education, particularly school vouchers.

By GARY FINEOUT
Two constitutional amendments intended to help Florida’s school voucher programs withstand legal challenges cannot appear on the November ballot, the State Supreme Court ruled.

by Mary Jo Pitzl
A $5 million voucher program for disabled and foster children that was cut from the state budget has been reinstated, tapping unused dollars in the state's public-education fund.

PHOENIX — Republican lawmakers voted Tuesday to make an end run around the budget by shifting around some money to fund public and private school vouchers for some students. On an 8-3 vote, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee directed state schools Superintendent Tom Horne to take $5 million out of the funding for public schools and use it instead to finance the voucher programs, which were left out of the $9.9 billion budget.

Republican lawmakers are trying to salvage a voucher program that was cut from the state budget and hope to persuade state school Superintendent Tom Horne to cover the costs from his own budget.