New results from a poll in five key battleground states reveal that education is a top tier issue for battleground voters and Latinos. Improving K-12 education is a high priority for voters and Latinos are more likely than voters overall to cite improving education and increasing education options for parents as core priorities. In fact, among Latinos, the issue of improving education ranks above immigration in terms of core priorities.

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School choice receives strong support from likely voters in five key 2012 battleground states 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 15, 2012)—Education ranks behind only the economy and jobs as the most important consideration among likely Latino voters five battleground states, according to a survey released today by the American Federation for Children (AFC) and the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (HCREO).

The poll results revealed that improving K-12 education—and not issues related to immigration—is the second-most important issue in the minds of Latino respondents, and education ranks in a near-statistical tie as the second most important issue among all likely voters.

Voters in five states—Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, New Jersey, and Nevada—were surveyed by the Democratic-leaning polling firm Beck Research on a host of education and other issues that will prove critical to deciding the 2012 presidential election. A majority (58 percent) of Latinos surveyed expressed a desire to hear more from both presidential campaigns on how the candidates will improve education, and large proportions of respondents also voiced strong support for a host of private school choice initiatives, including vouchers, scholarship tax credit programs, education savings accounts, and special needs scholarship programs.

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Connecticut legislators must properly address the needs of Latino and English Language Learning students this year

“Latino and English Language Learning (ELL) students in Connecticut are struggling by any measure. Whether you compare their achievement and graduation rates with that of their non-Latino and non-ELL peers in Connecticut, or with students like them in states around the country, these students are being set up to fail year after year.

“Legislators in Connecticut have an opportunity to address the needs of these students with tested reforms like turning around failing schools through a Commissioner’s Network and matching the best teachers and principals to the classrooms and schools that need them the most. Yet indications about the bill being negotiated right now suggest that these students will continue to be overlooked while the status quo is preserved.

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"We have a simple problem in this country," says Robert C. Enlow, president of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. "And that's a monopoly. It's not the people in the system. It's the system itself."

How bad is the problem? Consider this: Since 1970, direct per-pupil spending on K-12 public schools has more than doubled in inflation-adjusted dollars while educational outcomes for graduation high school seniors have remained flat at best.
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Parent unions becoming new paradigm?
http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/parents-form-unions-to-fight-failing-schools-28365772.html 

CS/CS/SB 1718 by Sen. Benacquisto and CS/CS/HB 1911 by Rep. Bileca

 The Truth about the Parent Empowerment bill: not about charters

The Parent Empowerment legislation empowers parents with the same federally mandated options available to school districts.

Currently school districts can utilize any of the following options to improve failing schools. Under the Parent Empowerment legislation, parents would have the same right. These options are:

• In-District reform
• Reassign students and follow their progress
• Convert to a charter
• Bring in outside management

Parent Empowerment is the law for 22% of American Public School students and there have been ZERO for corporate-backed charter conversion.

This “parent trigger” provision is currently functioning in three states:  California, Texas, and Mississippi.  

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Stossel made a speech at Reason Weekend 2012, Reason Foundation's annual donor event, about the successes of freedom in education. He talked about trying to update his 20/20 special, "Stupid in America," and not being able to do it, visiting Harlem schools full of kids ready to learn and why libertarians oppose a single payer system in health-care but cheer it in education