This Young Superstar Mayor is Fighting to Bring School Choice to his City…and We’re Not Talking about Cory Booker…

We’re talking about Toru Hashimoto, the Mayor of Osaka, Japan. This 43-year-old-mayor is the newest superstar in Japan having started his own national party. Called a “political maverick” by The Economist, Hashimoto, like Cory Booker, is putting off a run for national office because he still has to do work in his own city.

At the top of Hashimoto’s priorities is reforming Japan’s education system. His party, the Japan Restoration Party, believes in creating self-reliant individuals who can support a self-reliant nation. The party aims to dismantle the pyramid model of education by implementing a national voucher system—including at the university level—to promote competition. Hashimoto also believes in allowing local governments to choose their own education systems. Not surprisingly, The Economist notes, Japan’s teachers unions are opposed to Hashimoto’s reforms.

And Hashimoto is not just talking about vouchers, he’s working to bring them to Osaka.

While Japan will look to see where Hashimoto will go and what he will do in the future, education reformers should take a close look at where Japan goes with education reform and what school choice could look like in Japan.

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MSG

In Midst of Chicago Strike, Focus Should be on Students, Choice

As the Chicago Teachers Union strike nears the conclusion of a second day, more than 400,000 students are left out of classrooms and, as a result, failing to get the education that is so fundamental to their growth.  

But even before the strike, there were far too many children trapped in failing schools that was providing them with a substandard education.

As negotiations between the CTU and city officials continue, lawmakers in Illinois and around the country would do well to take this time to think about our educational priorities. And while they sadly seem to have become collateral damage in a fight between adults, foremost among those priorities should be our children. 

And among the most important answers to that question is school choice.

If parents in Chicago—and everywhere else—had real options as to where to send their kids to school, they would have the opportunity to choose the education they feel is best for their children and, as a result, achievement, graduation rates, and college enrollment would all increase. With all options on the table, including private school choice, children, not special interests or money, would be the centerpiece of this discussion.

And Illinois has in the past seriously considered these options. Back in 2010, the Illinois Senate passed legislation that would have created a statewide voucher program, And leaders in Chicago and throughout the state continue to support vouchers. Among them:

• Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard, who believes “it’s a matter of making sure the dollars follow children. If 500 traditional [Chicago Public School Students] would go to the parochial schools…the proportional share (of dollars) should to the school actually educating those children.”
• Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza, who for voted in favor of the voucher bill while serving in the State House in 2010
• State Senator James Meeks (D), who sponsored the voucher legislation in 2010
• The Chicago Tribune, which has printed dozens of editorials in support of bringing private school choice to the Windy City, including one as recently as two days ago

Alliance for School Choice, Institute for Justice Respond to Bullying with Legal Defense Fund

All week, we’ve been telling you about the bullying tactics of special interests trying to scare schools out of participating in the newly-expanded statewide voucher program.  Now, thanks to the Alliance for School Choice and the Institute for Justice, there is something you can do about it.  Check out the new legal defense fund to help protect schools that are attacked by lawsuits for participating in the voucher program.

The Louisiana Defense Fund, created in response to the letter sent by the Louisiana Association of Educators that threatened to sue private schools that participate in the program, will protect Louisiana schools against legal threats from the local teachers union.

And while defenders of the status quo are reaching new lows to stop a scholarship program designed to help students from low-income families that are stuck in failing schools, those standing for children have been hard at work.  The Department of Education recently announced the awarding of 5,637 scholarships—just more than half of the 10,300 applications received.

The program is set to move forward at the beginning of the school year, while the trial to determine the constitutionality of the program is set to begin on October 15.

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MSG

Louisiana Headmaster Stands Up to Bullying Tactics

The Headmaster of John Paul the Great Academy in Lafayette, Louisiana isn’t getting bullied by opponents to education reform.  In fact, he’s standing up to them.  Writing in The Advertiser yesterday, Kevin Roberts addressed the letter sent by counsel for the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE) that tried to scare private schools from participating in the newly-expanded voucher program:

If teachers unions spent more time focused on ways to improve the deplorable quality of government-run schools, rather than intimidating anyone interested in the improvement of them, then there would be little need for innovative solutions like Louisiana's recently created Student Scholarship Program. But in typical union thuggery style, the Louisiana Association of Educators has acted like a schoolyard bully.

Roberts notes that time would be better spent if the LAE—and other status quo supporters—worked to improve our public schools:

More important than this schoolyard tiff is the real issue that the LAE purposefully obscures by its expensive, protracted legal shenanigans: the necessity of our public schools being reformed.

Let’s hope that education leaders of all stripes work to improve our public schools and provide more educational options to children.

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MSG

Louisiana's Real Bullying Problem

Celebrities from Lady Gaga to Taylor Swift to Justin Timberlake have spoken out against bullying in schools. But what if the schools themselves—not to mention low-income families trying to provide a better education for their children—were actually the ones being bullied?

That just may be the case in Louisiana. 

Despite a state appeals court ruling 2-1 to uphold the decision by the lower court to let the voucher program continue, the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE) apparently wasn’t satisfied.

