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new education report released Friday by the Heritage Foundation, an influential right-wing think tank, ranks Florida as the best state in the country for "education freedom," with Arizona a close second, and Washington, D.C., New York and most of the Northeast falling to the bottom.
That claim, along with the fact that the list's top 20 states are mostly deep "red" and its bottom 10 are almost all dark "blue," might come as a surprise to education watchers who are familiar with more traditional assessments of education performance. But in the Heritage Foundation's inaugural "Education Freedom Report Card," the think tank is grading according to a different metric entirely: not things like average student funding, teacher salary or classroom size, but how easily state legislatures enable students to leave public schools; how lightly private schools and homeschooling are regulated; how active and welcome conservative parent-advocacy groups are; and how frequently or loudly those groups claim that schools are indoctrinating students.
Florida's Department of Education was quick to celebrate its No. 1 Heritage ranking, but digging into the four main categories the report assessed — "school choice," "regulatory freedom," "transparency" and "return on investment" — illuminates both what that ranking means and, perhaps more important, what conservatives' long-term goals for public education are.
www.salon.com
That claim, along with the fact that the list's top 20 states are mostly deep "red" and its bottom 10 are almost all dark "blue," might come as a surprise to education watchers who are familiar with more traditional assessments of education performance. But in the Heritage Foundation's inaugural "Education Freedom Report Card," the think tank is grading according to a different metric entirely: not things like average student funding, teacher salary or classroom size, but how easily state legislatures enable students to leave public schools; how lightly private schools and homeschooling are regulated; how active and welcome conservative parent-advocacy groups are; and how frequently or loudly those groups claim that schools are indoctrinating students.
Florida's Department of Education was quick to celebrate its No. 1 Heritage ranking, but digging into the four main categories the report assessed — "school choice," "regulatory freedom," "transparency" and "return on investment" — illuminates both what that ranking means and, perhaps more important, what conservatives' long-term goals for public education are.
Florida ranked No. 1 in "education freedom" — by right-wing think tank
Heritage Foundation report praises Florida, Arizona for big steps toward deregulating and privatizing schools
www.salon.com
