Tag: fordham institute

Run Away from ‘Common’ Education Standards

By
Neal McCluskey

A couple of days ago, Fordham Institute president Chester Finn declared on NRO that conservatives should embrace new, national education standards from the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Today I respond to him on The Corner, and let’s just say it’s clear that neither conservatives, nor anybody else, should embrace national standards.

Oh, one more thing: I shouldn’t have to keep saying this to savvy Washington insiders like the folks at Fordham, but when the federal government bribes states with their own citizens’ tax money to do something, doing that thing is hardly voluntary, at least in any reasonable sense. 

For more wise thoughts on the national standards issue, check out this interview with Jay Greene, and this Sacramento Bee piece by Ben Boychuk.  Oh, and this interview with yours truly.

Topics: 
Education and Child Policy, General

The Paucity of Poor Kids in Many Public Schools

By
Andrew J. Coulson

There’s a widespread belief that public schools are homogeneous and all inclusive while private schools are bastions of the elite. This was proven to be a myth decades ago by the renowned sociologist James Coleman, and as far as I know, that pattern of findings hasn’t changed in recent years.

Nevertheless, the myth continues. A new Fordham Institute paper provides a partial antidote, pointing out that quite a few public schools enroll virtually no low-income kids, making them bastions of the elite. Where the Fordham paper trips up a bit is in calling these elite public schools “private public schools.” As already noted above, private schools are, on average, better economically integrated than their government counterparts, so this phrase is exactly backwards and, as Sara Mead points out, is quite a slap in the face to the many private schools that do yeoman’s work serving large numbers of low-income students. Still, good to have folks taking note of these data.

Topics: 
Education and Child Policy

National Standards Defector

By
Neal McCluskey

Liam Julian used to work for the Evil Empire: the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, leader of the freedom-crushing, national-curricular-standards movement. (Actually, Fordham’s not really evil, supporting much school choice, but I’m determined to use this metaphor.) But in grand, Soviet-dissident style, Julian has turned against his former masters. The co-editor of Fordham’s 2006 report To Dream the Impossible Dream: Four Approaches to National Standards and Tests for America’s Schools, Julian has since become the managing editor at Policy Review, and in a recent Weekly Standard article made clear that he’s seen the light on national standards. Sounding a lot like, well, me, Julian wrote:

America’s current system of state-based educational standards isn’t great–far from it. But the very factors that contribute to the shoddiness of so many state standards are compounded at the national level, where every interest group from the textbook manufacturers to the national teachers’ unions to the Springfield Elementary School Herodotus Society will want to have its say.

Needless to say, this turn of events hasn’t made the Fordham folks very happy. But sooner or later, just like communism, an idea clearly divorced from reality simply cannot be sustained.

And so I say: Welcome to the (educationally) free world, Liam Julian! We’re glad to have you with us!

Topics: 
Education and Child Policy

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