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Travis Pillow
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03/07/25 | Travis Pillow
National Education News: Peak public school?
Happy Friday, and welcome to our weekly roundup of national education news. Robert Pondiscio of the American Enterprise Institute marks a milestone that will shape U.S. education in the coming...
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02/28/25 | Travis Pillow
Update: More than 395,000 students apply for Florida education choice scholarships
Updated March. 10, 2025 After a record-setting opening weekend in which more than 120,000 students applied for Florida K-12 scholarships, demand remains high. Step Up For Students, the nonprofit organization...
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02/28/25 | Travis Pillow
National education news: Definitional questions
The U.S. Supreme Court has set an April hearing for a landmark case that could pave the way for religious charter schools. Catholic dioceses in Oklahoma received state approval to...
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02/21/25 | Travis Pillow
National education news: Ahead of their time
Christopher Jencks, the scholar of economic inequality and intellectual pioneer of school choice, passed away last week at 88. He authored a federally funded report that led to an early...
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02/14/25 | Travis Pillow
National education news: Teaching machines
Sunday afternoon, while most Americans settled in for the Super Bowl, Open AI’s Sam Altman published a blog post that made some extraordinary claims: In a decade, perhaps everyone on...
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02/07/25 | Travis Pillow
National education news: Can less be more?
As public education shifts into a new era, contradictions are bound to emerge. A new survey released this week reveals one: Families and teachers seem to want less schooling. The...
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01/31/25 | Travis Pillow
Districts are leading Florida’s generational education transformation
A generation ago, Florida’s school districts could safely assume that most students would board a yellow bus (or perhaps walk less than two miles) to a public school they operated. ...
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01/30/25 | Travis Pillow
National education news: Down, but why?
This week’s roundup of national education news is focused on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Wednesday’s release of the 2024 Nation’s Report Card brought grim news. TL;DR: Results are...
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01/23/25 | Travis Pillow
National education news: Institutions, individuals and trust
This week’s biggest story on forces shaping public education didn’t show up in the education section. The New York Times published a new survey showing nine in ten Americans, with...
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01/16/25 | Travis Pillow
National education news: Do the math
Education writer Lauren Camera revives an overlooked report from last year showing the most effective thing educators can do to boost students’ later-in-life outcomes: improving math skills. Specifically, the analysis...
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01/13/25 | Travis Pillow
By the numbers: Florida’s history-making growth of education options
This school year, Florida is empowering half a million students to direct funding to education options of their family’s choice. In the 2023-24 school year, after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed...
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01/09/25 | Travis Pillow
Ten trends that will shape the education news in 2025
Today we are debuting an interruption of our normal roundup of Florida education news with a new weekly scan of events across the country. It will land in your inboxes...
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11/04/24 | Travis Pillow
Analysis: Florida schools boast better reading results, especially for low-income students, for less money
Florida’s public schools score among the best in the nation in nine-year-olds’ reading achievement. For low-income students, their results are the best in the nation, period. And they also deliver...
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10/08/24 | Travis Pillow
Florida school district offers virtual classes to scholarship students – with more to follow
This school year, 2024-2025, for the first time, Brevard County students using Florida’s education choice scholarship programs will have a new option: the ability to sign up for online courses...
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07/17/24 | Travis Pillow
Nearly half a million students awarded Florida education choice scholarships
Nearly half a million Florida students have been awarded scholarships that will allow them to direct public education funding to providers of their choice next school year. Step Up For...
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06/24/24 | Travis Pillow
In education, this is where the energy is
For the first time last week, I flew home from an education conference with a feeling that recalled Hunter S. Thompson’s wistful remembrance of San Francisco in the mid-’60s. You...
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06/12/24 | Travis Pillow
Florida ranks No. 5 nationally for children’s education
Of the 50 states, Florida held the No. 5 spot for education in a national report on child wellbeing released this month. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count report...
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06/12/24 | Travis Pillow
Florida No. 1 in parent-directed public education funding
Florida is now the No. 1 state in the nation for parent-directed public education funding, according to data compiled by EdChoice. During the 2023-24 school year, the Sunshine State carried...
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06/07/24 | Travis Pillow
Go GATOR: Louisiana poised to become 19th state with parent-directed public education funding
A bill to make Louisiana the 19th state allowing parents to direct public education funding to learning options of their choice awaits a signature by a supportive governor. Right now,...
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