Spooky Season Parent Empowerment Edition!
Who Will Help the Children?
What to know: The Corpus Christi Caller-Times claims that parent empowerment and school choice do “nothing to uplift the needs of Hispanic students.”
The TPPF take: Hispanic families are some of the strongest supporters of school choice—because they want what’s best for their children.
“The truth is that Texas has over a million economically-disadvantaged students, the vast majority of whom are minority black and brown, attending low-performing or failing schools,” says TPPF’s Rafa Bejar. “These are students who would immediately benefit from school choice. It is not right that we are knowingly sending kids to failing schools—setting them up for failure.”
for more on Hispanics and parent empowerment, click here.
Oh No! Not Football!
What to know: The Dallas Morning News claims that parent empowerment could cause a “seismic shift” in the Friday Night Lights of high school football.
The TPPF take: Florida, Arkansas, Arizona, and many other states with rich football traditions have enacted parent empowerment and school choice; their football programs are doing just fine (check Florida State’s standing against Texas).
“Nationwide, 32 states and the District of Columbia have some form of school choice,” says TPPF’s Mandy Drogin. “Surely, if the dire predictions are true, we’d see the results in states that have empowered parents for years. But that’s simply not the case.”
For more on parent empowerment, click here.
Still, America is Exceptional
What to know: Salem, Massachusetts is now “Halloween Central,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The TPPF take: The Salem stories demonstrate American exceptionalism. Witch trials were common in the 17th Century; judicial reforms in their aftermath were not.
“After the witch trials were shut down in Salem in the summer of 1692, no one was ever executed for witchcraft anywhere in America again,” notes TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester. “The American colonies were far ahead of the rest of the Western world at the time in confronting and dismissing superstition. Their immediate repentance and reparations shows they didn’t hold themselves to a European standard.”
For more on Salem, click here.