Champion News

Using technology to transform our public schools

By Clayton M. Christensen and Michael B. Horn
Co-authors of "Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns" (McGraw-Hill, 2008).

Teachers, administrators, researchers, reformers, government leaders, parents, and others have long extolled the benefits that computer-based learning could have in schools: Educational video games, often referred to as “edutainment” or “serious” games, could make learning fun and motivating, especially for today’s students. Read More

Education Starts Here

by Ken Blackwell, Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow for Public Policy- Buckeye Institute, Columbus, OH

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama both say public schools need work, but neither of their proposed solutions get to the root problem of our education crisis.

The NEA Spells Out its Policies

by Phyllis Schlafly

NEA resolutions cover the waterfront of all sorts of political issues that have nothing to do with improving education for schoolchildren, such as supporting statehood for the District of Columbia, a "single-payer health care plan" (i.e., government-run), gun control, ratification of the International Criminal Court Treaty, and taking steps "to change activities that contribute to global climate change."

On Education & Equity in Chicago Public Schools

by Mike VanWinkle

State Senator, and Reverend, James Meeks launched himself back onto front pages Monday, by encouraging students in inner-city neighborhoods to skip the first day of school. The reason for the protest is something Meeks has harped on for years: inequities in school funding.

The reality is, if there is anything for inner-city kids to protest, it is the system of public education itself. Inequality is literally built into the system by rigid union contracts that forbid schools in need from paying higher salaries to attract the best teachers.
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School Vouchers Help Improve Public Education

As some educators and school choice advocates begin to question whether school vouchers can reform public education, a new study of Milwaukee’s pioneering voucher program -- the nation’s oldest and largest city-specific program -- concludes it has had a positive effect on the city’s public schools and will become even more influential in the near future.

“Can Vouchers Reform Public Schools? Lessons from the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program” is available HERE.

The Greatest Scandal

The profound failure of inner-city public schools to teach children may be the nation's greatest scandal.

The differences between the two Presidential candidates on this could hardly be more stark. John McCain is calling for alternatives to the system; Barack Obama wants the kids to stay within that system.

We think the facts support Senator McCain. Read More

"For the Kids"

It’s the battle cry of the modern American Left when arguing for everything from assault weapons bans to Head Start funding to a State Children’s Health Insurance Program that would serve an awful lot of adults. Liberals, in their wisdom, believe the children are our future, and we should teach them well and let them lead the way.

Fair enough, but when liberal politicians and labor unions begin quoting from the pop prophet Whitney to justify their policy positions, the proper response from millions of American schoolchildren should be something from the catalogue of another popular ’80s songstress: “What have you done for me lately?”

Report Finds Teachers' Pay Is More than Adequate Across the Country

From School Reform News:

The long-lived conventional wisdom is that teachers are underpaid. That belief is virtually unanimous. But it runs contrary to many respectable research studies that conclude teacher salaries are at least equal to, if not in excess of, compensation for comparable occupations.

In their article "How Much Are Public School Teachers Paid?" researchers Jay P. Greene and Marcus A Winters come to some surprising conclusions. According to their findings, "The average public school teacher in the United States earned $34.06 per hour in 2005, and the average public school teacher was paid 36 percent more per hour than the average non-sales white-collar worker and 11 percent more than the average professional specialty and technical worker."

Chicago maintains secret files on teachers

SPRINGFIELD -- Imagine a place where the identity of educators convicted of sexually abusing children or stealing from taxpayers is kept secret.

That place is Illinois, Chicago to be more precise.

For at least a decade, the Chicago Board of Education has maintained secret files on some of the criminals who have slipped into the school district's teaching ranks.

Portions of the secret files were released to Small Newspaper Group in October after a contentious open records battle that involved the Illinois Attorney General's Office pressuring the state's largest school system to release the documents to the newspaper group.

‘Loyalty to the State’

The California court decision that essentially bans homeschooling has sparked a lot of concern, and rightly so.The decision quotes this revealing and chilling statement from a California court case in 1961:

A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare.