Wisconsin and Pennsylvania each have governors that support using taxpayer money to subsidize student enrollment in private schools. And while key players in the school choice movement — a coalition of wealthy investors, prominent Democrats, frustrated minority groups and many Republicans — agree on the core principle of providing an outlet to needy children in struggling school districts, Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) and Tom Corbett (R-Pa) would like to expand their respective states’ voucher programs to all students; Walker would like to lift income eligibility requirements for his state’s voucher program.

In addition, both governors appeared at a national policy summit this week in Washington, D.C., for major school interest group, American Federation for Children, to tout vouchers and the progress school-choice proposals were making in their respective states.

In the Badger state, such an expansive role for vouchers is being met with pushback from the governor’s own party. The GOP president of the state Senate, Mike Ellis (Neenah), told the Journal Sentinel, “We have problems with the elimination of the income threshold because the idea behind this program was to help poverty-stricken students who don’t have the wherewithal to go to private school.” The senator used stronger language in a follow-up: “This is a complete blowing up of that concept. Throw this (new proposal) in and I have to do some serious thinking about the rest of this.”

Milwaukee, the only city in Wisconsin with school vouchers, is a model for school choice advocates and has the longest running program of its kind in the country. Professor Howard L. Fuller of Marquette was instrumental in arguing for the inception of Milwaukee’s Parental Choice Program in 1990, but in recent weeks, has voiced opposition to lifting the income qualifications associated with the voucher program. In an op-ed that appeared in the Sentinel, Fuller wrote:

The governor’s plan would dramatically change the program’s social justice mission and destroy its trailblazing legacy as the first and still one of the few in the nation that uses public dollars to help equalize the academic options for children from low-income and working-class families. I did not join this movement to subsidize families like mine, which may not be rich but have resources and, thus, options.

Fuller also attended the national policy summit in Washington this week; numerous speakers paid tribute to Fuller throughout the two-day event.

On Wednesday, the state assembly of Wisconsin passed AB 92, which would lift income eligibility requirements in the voucher program of Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, the lower and upper chambers of the state legislature are at a standstill over how far-reaching a proposed school choice bill should be. The House has been reluctant to institute a full voucher program, instead preferring to expand the state’s ten-year-old Educational Improvement Tax Credit. href="http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_736328.html">From the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

Under the House bill, the $60 million available for tax credits would increase to $100 million for the 2011-12 school year and $200 million in 2012-13. Income eligibility limits for a family of four would increase from $50,000 to $60,000 next school year and to $75,000 after June 30, 2012.

Though the bill was approved with a strong majority, 190-7, on Wednesday in the House, Senate Chair of the Education Committee Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, (R-Dauphin County), called the bill dead-on-arrival. He is co-sponsoring SB 1, legislation that would offer a voucher program to all low-income students throughout the state. SB 1 also includes an EITC spending increase. SB 1′s other co-sponsor, State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams (D-Philadelphia) has stated earlier the passage of his bill could compel other legislatures in surrounding states to pursue similar legislation.

“I can’t say so for sure, but I bet if a rally were held on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, or frankly anywhere, to defend the status quo on education, nobody would show up,” Bennet begins his op-ed.

“It’s time the burden of proof shifts from those who want to change the system to those who want to keep it the same,” he continues.

Among other things, Bennet decries the fact that the United States is one of the few developed countries that routinely invests more money in the schools that need it the least while ignoring those that need it the most.

Bennet makes some good points for sure, but maybe, just maybe, we need to rethink the way we look at education altogether. Below, a video of Ken Robinson, education professor and best-selling author of “The Element: How finding your passion changes everything”.

This video has already been seen by nearly five million people on YouTube, tiny numbers by Lady Gaga standards, but not too bad for a wonky British guy who says the entire paradigm is hundreds of years old and never really worked.

Mississippi has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancies in the U.S., according to a Guttmacher Institute (PDF) report on national and state trends of pregnancies, births and abortions, released in January 2010. According to the report, in 2005, Mississippi ranked fifth among states, with a rate of 85 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19. The state was behind New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Texas.

Up to this point, no Mississippi schools have been required to teach any type of sex ed, according to the AP. Schools that elected to provide information on sex could only offer abstinence-only education.

The education bill, authored by Rep. Alyce G. Clarke (D-69th District), would amend the Mississippi Constitution to require each local school board to adopt a sex-related education policy, giving them the option to teach abstinence-only education or “abstinence-plus” education.

Districts who choose the latter form of sex ed would provide education that emphasizes abstinence until marriage but also includes health information on contraceptives. Districts with abstinence-plus education policies would be required to teach about the risk and failure rates of contraceptives, according to changes the Senate made to the bill.

