What the EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker Tells Us About Teacher Pensions
…What does all this mean for teachers? In some places, they may lose their jobs. In other areas, we may see increased demand for teachers to fill educational roles (perhaps…
Martin Lueken
What Are ESAs And How Do They Work?
“ESA” is an acronym used for more than 150 different organizations, technology, policies and other entities. European Space Agency. Endangered Species Act. Emotional Support Animal. Entertainment Software Association. Eastern Surfing Association. Economic and Statistical Analysis. But in the education world, ESA stands for “educations savings account.” In K–12 education, ESAs are state-based programs where parents […]
The Trillion Dollar Problem: Pandemic Puts State Pension Plans At Even Greater Risk
Public pension plans in the United States face about $1 trillion in investment losses due to the COVID-19 recession, according to a recent report by Moody’s. Before the COVID-19 recession hit, states already faced more than $1 trillion in unfunded liabilities. This situation does not bode well for states, school districts and certainly teachers. In […]
K-12 Fiscal Relief in the Aftermath of COVID-19
K-12 education historically has been insulated from recessions, but the fallout from COVID-19 will strain state and district budgets and leave lawmakers and other public officials struggling to figure out financial solutions for years to come. Policymakers will be hard-pressed to find solutions to these challenges, but the answer is not growing the traditional system, […]
Four Ways Evidence Shows School Choice Can Help Teachers
From the 11-day teacher’s strike in Chicago, the nation’s third largest public school district, to a looming Statehouse protest in Indiana, teachers and their working conditions are making headlines. Teachers’ unions tend to oppose educational choice policies, but there are several ways expanding choice could actually help teachers. Here are the four big ones. […]
Want Parents to Stop Cheating and Lying? Fix the Public Education System
Some parents will stop at nothing to provide the best opportunities for their children. The recent college admissions scandal is shining a bright light on this, and given that many of the parents being charged and pleading guilty are (very, very) wealthy individuals, the differences in educational opportunities between wealthy and low-income families couldn’t be […]
America’s Public Worker Pension Crisis Hits Primetime
Pensions hit primetime. PBS recently aired an episode of Frontline that reported on public employee pensions in Kentucky. This is an issue that affects so many Americans, not only the workers who benefit from pensions, but also taxpayers that pay to help fund them. It’s also an issue that for most is probably as exciting […]
Defining Market Failure (with Examples)
Introductory courses in economics usually focus on perfect competition and why markets are more efficient than other institutional arrangements, such as monopolies or oligopolies. Under certain conditions, markets will generate the best outcomes for consumers and society. In the words of economists, markets achieve equilibrium when the quantity consumers demand of a good or service […]
School Choice Research is Not a Rorschach Test
In 1921, Swiss psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach published Pscychodiagnostik, wherein he produced 10 cards blotted with ink that he believed were a window into an individual’s subconscious. In the nearly 100 years since, the term “Rorschach Test” has come to denote a phenomenon whose interpretation is derived entirely by the observer. In recent years, the research […]
Understanding the New IES Report on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program
The Institute of Education Science (IES) recently released a report that analyzed first-year outcomes for students enrolling in D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) since its 2011 reauthorization. The OSP provides students from low-income families in D.C. with scholarships worth up to $8,452 for K–8 students and $12,679 for high school students. The IES research team […]