I Tried to Open a Lemonade Stand: Following a story about two young girls who were ordered to close their lemonade stand by local police officers,...
I Tried to Open a Lemonade Stand: Following a story about two young girls who were ordered to close their lemonade stand by local police officers, John Stossel describes the hoops he jumps through to sell lemonade in New York City. He explores how innovation and opportunity can be stifled by bureaucracy and excessive regulations; “The Feds alone add 80,000 pages of new rules every year. Local governments add more. There are so many incomprehensible rules that even the bureaucrats can't tell you what's legal.” (Real Clear Politics, John Stossel) CHART: Female Heads of State and Government Worldwide: This “charticle” by Business Insider examines the prevalence of female political leaders worldwide. The surprising results show that “the advance of women into positions of authority has not corresponded evenly with their economic or political emancipation.” (Business Insider, Jon Terbush, Lauren Brown and Michael Brendan Dougherty). See how the Bush Institute is empowering and equipping Egyptian women to be better, stronger leaders through the Women's Initiative Fellowship Program. Study: Good Principals Make a Difference in High-Poverty Schools: A study by Gregory F. Branch, Eric A. Hanushek and Steven G. Rivkin shows how school leadership is the key to improving schools, especially for those with disadvantaged students. The report sheds light on the correlation between new principals, high-poverty schools and student achievement: “schools with a high number of low-income students are more likely to have first-year principals” and “First-year principals are also more likely to be present in schools with low achievement”. (Education Week, Sarah D. Sparks) Through the AREL program, the Bush Institute works to network innovative principal training sites across the country to change the paradigm by which principals are recruited, selected, prepared, certified, empowered, compensated, supported and evaluated. In Defense of No Child Left Behind: There’s no question that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has taken a beating from both sides of the aisle in recent weeks, but Rich Stowell argues that “Accusations of funding cuts and shots at the straw man of ‘high stakes testing’ are arrows in the rhetorical war over federal education policy. With nobody defending NCLB, it's easy for misrepresentations and exaggerations to become misinformation.” (The Washington Times, Rich Stowell). The Bush Institute's Education Reform initiative has released this brief about the recent NCLB waivers and accountability.
