Proponents created public charter schools, in part, to use them to incubate new educational approaches, then replicate the successes. Charters started in Minnesota about 20 years ago, and today there are thousands of them with nearly a million students nationwide. But not nearly enough of the highest-quality programs have been emulated. For a variety of reasons, few schools have used the best cha... Read more »
Despite facing broad opposition from the education stakeholders, elected officials, and the federal court system, the Obama administration is moving forward with a so-called gainful employment regulation that will harm low-income students and threaten the strength of our higher education system. In their zeal to gin up public support for its misguided regulatory proposal, the administration is ci... Read more »
By Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Representatives John Kline (R-MN) and Phil Roe (R-TN) The president is waging a public-relations campaign about income inequality in this country, but rather than focus on growing the economy and encouraging businesses to hire, this administration has fallen back on stale, bankrupt ideas that don’t help workers achieve more. The latest is a rule proposed by t... Read more »
President Obama last week asked Joe Biden to lead "an across-the-board reform" of federal job training that roots out ineffective and redundant programs. It's nice to hear the President admit that some government programs are wasteful, and if he's serious the spadework has already been done. Job-training programs originated during the New Deal, expanded under the Great Society and have continued ... Read more »
President Obama treats limits on executive power like college students treat the 21-year drinking age, and judging from oral arguments Monday the Supreme Court may respond by limiting his driving privileges. The vote may even be 9-0 that a President can't tell Congress when it is in recess so he can shred the Senate's power to offer "advice and consent" on his nominees. That's our reading of Mond... Read more »
By Bob Kerrey and Jeffrey T. Leeds Virtually all middle-class jobs now require postsecondary skills and credentials. Yet as many middle- and lower-income families and students adjust to the reality that college has become a necessity rather than a luxury, the luxury price tag that college commands is less and less affordable. Many students need to take on large amounts of debt, and these loans of... Read more »
The Obama administration may have an early Christmas gift for their Big Labor friends. In recent months union leaders have repeatedly voiced their concerns with President Obama’s health care law. At a September convention in Los Angeles, members of the AFL-CIO approved a resolution describing the health care law as “highly disruptive” to multiemployer health care plans. The Obama administration f... Read more »
President Obama has intoned "if you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan" hundreds if not thousands of times. Sometimes he has even added that "no one will take it away, no matter what" or "nothing will change, period." But now that reality is repudiating the President's unequivocal promise, Democrats want you to know that there was always a secret footnote: If you're losing a hea... Read more »
By Chairmen Fred Upton, John Kline, and Dave Camp After more than three years and billions of taxpayer dollars, President Obama’s health care exchanges are scheduled to open for business this week, but don’t expect much fanfare out of the administration. Although the president insists that everything is “working the way it’s supposed to,” a former HHS official has already warned that we will see ... Read more »
As more unions express frustration with the president’s health care law, the Obama administration went to great lengths to silence the concerns of one major national union. In Los Angeles, the AFL-CIO has endorsed a resolution critical of ObamaCare. In the article below, The Hill reports the White House and at least one top administration official called unions leaders “expressing a desire that [t... Read more »
