We have previously noted on this blog that pre-k programs in other states have failed in their supposed goal of improving lasting educational attainment for children. Yesterday, Richard P. Boyle, Ph.D. of UNM’s Institute for Social Research, confirmed this in an opinion piece which appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. The conclusion reached by Dr. Boyle [...]

While education is not at the top of the legislative agenda this year, it is never far from the minds of politicians and those of us who are concerned about out-of-control budgets. That is why the Rio Grande Foundation is supporting the idea of education tax credits. Recently an opinion piece I wrote appeared in [...]

Today’s Albuquerque Journal included a column from Kathy Chavez, President of an organization called Albuquerque the Educational Assistants Association. The organization even has a website here. Essentially, Chavez argues that while teachers and principals have received salary increases of 20 percent to 40 percent over the last three year, “classified employees,” that is, those who [...]

The Rio Grande Foundation recently hosted Trish Wilger, Executive Director of the school choice organization Iowa ACE. Iowa’s education tax credit program was signed in 2006 by then-Democratic Governor Tom Vilsack. During her time in New Mexico, Wilger and I met with legislators in an effort to educate them on the issue of education tax [...]

The Cato Institute has published an outstanding new paper (link is to executive summary) on the potential for education tax credits to provide greater choice in public education. Among other points, the paper argues that tax credits enjoy practical, legal, and political advantages over school vouchers. Tax credits, not vouchers, are a viable option here [...]

Leonard Pitts is a relatively left-of-center columnist who is often picked up in various geographically-specific editions of the Albuquerque Journal. While I don’t agree with him often, a recent story he wrote on what works in education caught my eye. In his story, Pitts praises charter schools and specifically the additional discipline and time in [...]

While the case can easily be made that the Albuquerque Public Schools are broken beyond repair and that we should simply start over with heavy doses of school choice, that is a tough, long-term struggle. In the more immediate future, the system is faced with a decision to make over who should lead the school [...]

Utah voters on Tuesday face the most important choice on the ballot anywhere in the nation this year. The issue is whether parents and children should receive any of their tax money back when they opt out of government-run schools or whether their choices are limited to just those schools that are indeed run by [...]

According to a new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University studies high school dropout rates and terms schools that graduate no more than 6 in 10 of incoming freshman a “dropout factory” that is failing far too many students. According to an article about the study in the Albuquerque Journal, the New Mexico Public [...]

Increasing federal control over education policy as occurred under No Child Left Behind was never a good idea. For one thing, it gives lobbyists a central location enabling them to force states to purchase their products. In this instance, our own Sen. Jeff Bingaman is taking a lead role. Tim Carney writes about it in [...]