So they threatened to sue.  Since they are already suing the state for passing a sweeping statewide expansion of the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program—which allows children from low-income families attending failing schools to access an education at the school of their parents’ choice—the LAE is threatening to sue schools for accepting the scholarship money that helps children access a high-quality education.

Why threaten participating schools?

According to LAE attorney Brian Blackwell:

"The real concern is with the schools that paltry financial resources and then who receive the money and then spend it will not have the ability to repay it if the program ultimately is declared unconstitutional."

So it’s not about children; it’s about money.

And LAE President Joyce Haynes reiterated the importance of stopping funding  from following the child, when she said “we deserve that money so we can have better public schools.”

NJ Teachers Union Uses Money, Words to Fight Against Reform

NJEA Executive Director Vincent Giordano.

Last month, the leader of the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) dismissed the plight of students from low-income families. Today, the Associated Press reports another interesting bit of news about that same union: they spent more money than anyone else in New Jersey last year to block students from receiving the much-needed educated reforms they deserve.

At School Choice Now!, we stand for educational options for all students, with a particular focus on ensuring that students from low-income families have a chance to attend a school—public or private—that will give them the best chance to succeed.

NJEA Executive Director Vincent Giordano may be comfortable saying “Life’s not always fair” to families across the Garden State desperate for high-quality options, but we’re not.  And we’re pretty sure that teachers, who work tirelessly in public and private schools all across the country to educate our kids, wouldn’t take too kindly to that dismissive attitude, either.

Today's AP story reports that the NJEA spent $11.3 million lobbying in 2011.  To be specific, they spent that money fighting against a host of education reforms across the state, among them the Opportunity Scholarship Act. The bill, which would create a scholarship tax credit program that would serve children attending schools in the state's poorest-performing districts, has bipartisan support in both the State Senate and Assembly.

Let's be clear—that $11.3 million is not just tops among education groups in the state. It's more than any group has ever spent in a single year in the history of the state.

A total $10.8 million—more than 90 percent—of that total was spent on advertising, a significant increase over the previous record of $6.6 million. Those ads were aimed at stopping the agenda put forth by Governor Chris Christie, which included a robust education reform package, including passing of the OSA for low-income families.  They used that money for billboards, television, radio and Internet ads, and a banner plane. Is that really the best way to spend money?

Maybe the teachers union can put that money toward better use, like helping teachers or students—two groups the union purports to represent and help.

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MSG

Governor Christie Brews up talk on school vouchers on MSNBC’s Morning Joe

The folks over at MSNBC's Morning Joe traveled to Fort Lee High School in New Jersey to brew up conversation on education reform in the Garden State. Among the guests was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was characteristically passionate in his discussion of school choice and education reform. He even gave a shout out to the Opportunity Scholarship Act (OSA), which he—along with many Democrats—support.  In fact, he even predicted that the scholarship tax credit program would become law this year!

Christie has made education reform a centerpiece of his agenda during his first two years in office. The OSA would offer students from low-income families in the state's worst-performing school districts the chance to attend a great school via scholarships given out thanks to generous donors who would, in turn, receive a tax credit for their donation. 

But even with strong bipartisan support in both the Assembly and the Senate, the bill has yet to receive a vote. That's because the opposition to private school choice is strong and carries a great deal of influence, as the governor pointed out this morning:

[Unions] have made it very clear to me and to the legislature that [vouchers are] an unacceptable alternative and they will fight in every way they can. All vouchers of any kind: limited program, a pilot program of any kind. No chance.  That’s what they’ve said.

But don't just take Governor Christie's words for it. Read about what the head of the state's largest teachers union said himself last month.

The Chicago Teachers Union President's Sad, Embarrassing Rant

A truly unfortunate video that's been making the rounds today shines a light on some terrible tactics used by special interest leaders out there who fight to maintain the status quo in their opposition to school choice and other education reforms.

Oftentimes, reform opponents have legitimate concerns with voucher and scholarship tax credit programs.

Other times, they're only out to launch public and proud attacks against others.

It was the latter case last month in Seattle, where the president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), Karen Lewis, engaged in an absolutely embarrassing, childish, and despicable rant at an event that was supposed to be about social justice.

But when you hear what Lewis has to say, you'll realize that there's nothing justified—or dignified—about any of it.

Watch the video below, posted by the Education Action Group, to see four minutes that feature attacks the on everyone from the president to the education secretary to kids with speech impediments (and keep in mind that there's some inappropriate subject matter, so view accordingly).

Bureaucratic Bullying in Arizona

Earlier this year, teachers unions and the education establishment jumped on the anti-bullying bandwagon with gusto, and for good reason. The rationale behind the anti-bullying movement is rational: making sure that children and their parents are safe, secure, comfortable, and free to learn. It's hard to disagree with the sentiment, right?

But this week, the unions themselves became the bullies, in a big way.

In Arizona, the teacher-funded Arizona Education Association (AEA) and the taxpayer-funded Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA) filed a lawsuit to remove more than 100 children with special needs from the private schools of their parents' choice.

