Archive for the ‘Recent News’ Category

Did EPA Train IRS in Targeting?

The Competitive Enterprise Institute documents political bias by the EPA in approval/denial of Freedom of Information Act requests. Green groups had their FOIA requests approved 92% of the time. The Alaska-active Center for Biological Diversity (headquartered in Phoenix, AZ) had a perfect four out of...
May 17th, 2013 | Recent News | Read More

Chicago Teachers Union in Bed with Socialists

Remember when the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike last year, closing schools to more than 350,000 kids just as the school year began? This same union is now featured on the cover of the Socialism 2013 Conference being held in Chicago this summer. The small print below the picture of the CTU striking...
May 15th, 2013 | Education, Recent News | Read More

Shining the Light on Anchorage Municipal Payroll

For highest to lowest compensated list, click here. For bargaining unit list, click here. One of our guiding principles at the Alaska Policy Forum is that government should be limited and transparent. Over the past 2 years we have provided as much information that we could obtain from local/ state governments...
March 24th, 2013 | Recent News | Read More

The (im)moral vision of the NEA

The (im)moral vision of the NEA
For those of you who were inspired by films like “Won’t Back Down,” “Waiting for Superman,” and “The Lottery,” it is easy to understand the moral vision that school choice paints. It’s a simple, yet profound vision of family and its deep hope for the future...
March 3rd, 2013 | Featured, Recent News | Read More

Alaskans Don’t Know What They Don’t Know–About Education

It seems as if the NEA-AK and its local affiliates are using members’ dues to sponsor commercials which basically say that vouchers will destroy public education as we know it. Trouble is, most of us don’t know the state of public education in Alaska today. Well here are the facts: Did you...
February 26th, 2013 | Education, Recent News | Read More

School Choice Experts to Testify at Joint House & Senate Meeting

Four nationally recognized experts on school choice will present to the Joint House/Senate Education and Judiciary Committees on February 13th at 1:30. Kevin Chavous, a national education reform leader, will provide personal experiences showing that school choice benefits all children. He is board chair...
February 12th, 2013 | Recent News | Read More

A State at Risk: The Need for Education Reform in Alaska

In 1983, US Secretary of Education T.H. Bell released a report, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform, which stated the following: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed...
February 1st, 2013 | Education, Recent News | Read More

Should Government Tell You What to do with Your Property?

Pay attention, folks. If you are concerned with the government telling you what you can and cannot do with your private property, then you must comment on the Title 21 code being considered by the Anchorage Assembly. If you think the government should be able to tell you how many windows you can have...
January 22nd, 2013 | Recent News | Read More

Your Land is My Land. So Says Title 21

Remember Woody Guthrie’s song, “This Land is Your Land”? If Title 21 is enacted by the Anchorage Assembly, then the words to this song may be changed to the following: Your land is my land Your land is my land, From the Chugach Mountains to the Inlet lowland, From the Eklutna dam land...
January 14th, 2013 | Recent News | Read More

Accountability Improves Education for the Kids

There is a movement going on in Anchorage to change the way School Board members are elected. Currently, they are elected at-large. That is, the entire Municipality votes for a member. The change would have Board members elected by district, the same way we elect Assembly members and our legislators....
December 5th, 2012 | Accountability, Recent News | Read More

Governor Parnell on the Right Track with Teacher Evaluations. We are Not Chicago.

Governor Parnell has recommended that the State Board of Education and Early Development (Board) “set the bar higher in weighting teacher and administrator evaluations based on student learning”. Currently, the Board has set the bar so low that anyone can merely walk over the bar. The Board...
November 28th, 2012 | Education, Recent News | Read More

Does Adding More Staff Increase Education Achievement?

The Friedman Foundation released a report that studied the increase in student population versus the increase in public school employees. The report noted that nationwide for the period FY1992 to FY2009 the number of K-12 students grew 17 percent while the number of full time equivalent school employees...
October 31st, 2012 | Recent News | Read More

Help Your Kids, and All Kids, with Math-It Needs Fixing in Anchorage

Math is one of the core subjects. It is in any education program anywhere in the world.  Like it or hate it, you use it every day. Have a bad grasp of basic computation and you will suffer the rest of your life. Anchorage parents and students have been struggling with the EveryDay Math curriculum and...
October 4th, 2012 | Education, Recent News | Read More

Parents, Get Involved with ASD Math Review-Here’s Help

The Anchorage School District is asking for public input on selecting a math program to replace the EveryDay Math (EDM) program. If your child is having a rough time mastering the fundamentals of arithmetic, then you need to get involved with this process. Don’t allow the District to clone the...
September 28th, 2012 | Recent News | Read More

Help Our Kids with Math-Sign Petition

The Anchorage School District is asking for public input on a new mathematics curriculum to replace the “fuzzy math” program, EveryDay Math, which has failed many of our children. We need your help sending a strong message to the District. Five of the six proposed math programs are EveryDay...
September 27th, 2012 | Recent News | Read More

You Can Get Out of a Failing School-Here’s How

This month the Anchorage School District had to send out more than 8,000 letters to parents who had  children in failing Anchorage Schools. These letters were to inform parents that they had the option to get their kids out of failing (NCLB) schools and get them into two other successful Anchorage Schools....
August 12th, 2012 | Education, Recent News | Read More
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