Not just an issue for conservatives anymore By Eric Boehm | PA Independent HARRISBURG — Americans like to choose. As consumers, we have an endless number of options when it comes to spending money — we choose everything from the clothes we buy to the colleges we attend. Our grocery stores carry dozens of varieties of breakfast cereal, our ice cream parlors have 31 ...Read More>>

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter MADISON — The fire took everything. A community inside a school brought it all back. Jeffrey Robb, development director for Messmer Catholic Schools, home to Milwaukee’s famous school choice voucher program, said the story of Ayanna Murrell, a Messmer High junior, the fire that claimed her family’s home, and the way the private school community responded, is emblematic of ...Read More>>

By Eric Boehm | PA Independent HARRISBURG — School choice is advancing in Pennsylvania, even as a public school voucher plan remains stuck in legislative limbo. As the New Year dawns over the state Capitol, lawmakers and lobbyists are geared up for another fight over the creation of a public school voucher program aimed at providing educational options for the children of low-income ...Read More>>

By Hannah Hess | Virginia Statehouse News RICHMOND — Parents of children who are struggling in some of Virginia’s most troubled public schools could get more choices, if Republicans win tax breaks for companies that make donations for low-income students to attend private institutions. The plan provides corporations with a tax credit that covers 70 percent of a donation to a nonprofit ...Read More>>

By Gene Meyer | Kansas Reporter TOPEKA — Parents get to choose the tax-supported colleges and universities in which to enroll their children, says one longtime advocate of homeschooling. So why are there so few choices for public schools? That's the question asked by Jeff Barclay, pastor at Christ Community Church in Lawrence. Only 25 of Kansas' 1,445 public schools are charter schools. The state has ...Read More>>

By Lynn Campbell  |  IowaPolitics.com DES MOINES — Despite having no school voucher program and only seven charter schools, Iowa fares well nationally as a state giving parents options of how to educate their children. "Iowa is actually viewed as a state with more choices than other states,” said Andrew Campanella, vice president of public affairs for National School Choice Week, a Virginia-based nonprofit ...Read More>>

By Jenna Wortham New York Times With a Web-wide protest on Wednesday that includes a 24-hour shutdown of the English-language Wikipedia, the legislative battle over two Internet piracy bills has reached an extraordinary moment — a political coming of age for a relatively young and disorganized industry that has largely steered clear of lobbying and other political games in Washington. The bills, the Stop Online ...Read More>>

By Benjamin Yount | Statehouse News Online INDIANAPOLIS — What could have been a showdown over right-to-work legislation at the Indiana Capitol ended up as an all too normal session day. But make no mistake, the fight over right to work in Indiana is not over. A key committee vote is scheduled Tuesday morning. Indiana’s 40 Democratic state representatives answered the roll call ...Read More>>

Alexandria, VA – According to new polls released by Watchdog.org, a project of theFranklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a national nonprofit journalism organization, likely GOP voters in New Hampshire are favoring Mitt Romney for the GOP Presidential nomination at 37%, followed by Ron Paul at 19% and Jon Huntsman at 16%. Rick Santorum fell to fourth with 14% and ...Read More>>

By Jason Stverak | Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity ALEXANDRIA -- Bloggers in Oregon, watch out. That’s because this month an Oregon court ruled that bloggers do not have same protection as the “media.” This ruling emerged when Crystal Cox, a blogger, was accused of defaming Obsidian Finance Group and its co-founder Kevin Padrick on her blog. She posted that Padrick ...Read More>>