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…
What the Espinoza Ruling Means for Blaine Amendments and School Choice
EdChoice is celebrating a landmark VICTORY for families and children! Discriminatory Blaine Amendments found in state constitutions can no longer be used to prohibit families participating in school choice programs from accessing religiously affiliated private schools for their children, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Espinoza v. Montana Dept of Revenue. Chief Justice […]
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways June 2020
What will “back-to-school” look like this fall? That question currently is dominating headlines in education news outlets as well as throughout the much broader media landscape. You can check out recent pieces at The New York Times, The Atlantic, Science, USA Today, POLITICO, and Bloomberg—and those have published just this past week! The summer months […]
State Of The Unions: Let’s Not Be So Hasty Comparing Police To Teachers
By Jennifer Wagner There has been much debate in recent weeks about criminal justice reform following the killing of George Floyd and a series of high-profile cases of police brutality against African-Americans. Police unions have found themselves squarely in a very harsh spotlight. Because the word “union” is being bandied about, some in the school choice […]
BRIEF: School Choice in the States – June 2020
LEGISLATION Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 7067, a bill that significantly expands the state’s Family Empowerment Scholarship program. The bill expands income-eligibility from 185 percent of the federal poverty line ($47,638 for a family of four in 2019–20) to 300 percent of the federal poverty line ($77,250 for a family of four in 2019–20). Students from […]
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 […]
Key Findings from the Indiana School Voucher Program 2019–20 IDOE Report
Over the past few months, researchers have gotten used to state departments of education not releasing data on as regular a basis as they did pre-pandemic. They currently have their hands full figuring out what the fall might look like in their state. And I was honestly a little nervous to see the new Indiana […]
What to Do About ‘Bad Parents’ in K–12 Education
“This idea of parental choice, that’s great if the parent is well-educated. There are some families that’s perfect for. But to make it available to everyone? No. I think you’re asking for a huge amount of trouble.” Those are the words of a lawmaker in New Hampshire advocating the repeal of an alternative schooling program […]
HELP Us Change Our Mind and (Not) Open Schools Too Soon
By Drew Catt As a native of Indiana and science fiction fan, I grew up loving Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and was downright giddy when Stranger Things lasted more than just one season. Both of those storylines, in some ways, seem more plausible than what we’ve been experiencing in 2020. While I certainly […]
Everyone Loves To Hate Fancy Private Schools
By Jennifer Wagner It’s always easy to hate the rich and their fancy private schools. It’s even easier in tough economic times when unemployment is high and the future is uncertain. So when the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance last month for the distribution of $13.5 billion in federal pandemic aid to all schooling types based […]