For many years now the Chicago Tribune editorial board has been a little goofy. One day they’re left, one day they’re right, another day they’re incoherent. Today, I mostly agree with them, though don’t ask me how we’re ever going to see improvement in education when people like the Tribune-endorsed Barack Obama gets reelected.
I’ll say it again: it’s time for educational liberty.
Here are a couple of excerpts from the Trib editorial:
Illinois got its report card last week. The state’s K-12 public education system earned a dismal C-, according to education advocacy group Advance Illinois. That’s a slight improvement from the D earned in 2010. That uptick came mainly because researchers graded states on the curve and some states slipped.
Academic performance has been flat for much of the last decade. “The world is passing us by … our schools are not getting the majority of students where they need to go. Not only do we not keep pace with other states, we are losing ground with other nations,” Advance Illinois says in the report, “The State We’re in.”
[…]
The poor track record of the last decade argues for even more aggressive efforts to move beyond the education status quo. That includes a faster expansion of charter schools. That includes reviving the drive in Springfield to create a tuition support program that allows students in the lowest-performing public schools to choose a private school.
