Editorial Staff

Montse Alvarado on Protecting Religious Liberty in Schools & Society

/0 Comments/in , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara talks with Montse Alvarado, Vice President & Executive Director of the Becket Fund, about the implications of the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court school choice case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the pervasiveness of 19th-century, anti-Catholic Blaine amendments across the country, and some of Becket’s legal victories in high-profile religious liberty cases. Montse also offers encouraging insights from a recent Becket poll on younger generations’ commitment to religious freedom. She shares the inspirational stories of human rights champions recognized by the Becket Fund, such as former Cuban religious dissident and political prisoner Armando Valladares, and the Nobel Prize-winning writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

Stories of the Week:

A new partnership between Southern New Hampshire University and charter school networks in Boston, Chicago, and Texas promises to boost college completion rates for their largely low-income, minority alumni. Three Maine families residing in rural communities with no public high school are battling in a federal appeals court for the religious schools their children attend to be included in the state’s out-of-district tuition program. A National Council on Teacher Quality survey of over 100 large school districts shows nearly half offer performance pay based on teacher evaluations – is this the most effective approach to attract and reward excellence?

Newsmaker Interview Guest:

Montse Alvarado joined the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in 2009 and was named VP & Executive Director in February 2017. With a background in public policy and campaigns, she has led initiatives at Becket in development, communications, strategy, and operations that have helped secure religious liberty victories. Montse has appeared on Univision, CNN en Español, Telemundo, Fox Business, and EWTN. Born in Mexico City, she is fluent in Spanish and French and is a competitive jazz and classical vocalist. Montse earned a Masters from the George Washington University and a B.A. from Florida International University. She tweets @Mmontsealvarado.

Commentary of the Week: The Washington Examiner: “Virginia Walden Ford: Empower Parents with School Choice”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/empower-parents-with-school-choice

Tweet of the Week: CBS New York? @CBSNewYork 1.5.20

Next episode’s guest: Derrell Bradford, Executive Vice President of 50CAN, January 17th  2020

Newslinks:

Chalkbeat: More charter operators are offering a plan B to alumni who drop out of traditional college. Will it work?

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2020/01/08/more-charter-operators-are-offering-a-plan-b-to-alumni-who-drop-out-of-traditional-college-will-it-work/

Portland Press Herald: Families argue in appeal that Maine should pay tuition at religious schools

https://www.pressherald.com/2020/01/08/maine-families-argue-in-appeals-court-that-state-should-pay-tuition-at-religious-schools/

NCTQ: How evaluation ratings impact teacher pay

https://www.nctq.org/blog/How-evaluation-ratings-impact-teacher-pay

Get Updates on Our Education Research

Recent Episodes:

Acclaimed Poet & Former NEA Chairman Dana Gioia on Poetry & Arts Education

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Dana Gioia, a poet, writer, and the former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, to talk about why the arts are so pivotal to the intellectual and civic development of America’s K-12 schoolchildren.

Homeschooling Expert Kerry McDonald on Harvard Law Professor Controversy & COVID

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are happy to be joined by Kerry McDonald, a homeschooling expert and Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, on the major lessons we all should be learning from this educational moment, now that COVID has turned most of America’s 50 million schoolchildren and their families into "homeschoolers."

Kaya Henderson, Former Chancellor, D.C. Public Schools, on Leading Urban District Reform

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are happy to be joined by Kaya Henderson, the former chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools. They discuss the historic reforms Henderson oversaw, including increasing enrollment and improved test scores in an urban district that had been one of the lowest performing in the country.

UVA Law Professor Kimberly Robinson On Legal Debate About Education As Federal Right

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Kimberly Robinson, Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and the Curry School of Education, about her new book, "A Federal Right to Education: Fundamental Questions for Our Democracy," and the need for states to establish a “floor of opportunity” to ensure educational equity.

New York Times #1 best-selling author John M. Barry on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic & lessons for COVID-19

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by John M. Barry, author of the #1 New York Times best seller, The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.

Ashley Berner of Johns Hopkins on Academic Quality, Educational Pluralism, & the Providence Public Schools

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Ashley Berner, Deputy Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. 

Christensen Institute Co-founder Michael Horn on Digital Learning & COVID-19

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Michael Horn, co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.

The Institute for Justice’s Tim Keller on Espinoza v. Montana DOR & ongoing school choice litigation

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Tim Keller, Senior Attorney with the Institute for Justice, which is representing the plaintiffs in the high-profile Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court,.

Stanford Pulitzer Winner David Kennedy on Lessons for COVID-19 from the 1918 Flu Epidemic & Great Depression

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Pulitzer-winning historian David Kennedy, the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History Emeritus at Stanford University.

The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews on schooling during COVID-19 & lessons from teaching great Jaime Escalante

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Jay Mathews, Washington Post education columnist.

Ambassador Ray Flynn on Public Leadership During Global Crisis & the Case for Catholic Schools

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve” (St. Patrick’s Day edition), Cara and Gerard discuss COVID-19’s ongoing toll on families and K-12 education, and interview Raymond Flynn, former Ambassador to the Vatican and three-term Mayor of Boston, about the world-historical moment presented by the Coronavirus pandemic as well as his advocacy for religious education.

NC State’s Anna Egalite on School Choice in America & Abroad

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard talk with Dr. Anna Egalite, Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University, about her experiences and research on K-12 education systems in her native Ireland, as well as America and India.