In Delaware our education debates have generally centered on the idea that access to a high-quality education is either being improved or damaged by charters, choice, and the Neighborhood Schools Act. This is unfortunate in one sense because it detracts attention from what is actually occurring in our classrooms, and despite legions of data coaches and PLCs, we really don't know. This is also true on a nationwide basis. In the areas about which there is significant study, however, there are some extremely disquieting things happening. Take the coverage of evolution in our high-school Biology classes, for example . . . .

No matter how we may sometimes differ ideologically (and we've had our dogfights), Libertarian Republican's Eric Dondero runs one of the best blogs out there in terms of branding, consistency, appearance, and timeliness. So I'm exceptionally pleased that LR picked up my post on the US Army's push toward new, politically correct grooming standards , and would like to welcome any LR readers who might come over to poke around. Different take on a lot of issues, significant local content, but I hope you'll find enough of interest to stick around.

This . Oh, and this .

Lots of sound and fury both from choice/charter supporters and detractors over the past few weeks in the Delaware blogosphere . . . Lots of people raising interesting personal, ideologically based theories on both sides . . . And an astounding absence of real data on important questions. Here's one of the things we really need to know, in order to resolve the charter school/school choice controversy: Has choice and charter created harm? Harm would be hereby defined as a reduction in the educational outcomes of those students within the traditional public school system who have not had access to charter schools or have not been able to/chosen to utilize choice to find a more preferred school. Harm would be determined by going back to the period, say 1985-1995, to determine how well the minority/low-income students were doing before  choice/charter, and compare that to how well those students are doing now. The problems? 1--DOE does not keep those stats currently (eve...

. . . and to be honest, I really don't give a crap about how this will affect intelligence-gathering in the war on terror or the war against drugs or the war for IRS dunning of delinquents.  Not a bit: Nicholas Merrill is planning to revolutionize online privacy with a concept as simple as it is ingenious: a telecommunications provider designed from its inception to shield its customers from surveillance. Merrill, 39, who previously ran a New York-based Internet provider, told CNET that he's raising funds to launch a national "non-profit telecommunications provider dedicated to privacy, using ubiquitous encryption" that will sell mobile phone service and, for as little as $20 a month, Internet connectivity. The ISP would not merely employ every technological means at its disposal, including encryption and limited logging, to protect its customers. It would also -- and in practice this is likely more important -- challenge government surveillance demands of du...

This latest news from Kuwait is worth noting: Kuwaiti lawmakers voted in favour of a legal amendment on Thursday which could make insulting God and the Prophet Mohammad punishable by death, after a case of suspected blasphemy on Twitter caused an uproar in the Gulf Arab state. Members of Parliament must vote on the proposal again in a second session and it would need the approval of the country’s ruler before becoming law. The amendment was backed by 46 votes, while four opposed it and others abstained. Those in favour included all 15 members of the cabinet. Why is this so important?  Because pretty much everywhere we've been in the Middle East, from Kuwait to Iraq to Egypt to Libya to Somalia to Syria to Iran, our inability to project our force as part of any sort of coherent, long-term strategy has had this major effect: We have created sufficient motion toward destablization that we have created major openings for the influence of radical Islam and the ultimate crea...

In Colorado the issue is not charters, but online schools .  Nonetheless, the issue is almost exactly the same:  the State Department of Education apparently does not follow through with its oversight responsibilities: DENVER - State auditors delivered a highly critical report on online schools Monday, saying their students perform worse and drop out more often than their counterparts in public schools. Auditors also said the state Department of Education failed to act against school districts that sponsor underperforming online schools, despite state rules requiring that such districts have their accreditation revoked or be placed on accreditation watch. The report, presented to the Legislative Audit Committee, said students who get their education online had lower reading, writing and math scores on statewide tests than students in public schools. This raises an interesting question:  are State Departments of Education the best entities to be supervising experi...