(Guest Post by Jason Bedrick)
ICYMI, Corey DeAngelis of the University of Arkansas wrote a blog post at Education Next today summarizing the results of a study he conducted with Julie Trivitt on the fiscal effects of the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP). The post is worth reading in full, but the main point is this: their study found that the LSP saves taxpayers money.
Governor John Bel Edwards recently cut the voucher program, supposedly in order to save money. However, the new study finds that the cuts actually increase state expenditures. DeAngelis concludes that if Louisianan officials wish to save money, instead of cutting it, they should expand it.
[Note: I initially omitted the “e” in Corey’s name. This is in keeping with the Law of Conservation of Es known to fans of Drs. Green and Wolfe.]
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Only the unions and Gates care about charter schools.
How about a discussion of teacher education? NCEE thinks teachers should take content courses only at the level of what they teach. (For K-3?) Recruitment begins in grade 7? Let them finish elementary school first.
Click to access 169726_Not_So_Elementary_Report_FINAL.pdf
“…content courses should be aligned to the level of the curriculum being taught.”
I think the 2.5 million students enrolled in charter schools might also care about them, not to mention the millions more that would choose them if the blob’s defenders stopped standing in the schoolhouse door.
Can we move away from charters to a very different topic–E.D. Hirsch’s latest book–on why knowledge matters. It needs reading and discussion. A paperback will be out next month, if your pocketbooks are constrained in August.
http://hepg.org/hep-home/books/why-knowledge-matters
Teacher education’s a function of the hiring environment and most school districts have little regard for teaching skill. Ed schools have taken note of that fact so aren’t particularly forceful in ensuring content knowledge.
That won’t change until teachers are preferentially hired from schools that do emphasize content knowledge and that won’t happen until the public education landscape shifts.
School districts are inherently indifferent to teaching skill because a district’s educational success plays little role in who gets elected to school board. The lack of importance gets transmitted down the chain of command showing ultimately as a lack of interest in teacher education.
Let’s start the discussion with your claim that content knowledge is a teaching skill.