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I grew up in Villa Ridge, Missouri, a town of fewer than 3,000 people 40 miles southwest of St. Louis down Interstate 44. Growing up, there were few great places to eat in my hometown. The truck stop down the road served a pretty good breakfast, but the atmosphere left a bit to be desired, […]
Twelve-year-old Mallory Grossman recently ended her own life rather than endure any more bullying from peers at her school. According to her family, the bullying had gone on for months. They’d reported it to school officials who, they believe, did not take it seriously, and the parents are suing the school district they believe neglected […]
For as long as we can remember, our society has known one system of education. Based on their ZIP Codes, our children are assigned to “free” public schools that are supposed to be identical and serve everyone equally. Once in that system, which was designed to educate a workforce of people during the Industrial Age, […]
First, we need to understand what it would take to topple public schools. Total expenditures nationwide for fiscal year 2014 exceeded $625 billion. Now, how much are states spending on school choice programs today? Based on the most recent data available, only $2.2 billion across the entire country. The truth? The biggest threat to public […]
Researchers from across the country have conducted more than 100 rigorous empirical studies on the effects of school choice programs. Here’s what they found. Does School Choice Help or Hurt Students? The vast majority of random assignment studies—the gold-standard method in social science—find school choice programs help improve students’ academic performance, especially over time. […]
Rich people have always been able to practice educational choice: They either pay out of pocket for private schools, or they pay a premium to buy houses in neighborhoods with “good public schools.” So, what happens to everyone else? We know for a fact that our current ZIP Code-based public education system has kept low-income […]
The old system of delivering public education is not improving quickly enough. Since 1971, America’s spending on education has increased by 300 percent, and that’s adjusted for inflation. Yet student performance has been almost stagnant. Of the current forms of school choice, competition from private school choice and charter school choice works best to improve […]
The special education landscape has changed dramatically since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, was last reauthorized in 2004, and radically since the law was first written in 1975. Organizational, fiscal and medical aspects of special education are beyond a boiling point and have been driven to steam by a single handicapping condition: […]
…Coverdell Education Savings Accounts (Coverdell ESAs), which have been around for longer. The two types of programs are distinctly different. Here’s how: Coverdell Education Savings Accounts (Coverdell ESAs) Coverdell education…
Today’s freakout comes to us from Twitter, where we recently had a chat with an opponent who is fervently using the platform to fight a potential Iowa school choice program—education savings accounts (ESAs). This exchange represents what many school choice advocates in the states experience on a daily basis, especially regarding the financial effects of programs […]