National school voucher program passed

I don't know how I missed this story.

Actually, I do know how I missed it. It was attached to a defense appropriations bill and passed right before Christmas. I am disgusted.

My sentiments exactly

In his column today, Jay Mathews writes:

"In this new year for charter schools, we will be seeing more studies of average charter school results vs. average regular school results, each interpreted in a different way, each used to reach some political conclusion. I would prefer to keep visiting the schools themselves, in person when I can, or through good books like these when possible. Nearly every charter school is guided by experienced teachers' hard-won knowledge of something that works. They don't all get it right, but put the best parts together and we may get something we like."

Learning Chinese in Oregon

Very interesting article in the Washington Post today about a Mandarin dual-language program in Portland. The program, which is federally funded, starts in elementary school and eventually offers college scholarships for students to take classes in Chinese. It seems like a great idea to teach kids about another part of the world and get them ready to work in a globalized economy, and evidently the parents there agree - more and more non-Asian parents are signing up and there was a waiting list this year for the first time. It will be interesting to see if programs like these help kids do better in school.