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A recent Wall Street Journal story, “Homeowners’ Quest for the Best Schools,” highlighted an age-old dilemma that far too many American families face when it comes time to determine the best K–12 education for their children. Because our school system has historically been based on geography instead of student needs, families who can afford to […]
Milwaukee, Wisconsin has a 25-year-old school voucher program (MPCP) restricted to low-income students, district-run chartered public schools and some privately funded vouchers. Because the MPCP is the oldest publicly funded U.S. voucher program, its results have attracted a lot of attention. Sadly, much of what has been said and written, from school choice expansion proponents […]
In a Part I of this series, I shared my wife’s and my history with K–12 public schooling before listing seven reasons why problematic public school classroom conditions have survived decades of education reform efforts. I discussed only the first three: Weak, often poorly targeted, incentives for educator effectiveness and parental involvement Classroom composition policies […]
Problematic public school classroom conditions have survived decades of education reform efforts. With federal lawmakers considering reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act—and new state lawmakers pursuing different types of education reforms—it is worth reviewing the root causes of our school system’s ineffectiveness and the policy reforms that would eliminate those problems—for the benefit […]
School choice typically is depicted, simply, as a family’s decision between a public or private school. But the freedom to choose in education actually goes much deeper, getting to the heart of what parents truly want for their kids on a day-to-day basis. An excellent example is the growing national and local trend in which […]
If President Obama wants to “empower boys and men of color,” he really should give school choice another look. If only the idea’s founder, Milton Friedman, were still alive to advise the president—one Nobel laureate to another—as he did previous officeholders of the White House. Heeding Milton’s advice could make the president’s proposal far more […]