What did these children with special needs do to deserve a lawsuit? Their parents decided to apply for an Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA), allowing them to tap into their own tax dollars to send their children to private schools (or other educational settings) that best meet their children's needs. ESAs are "outplacements," the process by which school district officials send children with disabilities to receive services from qualified private providers. Except with ESAs, parents—not bureaucrats—select the outplacement. And so, given their top-down mentality about educating kids, and their fear of empowered parents, the AEA and the ASBA filed suit to strip these families of their rights.

Indiana Lawsuit Ruling Doesn't Mean Resting on Our Laurels

We told you earlier this week about an Indiana judge's decision not to block the state's new voucher program, which is a great victory for the nearly 3,000 Hoosier state kids who have signed up for the program thus far.

But it's very much worth noting that the ruling was only temporary, and there could be ongoing legal wranglings that will continue to jeopardize not just the program's current students but its future prospects, as well. (The program is set for expansion each of the next two years, ultimately becoming uncapped beginning with the 2013-14 school year.)

One local news station in Indiana asked the fundamental question that should be (but unfortunately isn't for opponents of the program) at the core of the decision whether to continue with the lawsuit:

"If voucher opponents prevail, what will happen to kids who start the year in a private school?"

Common Ground In A Most Uncommon Pair of Sources

A leader of a very prominent education organization was recently quoted in a widely-read newspaper in one of America's most well-known cities about alternative learning styles. A former teacher himself, he made a claim with which we couldn't agree more:

"Everybody doesn't learn at the same pace."

And then there's this:

 To suggest that all kids are able to learn using only one medium wasn't realistic years ago, and we don't function that way today.

Can you guess who made those statements? The former comes from National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel, and the latter from Heidi Glidden, the assistant director in the education issues department for the American Federation of Teachers. We rarely see eye-to-eye with the nation's two biggest teachers unions on education reform issues (in large part because we're proposing reforms and the NEA is just now coming around to including student performance in teacher evaluations), but on this point, both spokespeople are right on the money.

The comments came in a story about Khan Academy in The Washington Post. Khan isn't exactly a school, but instead it's an expansive, nonprofit online resource that serves as a supplement to education in the traditional classroom setting. Using the web site, kids can get basic tutorials in a host of subjects at their own pace, whenever they need them, and in a way that can be catered to their specific needs.

Pro-Reform Does Not Mean Anti-Teacher

Legendary teacher Annie Sullivan and ed reformer Geoffrey Canada.

Broad strokes work wonders as a rallying cry or to stir the emotions of a constituency, but they're less useful when it comes to accurately communicating the facts.

Such were the circumstances this weekend, as a few thousand teachers and other public school advocates descended upon the nation's capital to march in a "Save Our Schools" rally that aimed to, according to those in attendance, "put the 'public' back in 'public schools.'" Attendees were there to voice their opposition to a host of reforms—the growing emphasis on testing, No Child Left behind, attempts at teacher tenure reform, charter schools, and vouchers—just to name a few.

They were quick to paint a picture of an education reform movement as entirely anti-teacher, something that we here at the American Federation for Children know couldn't be farther from the truth. While there has been emphasis (especially recently) in some parts of the reform movement to tackle things like teacher tenure, merit pay and the so-called "dance of the lemons," we couldn't be stronger advocates for high-quality teachers, of which there are many. Some of us are the sons and daughters of public school teachers, and every single one of us recognizes that great teachers are some of the most important—and most under-appreciated—group of American workers that exist today.

Indiana Lawsuit Again Proves That Special Interests Are Out of Touch

Indiana's sweeping school voucher program became law on Friday, and the powerful special interests out to block the program wasted little time in standing up for the status quo. The Indiana State Teachers' Association (ISTA), along with the National Education Association (NEA), filed suit against the program Friday morning, claiming that it's unconstitutional.

It's a refrain we've heard before from opponents of educational options, but it's becoming more and more clear that school choice opponents are beginning to get their own forms of opposition confused. Are they opposing the program because of claims that it violates separation of church and state, despite the fact that no public dollars are directly going to any institution, non-secular or otherwise (instead, they go to parents; that's the crux of choice)? Or are they against vouchers because they claim that choice will hurt public schools? The video below details that flawed argument. (In fact, the program will actually save Indiana taxpayers substantial dollars. See a comprehensive report of school choice savings here.)

Where, Oh Where, Has the Old NAACP Gone?

There's not much worse than watching an institution that has so frequently been on the right side of history so clearly lose its way. Unfortunately, the NAACP has done just that, and the outcry has been—rightly—loud and clear.

The group's New York chapter has been in the news after it joined a lawsuit with the United Federation of Teachers to stop the closure of almost a half-dozen failing public schools and prevent charter schools from operating in buildings used by traditional public schools.

In sum, they've chosen to protect a status quo that hurts low-income children, instead of fighting against it, as they usually do.

Our own Kevin P. Chavous very eloquently questions the logic of the civil rights organization, and he's not alone—not by a long shot. In addition to his recent op-ed piece, there's been a deluge of articles written by education reformers across the political, geographical, and ideological education reform spectrum, all asking one simple question: why is the NAACP fighting against those it has for decades worked so hard to protect?

Take a look at just a smattering of the pieces written on the subject in recent days.