Shortly after I heard about President Bush's proposal for Pell Grants for low-income children to attend parochial schools, I finished reading More than a Dream: The Christo Rey Story, a inspirational book about the founding of the first Christo Rey Jesuit high school in Chicago's Pilsen/Little Village neighborhood

In 1980, the Reagan Revolution meant not only a reconsideration of sex education, but also a reconsideration of the theory of evolution Back then, the alternative theory was called creationism or scientific creationism; today it's called intelligent design

During his final State of the Union Address, President Bush announced two proposals for faith-based schools; one, a grants program for low-income students similar to Pell Grants for college students, and the other a national Presidential summit on faith-based education The summit is more important than the grants program

This week, the first of the New Year, the Austin American Statesmen comes an opinion by Ken Lambrecht, president of Texas Planned Parenthood, which cites these statistics: • Texas is No 1 in the nation for repeat teen births • More than 80,000 teenagers in Texas become pregnant every year • In a 2004 poll, ninety percent of Texans agreed that public schools should educate students with age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education These statistics come from the state that brought us George W

As the new year begins, I read of a proposal for a US

While my first novel, The Sex Ed Chronicles, was reviewed by my publishers, I started a second story that revolves around another controversial subject in high schools and colleges: Army recruiting on campus The change in subjects has not been a big jump

As 2007 drew to a close, four of the nation's most selective colleges: Harvard, Duke, Swarthmore and Pomona, all announced plans to revamp their financial aid policies by replacing loans with grants Other institutions, most notably Princeton and Columbia, had already implemented similar plans

My first attempt at fiction, The Sex Ed Chronicles, was based on historical events in my hometown and state, but it was a story of fictional characters However, there are brilliant works of historical fiction that stay truer to history, when they use well-known historical figures in alternate scenarios

Since I wrote a novel based around sex education, I've tried to pay attention to other books and movies that do the same I reviewed Tom Perrotta's The Abstinence Teacher, which I thoroughly enjoyed

Every profession could use a good TV show to help it flourish in tough times With No Child Left Behind, maybe teachers need one more than ever