The Choice Channel

Boys have trailed girls in most indices of academic performance for at least two decades. In recent years, boys’ educational struggles have finally been acknowledged and explored in the mainstream media. This has resulted in an unfortunate backlash from misguided women’s advocates. The latest example of these advocates’ efforts to minimize or deny the boy crisis in education is the American Association of University Women’s highly-publicized new report “Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education.”

The AAUW says its report “debunks the myth of a ‘boys crisis’ in education,” but the study provides little evidence to support this contention. According to the Report’s own data, girls get much better grades than boys, are far more likely to graduate college, and are on the good side of a longstanding “literacy gap.”

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“The tax code has always allowed various deductions and credits for investment in physical capital. But there have been few incentives to make comparable investments in human capital - expanding the productive capacity of human beings. In a step toward rectifying this discrepancy, the tax law passed last summer allows a child’s parents or others to set up an education savings account (ESA) to help pay tuition and other expenses at a public or private college. While contributions to ESAs are not tax-deductible, the interest earned accumulates tax free and withdrawals for education expenses are not taxed.” (10/97)

“High schools and colleges are steering students away from cars to save money on gas, save the environment and promote physical fitness. This fall, Ripon College in Ripon, Wis., is offering freshmen free mountain bikes, helmets and locks in exchange for a promise not to bring a car to campus. The $300-per-student cost is funded by private donations. The college’s president, David Joyce, says the project was meant to avoid building a parking garage, but its side effects are beneficial: less pollution, more exercise and savings on gas.” (08/07/08)

“Maybe kids do know best. For a social studies project this year, fifth-graders at Little Village Academy plotted a cost-free way to counter the guns and gangs that plague their neighborhood: They asked parents to volunteer to lead after-school programs in drawing, painting, handcrafts, dancing, sports, cheerleading and chess. … The physical, social and artistic outlets kids urged are among the coping mechanisms experts recommend for those touched by violence. Similar activities are used with children in war-torn countries.” (08/07/08)

“The road to a college education in America is paved with good grades and hard work. But it also takes money and knowing how to navigate a complex admissions route – two factors that have contributed to poor students’ underrepresentation on many campuses. About 50 percent of low-income students enroll in college right after high school, compared with 80 percent of high-income students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.” (08/06/08)

“In the 1990s, a number of universities got into the business of running charter schools, with compelling plans to match the vast intellectual resources of their faculty with the educational and social service needs of impoverished communities. A decade in, the University of South Florida has given up the ghost.” (08/07/08)

“The implications for governments and communities are wide-ranging, demographers said. As the current crop of youngsters reaches kindergarten age, school systems that would otherwise be losing students will continue to grow or remain stable. They will also need to accommodate an ever-larger number of students who were raised in immigrant households where English was not spoken. In addition, although most Hispanic children younger than 5 are native-born U.S. citizens and therefore eligible for government health care and other benefits, research indicates that if their parents are not U.S. citizens, they will be less likely to claim assistance, said Michael Fix, director of studies at the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute.” (08/07/08)

“It’s time for schools to reward good teachers the way private companies reward good workers: by letting their senior managers — the school principals — decide who’s doing the best job and divvy out the cash. This year, Utah schools and teachers are experimenting with merit pay. Each school district and charter school will develop its own plan for allocating the $20 million the Legislature has authorized statewide. Merit pay is plainly a good idea for schools. For too long, actual performance in the classroom has been a non-factor in teachers’ salary scales.” (08/07/08)

“The debate about using public money for vouchers at private schools tends to dominate the school choice issue. Yet vouchers are merely one means of expanding choice. Educational choice also is enhanced within the public system by charter schools, magnet schools and transfer policies that allow students stuck in long-struggling schools to move to schools delivering much better academic results.” (08/07/08)

“In a matter of weeks, the Los Angeles Unified School District embarks on an unpredictable but carefully manipulated course as the charter school movement’s golden boy, Steve Barr, and his handpicked, self-appointed Green Dot clique try to operate Locke High School during the regular school year. That idyllic summer school environment Steve Lopez described in his July 23 column won’t be there come September. Despite the wishful thinking of Lopez and The Times editorial board, turning a large and tumultuous school over to educational upstarts who shill for powerful forces hostile to public education is not the solution to the academic disaster that was Locke.” (08/07/08)

“I decided to write this article to let our Westchase neighbors know about an amazing school right here in Tampa for children with all sorts of disabilities. My son has Asperger’s syndrome and for the first six years of school it was a full-time job just helping the teachers and my son through the day. Westchase Elementary and Davidson Middle School went above and beyond to help us. However, in my opinion, these schools are not equipped to handle these types of students properly.” (08/08/08)

“One of the most controversial federal education programs even implemented continues to generate controversy. Most of it, however, is lopsided. Lawmakers, educators and parents alike are all want to issue a big, red ‘F’ to the No Child Left Behind Act, anxious to return the big, red ‘F’ NCLB seems destined to lay on every school in America. Passed by Congress in 2002, NCLB’s intent is good. It is supposed to bring all students in the nation to a level of proficiency in math, science and reading by 2014.” (08/07/08)