It’s Time to Rethink How We Fund Public Education
It’s quite clear that we’re facing a series of fights over who gets the dwindling pot of public money in...
Is This the New Normal?
Oh, for the halcyon days when parents had to sue to get their children access to virtual education in Missouri....
Like Oil and Water
Talking about school choice in Missouri often feels hopeless. A common attack on school choice efforts in Missouri is “Most...
It’s Listicle Time!
The end of the year is the time for top-ten lists, top-story lists, and best-moments-of-the-year lists, to name a few....
The End of History as We (No Longer) Know It : A New Year’s Day Reflection
Imagine you are in a car accident on New Year’s Eve. Like Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity, you wake...
Stubbornness on School Choice Comes at a Price
Last week, Missouri got its latest grades on “The Nation’s Report Card,” (an assessment given to public-school 4th- and 8th-graders...
Missouri’s Report Card and ESSA Requirements
Event Details: Missouri has spent more than $6 billion in 2019 on public education. Do we know what we are...
The Achievement Gap for Low-income Students Continues into College
Recent research shows that there is a gap in academic achievement between lower- and upper-class students by as much as...
Asleep at the Wheel or Self-Driving Car?
The breathless headline asserting the United States has “wasted” up to $1 billion on charter schools is an eye-catcher. That...
There Is Not a Teacher Retention Crisis in Missouri
I wasn’t able to attend the recent meeting for the Missouri State Board of Education, but from what I can...
New Year’s Resolutions for DESE
The holidays are upon us, and now that we have a quorum on the state board of education and a...
So Glad You Could Join Us . . .
It’s hard to see the chalkboard from the back of the class. When you’re not even in the room, it’s...
Like a Sore Thumb: Missouri’s Testing Standards Buck National Trend
Marching to the beat of your own drummer is all good and well as long as you know where you’re...
I Don’t Think We’ll Be Making the Honor Roll
The results are in, and they’re not great. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education released the Nation’s Report Card,...
Think Parents Won’t Get the Information They Need To Choose Between Schools? Think Again.
A common concern about school choice is that parents, especially low-income parents, will not have enough information to pick the...
Education Department to Revisit Title IX Guidelines for Sexual Assault Investigations
On Friday, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rescinded a “Dear Colleague” letter that the Obama administration had issued in 2011...
The Washington Post and St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A Study in Contrasts
Both the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Washington Post editorial boards published pieces this weekend concerning the findings of a new...
Repealing a Mountain of Regulation with This One Simple Trick
Last week, the U.S. Senate voted 50-49 to strike hundreds of pages of regulations drafted by the Department of Education...
They Fought the Feds, and the Feds Lost!
Pop quiz time: Who said the following in response to the Obama Administration’s 2009 Race to the Top Program? “The...
A Well Intentioned Disaster: A Presentation on the Merits of Common Core State Standards
The following is taken from a presentation given by Show-Me Institute Distinguished Fellow of Education Policy James Shuls on February...
