Dr. Matthew Ladner is vice president of research for the Goldwater Institute. Prior to joining Goldwater, Ladner was director of state projects at the Alliance for School Choice, where he provided support and resources for state-based school choice efforts. Ladner has written numerous studies on school choice, charter schools and special education reform. Ladner is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and received both a Masters and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Houston. Ladner previously served as director of the Center for Economic Prosperity at the Goldwater Institute and as vice president of policy and communications at Children First America. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2008 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:01:00 GMT Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ On these pages I have described how the primordial soup of a market system could transform education. In their book, Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Technologies Will Change the Way the World Learns, Clayton... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2008/06/26/the_shape_of_things_to_come_in_american_education d44f3981-81ad-499e-a844-a6473466015e Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:01:00 GMT Nevada's education system must address two urgent problems: an ever-growing quantity of students and the low average quality of schools. In spite of these problems, Nevada's State Board of Education has moved to clamp... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2008/05/29/fear_and_loathing_in_carson_city_nevada_should_embrace_charter_schools 9d8f04d6-2cb6-4a9a-9693-ac2e73211e82 Fri, 30 May 2008 01:15:43 GMT In the Aviator, director Martin Scorsese tells the story of Howard Hughes, had perhaps the biography of Howard Hughes been written by Ayn Rand. Hughes is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio as obsessively pushing the envelop http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2008/05/14/the_way_of_the_future_in_american_schooling 0f07ed80-51d9-40a8-8393-5e988c1200d9 Wed, 14 May 2008 19:52:26 GMT Is demography destiny? If so, say some experts, states with growing Hispanic populations seem doomed to fail, weighed down with ineffective school systems and abysmal test scores. One academic goes so far as to predict... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2008/04/17/jeb_bushs_reforms_improved_public_schools b264795f-553c-45ec-8ad2-98cc02e09374 Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:14:50 GMT In the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, Captain John H. Miller (played by Tom Hanks) leads a group of American soldiers in storming the beach at Normandy. Pinned down behind inadequate cover and facing extremely... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2008/03/20/anywhere_but_here_the_looming_train_wreck_of_no_child_left_behind 9814ccdb-378a-4f91-aa52-0ffaff89906d Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:00:48 GMT Democratic activist Steve Barr, founder of the Rock the Vote campaign, has dived into school reform in Los Angeles. Predictably, this has run him straight into the teeth of opposition from the education union. Barr ha http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2008/03/04/inner_city_kids_benefiting_from_school_choice e75a6e20-97b3-4a7d-b9fb-6b494d140818 Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:45:02 GMT America needs to invest more financial resources to help address a looming shortage of college graduates needed for the high-tech economy of tomorrow. Or do we? Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, current chair of the http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2008/01/28/enabling_animal_house_america_needs_to_create_rational_higher_ed_policy 7b490363-7924-4572-ad37-ea8f6818ccd2 Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:34:00 GMT U.S. News and World Report just published its annual ranking of the top 100 public high schools in America. My home state of Arizona punches above its weight. Arizona has less than two percent of the nation's K-12... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2008/01/10/charting_the_course_for_reform 3ddeb3c9-241b-4b5b-927f-6b07055d5187 Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:37:12 GMT The Education Next article "Can Catholic Schools Be Saved?" asks the provocative question: Will charter schools finish off inner city Catholic private schools? Preliminary evidence suggests that charter schools are... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2007/11/14/death_knell_will_charter_schools_destroy_inner-city_catholic_schools 2b0765e2-1ae3-49f3-bdf4-ef1b8185e9b6 Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:45:16 GMT Arthur Levine, former President of Columbia University's Teachers College, has issued a no-holds barred critique of doctoral-level research in the nation's colleges of education. The report is pretty long and technical,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2007/10/30/cash_cow_stampede_colleges_of_education_not_up_to_snuff e96ca6c4-34a8-4291-9b18-a487d68ed62a Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:00:00 GMT Few Yale seniors, it turns out, know which American President created the New Deal. Even fewer would know which one said, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2007/09/26/the_silent_crisis_of_american_higher_education 8db460bb-4e35-4904-8b4d-a57485dc205e Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:30:09 GMT I have an admittedly odd appreciation for left-wing protest songs. For my money (sorry boomers) there is none finer than Tracy Chapman's Talkin' Bout a Revolution. Released in 1990, Chapman's spare and urgent song... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2007/09/18/delivering_an_anti-poverty_revolution f87c9518-2bc8-4769-8cac-f8f6833b5677 Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:17:44 GMT Michael Lewis' book The Blind Side tells a fascinating story about poverty and education through the lens of football. Lewis focuses on two main stories. First, on the legendary coach Bill Walsh's struggles in the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DrMatthewLadner/2007/08/24/the_blind_side_blitz_on_inner_city_kids eaa0f7cd-2b8b-4314-a6f0-f170225af3cf Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:57:37 GMT