Education
May 14, 2013
We are being told these are exciting days for education in Minnesota. For the first time in better than two decades DFLers control both houses of the legislature and the governor's chair. The spigots have finally been pried open, and the dollars are about to flow. What could be more exciting than that? Plenty.
May 7, 2013
Sunday’s Opinion section in the Star Tribune had a lot to like as well as not like, including in the first category Senior Fellow Kathy Kersten’s decisive column about Minnesota’s overspending and overtaxing ways. If you haven’t read “Someone’s Got to Pay for All That Spending” you can do so here.
Mar 27, 2013
Here’s a sampling of very good books that have shaped some of my own writing over the years. Other than broad themes of poverty and education, what might their common denominator be?
Losing Ground, by Charles Murray
The Tragedy of American Compassion, by Marvin Olasky
Work over Welfare, by Ron Haskins
The War Against Boys, by Christina Hoff Sommers
Troublemaker, by Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Mar 15, 2013
Testimony of Katherine Kersten on S.F. 783—“The Safe and Supportive Schools Act”—before the Minnesota Senate Judiciary Committee
March 15, 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that the Constitution protects freedom of speech for students in public schools. As the Court declared in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District in 1969, it “has been the unmistakeable holding of this court for almost 50 years” that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
Mar 9, 2013
Testimony of Katherine Kersten on the proposed “Safe and Supportive Schools Act” (H.F. 826) before the Education Policy Committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives on February 28, 2013
Mar 8, 2013
It’s more than fair and accurate to say educators, politicians and others on the left have had much more to do in conceiving educational policy and running inner-city schools than have educators, politicians and others of the right over the last two generations and more. And how have low-income and minority boys and girls fared over this lengthy and pivotal period? The only fair and accurate answer is terribly.
Feb 25, 2013
Two different school systems have two very different ethical foundations for financing.
Feb 10, 2013
Excitement over new early childhood education initiatives is building at the State Capitol. No wonder. After years of frustration and failure in trying to shrink our state's yawning K-12 racial and income achievement gap, there's hope that we may have found a new, and simpler, route to success.
Feb 6, 2013
As part of National School Choice Week 2013, American Experiment, in association with other members of the Minnesota School Choice Coalition, hosted Prof. Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas for a series of programs making the clear-cut case for educational freedom in general and vouchers in particular.
Jan 28, 2013
Back in 1991, my home state of Minnesota was a national leader in promoting the progressive reform of parental school choice. The Star of the North had begun allowing parents to claim a state income tax deduction for school expenses, including tuition at private schools, in 1955. In the 1980s, it pioneered the concept of public-school choice through open enrollment. In 1991, St. Paul became home to the nation's first public charter school.