10 things you should know about Race to the Top

The biggest story in education last week was the release of the final application for the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” funding that the federal government has made available for states. But what is the fund?  What are its objectives?  How do states actually receive the money?  Here are 10 things you should know [...]

Religious schools and church-state relations

As is well known, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides, among other things, that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. This is usually understood to mean, in Jefferson’s words, that there should be a “wall of separation” between the church and the state. [...]

School finance litigation: a neverending play

I was going to post a reply to Greta’s post, but then realized I’ll just write another post elaborating a little more on the important issue of school finance litigation. Greta is correct in pointing out the three waves of finance litigation. The literature is unanimous on the development of these cases and on the [...]

Suing the state for inadequate schools: a drama in 3 acts

My co-blogger Adam will surely disagree with me, but I was intrigued and excited by last week’s decision by the Colorado Supreme Court in Lobato vs. Colorado. The decision held that the lawsuit, which challenges the adequacy of funding for the public schools in the state, could go forward.  The full opinion of the court is here. [...]

Politics, political science, and the production of knowledge

My last post discussed the costs associated with judicial supervision of the academic system, where I argued that such intervention undermines the purpose of a university. Today, however, I learned of a different kind of intervention. In a recent proposal, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), suggested that the National Science Foundation, the federal agency in charge [...]