Shine a Light on It
More than 70 years ago, black and white students in Virginia received separate and very unequal educations. In They Closed Their Schools, author Bob Smith writes that in Farmville, a city not unlike the rest of Virginia, the white public school built after a 1939 fire “had a gymnasium, cafeteria, locker rooms, infirmary and an auditorium […]
End Federal Control of Our Schools, Close the U.S. Department of Education
While the U.S. Department of Education is only a small fraction of total education spending – accounting for less than 10 percent of education spending in the United States (9 percent in Virginia) – it has a huge impact on how states and localities spend their own money on schools, on how teachers are educated […]
Time to Give Charter Schools a Chance in Virginia
The Youngkin Administration is trying to jumpstart the creation of independent public charter schools in Virginia, in order to provide students additional high-quality options for their education. This effort is long overdue. But the road to quality choices in Virginia is a steep climb. First established in Minnesota 32 years ago, more than 7,800 public […]
Dartmouth Reinstated the SAT, Will Virginia Universities Follow Suit?
Dartmouth College is making news regarding its return to using the SAT/ACT scores once again as a part of its admissions process. The policy will become effective in 2025 for the incoming class of 2029. Many colleges and universities decided to make the SAT/ACT test-optional during the COVID-19 pandemic when health protocols made taking these […]
The Washington Post Attacks the Most Successful Education Reform in History
Over the last few years, homeschooling has grown in Virginia by almost 40 percent. In fact, homeschoolers in Virginia now account for almost 60,000 students — making homeschooling the fifth largest school district in the Commonwealth. Because homeschoolers are self-funded, this saves Virginia’s state and local governments almost $800 million per year. More importantly, homeschoolers outperform public school students […]
Welcome, Dr. Coons! Let’s Talk Math
In K-12 education, can Virginia lead the nation? If that’s the goal, in my view as a career educator, Dr. Lisa Coons is the best possible choice as our new state Superintendent. As Chief Academic Officer in Tennessee, the programs she guided to help teachers improve reading instruction are among the best in the nation. […]
Virginia’s Scholarship Tax Credits: An Educational Beacon of Hope
There is more to love about education in Virginia thanks to the budget Governor Glenn Youngkin signed into law on June 22, 2022. It contains the largest education budget in Virginia history at $3.2 billion, $900 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, a 10 percent teacher raise, and a statewide literacy initiative. Youngkin’s budget also maintained […]
Bringing New Ideas to Education
One of the challenges in public education – in any bureaucracy, public or private — is the tendency to establish an “echo chamber” of ideas. In public schools, this reinforces the loudest voices and makes it hard for creative educators or an informed citizenry to burst through with new ideas. In recent years, the Virginia […]
Standards Decline: Can They Be Brought Back?
“… score standards were adopted that made it easier for students to pass; and changes in accreditation regulations let schoolsoff the hook for their failures.” The words of Governor Glenn Youngkin at Thursday’s unveiling of a new report analyzing the decline of Virginia’s public education? Nope. They came from The Washington Post, in a February 8, 2020 editorial titled “Virginia […]
Most States Outperform Virginia Over Past Decade
As measured by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Virginia’s economic outlook has continued its precipitous drop and now barely ranks in the top half among the American states, 24th out of 50. A decade ago it was in the top five, ranking third in 2011 and 2012 and fifth in 2013. Using three direct […]