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Congratulations to guest Michael Van Winkle – winner of the Coveted Golden Grog Award on the May 12th edition of The SoapBox Radio Show. Michael, a proponent of free market solutions to today’s education problems, debated Mark Pudlow of the Florida Education Association. Both speakers were extremely knowledgeable and passionate about their ideas for improving education in our country, but Michael ended up with 75% of the votes cast in Saturday’s online voting. If you want more information or want to get involved with the efforts of either of these guests – you can access more information at the following links:
(Michael Van Winkle): www.heartland.org
(Mark Pudlow): www.feaweb.org
Over the past 30 years, average per-student expenditures for public, elementary, and secondary schools have nearly doubled while proficiency in reading and math skills has declined. How do we improve public education in America? Should we consider free-market alternatives such as “voucher” programs that allow private schools to compete for the same tax dollars that public schools receive? Or would privatization just lead to new challenges that would exacerbate the problem? Join Mark Pudlow from the Florida Education Association as he squares off against Michael Van Winkle from the Heartland Institute over the best ways to improve education in America on the Saturday, May 12th edition of The SoapBox Radio Show!
Mark Pudlow is the spokesman for the Florida Education Association, the statewide union representing teachers and other education support professionals in the state's public schools. FEA is an affiliate of both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers and has 135,000 members, making it the biggest professional association in the state.
Pudlow came to the union 11 years ago, after a 17-year career as a newspaper editor. A native of Indiana, he has lived in Florida for 40 years and is a graduate of the University of Florida. He and his wife, Jan, have been married for 30 years and live near Havana, a small town northwest of Tallahassee.
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Michael Van Winkle is legislative specialist for education policy for The Heartland Institute, a national nonprofit research & education organization dedicated to promoting free-market solutions to social & economic problems. He is the primary liaison for the organization education reform program. He has a Masters degree in social sciences from the University of Chicago and a degree in political science from the University of Illinois-Chicago. He has written articles for the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Before coming to The Heartland Institute, Michael worked as an education policy analyst for the Illinois Policy Institute.
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