— The Center for Education Reform has an interactive map of the United States that “shows how the states are doing in providing the critical policy ingredients necessary for effective schools to serve all children”.
The CER supports charter schools, school choice, and performance pay.
… Each state has been given a grade for each of several components, and those grades collectively factor into an overall grade and general education weather forecast for that state. As states adopt new policies and programs, the grades may change.
The overall grades are based on these components:
— Governors
— Media Reliability
— Charter School Law
— Teacher Quality
— Digital Learning (Coming Soon)
— Parent Power Index (Coming Soon)
In New York, the “forecast is cloudy”with the following grades:
— Governors: F
— Media Reliability: C+
— Charter School Law: B
— Teacher Quality: C
…
— Will college students show up for this presidential election?
The question has ramifications for college campuses around the country in the two months that remain before Election Day: this year, will young people — especially college students, a group that backed Obama overwhelmingly in 2008 — show up?
Has enthusiasm for Obama among college students waned?
Della Volpe, who has polled young voters 22 times since 2000, said that Democrats shouldn’t count on college students to support them in such large numbers this year. Republicans have worked hard to win over disaffected 2008 Obama voters who, since graduating college, have struggled to find jobs and repay student loans. (Representative Paul Ryan, the Republican candidate for the vice presidency, made the pitch in one of the most memorable lines of his convention speech last week: “College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.”)
But Della Volpe said his polling data suggest that Obama’s college student base from 2008, voters now in their early to mid-20s, still support him. It’s the younger voters — college students too young to vote the last time around — who should concern Democrats.
“It’s a myth that people turn 18 and automatically become Democrats,” Della Volpe said. In Wisconsin, Obama dominated among voters aged 18 to 24 in 2008. But last fall, in the election to recall Republican Governor Scott Walker, the governor won 18- to 24-year-olds by 3 points, helping him retain his post.
One college student I know tells me that while young people still overwhelmingly support Obama, their diminished fervor for his presidency may cause fewer of them to show up at the voting booth in November.
Here’s the “faded Obama poster” video.
Cost of College 