RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/utah-school-choice-bill-iowa-education-savings-accounts-kim-reynolds-spencer-cox-11674860799?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

School choice is gaining momentum across the country, and this week Utah joined Iowa in advancing the education reform cause. Both states passed expansive education savings account (ESA) legislation that will make private schools accessible to many more families, and other states are moving too.

Utah’s bill, which the Senate passed Thursday, 20-8, makes ESAs of $8,000 available to every student. There’s no income cap on families who can apply, though lower-income families receive preference and the program is capped at $42 million. The funds can be used for private school tuition, home-schooling expenses, tutoring, and more. The bill passed the House with a referendum-proof majority last week of 54-20. Gov. Spencer Cox has suggested he supports the bill, which includes pay raises for teachers.

This follows the Monday passage of Iowa’s ESA bill, which we have previewed, with a 55-45 vote in the state House and 31-18 in the Senate. Gov. Kim Reynolds was quick on Tuesday to sign the new law providing more than $7,500 for any student to use toward private-school tuition and other education expenses.

It’s a promising start to a year in which many states are eyeing school choice: About a dozen other state legislatures have introduced bills to create new ESA programs, and several want to expand the ones they have.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ron-desantis-ap-african-american-studies-curriculum-florida-education-critical-race-theory-11674831789?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

When parents complained that Critical Race Theory was creeping into their children’s classrooms, the left argued that CRT is strictly college material and isn’t actually taught in K-12 schools. So how can progressives object now that Gov. Ron DeSantis is blocking a new high-school AP course in Florida on grounds that it’s stuffed with CRT?

Florida rejected a planned Advanced Placement class in African-American Studies because it “lacks educational value” and “is a vehicle for a political agenda.” In response, NPR quoted an academic “involved in creating the curriculum,” who explained again that CRT is too advanced for high-school students. “There’s nothing particularly ideological about the course,” he added, “except that we value the experiences of African people in the United States.”

The chattering class had already committed to that narrative by the time a draft of the AP framework leaked. It starts innocuously enough, with topics on Africa’s linguistic diversity and the history of the Songhai Empire. But keep reading until Unit 4, which includes:

• “The Reparations Movement,” a topic that “explores the case for reparations,” in which students “may examine House Bill H.R. 40 and a text by Ta-Nehisi Coates.”