Real Change, by Rep. Newt Gingrich (R, GA): on Education
Arne Duncan:
2009: No new students into DC voucher program
The current fight in Washington, D.C. is between parents, who want to continue to have the choice of effective private schools with a coupon from the government, and the unionized bureaucracy, which is insisting on forcing the children back into failing
government schools. Virtually all the parents who want to keep getting government coupons are African American. Yet Democrats in Congress are trying to kill the program in order to appease school union bureaucrats. In fact, even before Congress could end
the program, in April 2009 Education Secretary Arne Duncan decided not to admit any new students to the D.C. voucher program. Two hundred low-income families received notice that their children's scholarships were being rescinded due to Duncan's decision
It seems to matter little to those defending the status quo when poor families are being cheated. The political power of the cheaters is simply too great for the poor and their allies to take on.
Source: Real Change, by Newt Gingrich, p. 59
Dec 18, 2007
Newt Gingrich:
More learning options: community college-run charter schools
The Detroit school bureaucracy is a particularly tragic example of the human cost of protecting unionized bureaucracy at the expense of serving the public. Only 22% of entering high school freshmen in the Detroit public school system graduate on time. Th
national average is about 70 %.Consider also that the Detroit public school system will spend $7,469 per pupil. The Detroit school system doesn't fail for lack of money. They fail because success if not the priority. If you measure the Detroit system
by whether the checks arrive for the bureaucrats each month no matter how badly they are doing, then it has 100% success rate.
The young people of Detroit need more learning options, but government stands in their way. Michigan community colleges, for
example, are prevented by state law from chartering schools in city districts. A charter school is simply a public school freed from the bureaucracy's rules and willing to hold itself accountable for producing results. And guess what? They work.
Source: Real Change, by Newt Gingrich, p. 51-53
Dec 18, 2007
Newt Gingrich:
Offer coupons to send kids to schools that work best
There is ample evidence of what works in education, but the bureaucracies have systematically ignored all of it. Innovations that work include merit-based pay, increasing teacher-student ratios, revamping union rules to reward the best teachers, bonuses
and incentives for new teachers, charter schools, ad offering parents a coupon giving them the opportunity to send their children to the school that works best for them. I've even suggested rewarding student in the poorest neighborhoods by paying them if
they get a B or better in math and science. But real change requires real change, not new rhetoric while doing more o the same old thing. Propping up the failed past at the expense of future generations leads to prison and poverty for too many of our
children.
In city after city across the country, education bureaucrats and unions make it quite clear that they put the union's interests ahead of the children.
Source: Real Change, by Newt Gingrich, p. 57-58
Dec 18, 2007
Page last updated: Feb 21, 2019