The Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO)
The Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO) is a federal safeguard created under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which ensures...
Missouri Families Need the “Unsafe School Choice Option”
A version of the following commentary appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. When asked why they want school choice, families often...
Children Have a Right to a Safe Place to Learn
The U.S. Department of Education recently reminded states that under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), students must be given...
How Much Does Your Local Public School Spend?
It comes as a surprise to most people who don’t follow education policy closely that we have never really known...
Highest and Lowest Spending Schools in the St. Louis Area
When Congress updated No Child Left Behind (NCLB) with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, many hailed the...
Why Can’t Missouri Be Like . . . Illinois?
Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released its school report cards earlier this year in an attempt to...
Missouri’s Report Card and ESSA Requirements
Event Details: Missouri has spent more than $6 billion in 2019 on public education. Do we know what we are...
New Year’s Resolutions for DESE
The holidays are upon us, and now that we have a quorum on the state board of education and a...
Charter Schools: The Education Opportunity Hidden in Plain Sight
By next week, the Missouri State Board of Education should be up and running again. They’ve got plenty of business...
What’s Going On with High School Graduation Rates in Missouri?
If you google “What is the value of a high school diploma?” you get some pretty inspiring results: “Though it...
A Closer Look at Accreditation
In Missouri, it can be big news when a school district earns (or fails to earn) accreditation. Judging by the...
State ESSA Plan Offers Opportunity for Course Access
Earlier this month the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released a draft of its plan to comply with the...
Different Paths to Course Access
Course Access is a hot topic in Missouri right now. Both the governor and legislature have made it a priority,...
Repealing a Mountain of Regulation with This One Simple Trick
Last week, the U.S. Senate voted 50-49 to strike hundreds of pages of regulations drafted by the Department of Education...
Local Control in Education, Properly Understood
If you head West on I-70, past the inner-ring suburbs of St. Louis and over the Missouri river, you’ll happen...
No Child Left Behind Has One Foot in the Grave
After the pigs got clearing for takeoff and the weather reports from Hell came back with a temperature below 32...
No Child Left Behind the Times
Technology has given us some amazing things over the years, but you don’t see people using VHS and cassette tapes...