A page from the immigrants rights guide by CASA de Maryland. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The pictures in the pamphlet, which was created by lawyers from the immigrant rights advocacy group CASA de Maryland, are somewhat frightening: In the cover image, large-looking policemen lead visibly upset man out the door in handcuffs. Local police told the Union-Tribune the pictures were inappropriate, particularly coming from public schools. A spokeswoman from Immigration and Custom Enforcement spokesmen disagreed, saying the pamphlet “offers sound and practical information about the enforcement process.”

School district officials said they distributed the pamphlet after receiving reports of students performing poorly in school because they were worried about their immigration status. All children — documented or not — can attend public school as long as they meet state requirements for age and residency.

None of the advice offered in the pamphlet is illegal — it simply helps illegal immigrants avoid making mistakes that could betray their status. Still, some parents argued the information encouraged illegal immigration and the evasion of laws.

Advice from the pamphlet, via the Union-Tribune:

•?Don’t lie. Don’t give false testimony.

•?Don’t give government officials information about your immigration status.

•?Don’t say anything, or say only: “I need to speak to my lawyer.”

•?Don’t carry papers from another country because the government can use this material in a deportation proceeding.

•?Stay calm and don’t run. These actions may be viewed as an admission that you have something to hide.

•?Government officials may try to intimidate you or trick you into signing documents. You may be signing away your right to a hearing before an immigration judge.

•?You have the right to see a search warrant. Don’t open the door; ask authorities to slip the document underneath the door.

The data shows that the manufacturing sector has improved, year on year, though layoffs remain high. This July, manufacturers made 25 percent of mass layoffs, accounting for 31 percent of new unemployment claims. A year ago, it accounted for 37 percent of events and 46 percent of claims.

But the bad news? This year, the single subsector that laid off the highest number of workers en masse is secondary and elementary schools. In July. Right before the school year starts. Bus drivers weren’t spared either.

When Emily Cooper headed off to first grade in Moody, Ala., last week, she was prepared with all the stuff on her elementary school’s must-bring list: two double rolls of paper towels, three packages of Clorox wipes, three boxes of baby wipes, two boxes of garbage bags, liquid soap, Kleenex and Ziplocs.

“The first time I saw it, my mouth hit the floor,” Emily’s mother, Kristin Cooper, said of the list, which also included perennials like glue sticks, scissors and crayons.

But the state-aid bill was a way for Democrats to launder money through the unions, right?

Though Justice Clarence Thomas didn’t agree (he doesn’t think the court should “second-guess” school officials when it comes to discipline), the eight justices in the majority ruled that given that there was no apparent danger to other students, strip-searching Savana Redding, now a 19-year-old college student, was an unconstitutional overreaction.

The decision, Safford United School District v. Redding (08-479), is available here.

The court didn’t rule out strip-searches at schools completely, however; seven justices ruled that today’s decision applied only to future strip-searches, so neither Redding nor anyone else who’s ever been unconstitutionally humiliated in this manner has any remedy.

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In its latest ad about education, titled “What Kind,” the Obama campaign charges that Sen. John McCain once “proposed abolishing the Dept. of Education.” WHAAA?!?

Have a look:

The good people over at Talking Points Memo dug up the transcript from CNN’s Late Edition cited in the ad and found that in late-1994, McCain told Frank Sesno that he would, in fact, like to “do away with” the department. However, I don’t think this constitutes a “proposal” to abolish it. Here’s the quote, in context:

FRANK SESNO: Sen. McCain, would you favor doing away with the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development or the Dept. of Energy?

Sen. JOHN McCAIN: I would certainly favor doing away with the Dept. of Energy and I think that given the origins of the Dept. of Education, I would favor doing away with it as well. HUD had experienced many failures under both Republican and Democrat administrations, and I would certainly want to revamp it from the bottom up, because, clearly, public housing in America is almost as big a disaster as the welfare program…

The current incarnation of the Dept of Education was created in 1979 by the Carter administration — as was, for that matter, the Dept. of Energy. The department was on the Republican hit-list from its inception — many conservatives viewed it as unconstitutional and “an inappropriate intrusion into state, local and family affairs.”

Ronald Reagan ran against Carter in 1980, vowing to eliminate the department, but was unable to thwart congressional Democrats. Around the time McCain made this statement, a movement was underway among GOP members of Congress to kill it once and for all.

But a lot can happen in a decade and a half. These days, abolishing the Dept. of Education is only really talked about in hard-line Libertarian circles. Republicans controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress for six years, and if anything, President George W. Bush’s signature domestic accomplishment — the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act — put more control in the department’s hands.

The fact that McCain, answering a question about the Dept. of Energy, volunteered his position on the Dept. of Education indicates he was sincere and unapologetic at the time. But where does McCain stand today?

Repeated calls to his campaign press office seeking a clarification of the Arizona senator’s position were not returned. We’ll try again tomorrow, and keep you posted if we find anything.