Issues
This article first appeared as "An Excellent Project for All" by John F. McManus in the JBS Bulletin, July 2010.
In 2004, Congress enacted legislation requiring all publicly funded educational institutions to provide students with instruction about the U.S. Constitution. The law (Public Law 108-447) specified that it should be given on September 17, the date of the completion of the Constitution in 1787.
Several states have begun exercising their prerogatives lately in a decision to face up, finally, to K-12 education failures. For example, according to a report by Deborah Simmons in the May 24th issue of the Washington Times, DC school Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is working to do away with seniority-based lay-off methods and has begun tying both teacher retention and tenure to pupil performance. So are a number of other states — among them, New York, Colorado, Connecticut and Arizona.
