How Nevada Can Do Right by Students by Doing Right by Teachers

NV students and teachers

In two previous posts, I discussed the fiscal impact of Nevada’s education savings account (ESA) program and how it could help the state with its problem of rising pension costs. Offering teachers pensions is by no means the problem. But most pension systems across the U.S. have been poorly designed from the start, and after […]

Why You Should Stop Complaining About Schools Marketing Themselves to Families

Schools Marketing

From the minute we wake up to the minute we call it a day, we’re bombarded with marketing and advertising. Our phones, computers and televisions flicker with the latest deals. Our social media platforms intuitively know what brands we like best. Our brains are overloaded with sales pitches via billboards, bumper stickers, T-shirts, television and […]

The Next Accountability Part 2: Where We Get What We Want

Greg Forster

In our society we are free to disagree about what is good, true and beautiful, and as a result we lack consensus about what is a good education. Since education policy cannot avoid saying something about what is good, we need to develop an approach to school accountability that points toward a free community where […]

ESAs in Missouri: Designing What Works For Parents and the State Budget

ESAs in Missouri

This is the third in a three-part series that looks at education savings accounts in Missouri and how they could empower every family and improve student outcomes. As previously written, Missouri would do well to provide an education savings account to every child in the Show-Me State to make sure parents have the ability to […]

ESAs in Missouri: Why Things Need To Change

ESAs in Missouri

This is the second in a three-part series that looks at education savings accounts in Missouri and how they could empower every family and improve student outcomes.   There are roughly 916,000 students in Missouri’s public school system. Three-quarters of the state’s schools are Title I eligible (a proxy for school-level poverty), and roughly 45 […]

Top Findings From Arkansas Private School Survey

Exploring Arkansas's Private Education Sector

Arkansas is on its way to becoming a natural, actual, real, authentical educational choice lovin’ state. Just like Johnny Cash’s song character Joe Bean, I’ve never been to Arkansas. Growing up, my limited knowledge of Arkansas centered on a sunglasses-wearing, saxophone-blowing Bill Clinton. However, I got older and learned more about the Natural State, especially […]

Educational Choice and Bridging the Political Divide

At the annual conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting this year, Dr. Steve Perry—a liberal charter school leader and passionate educational choice advocate—spoke about the poor state of K–12 education for families of color and those in poverty and inspired the audience with his ideas on how to bridge the political divide to advance […]

ESAs in Missouri: A “Barren” School Choice Landscape

ESAs in Missouri

This is the first in a three-part series that looks at education savings accounts in Missouri and how they could empower every family and improve student outcomes. Where Things Stand in the Show-Me State School choice has seen tremendous progress over the past two decades. What began modestly in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1991 with a […]

The Next Accountability Part 1: What We Want

The Next Accountability

Accountability begins with the question: What do we want from schools? Education should help people grow into their potential as human beings, and education reform should fix our system so schools do that better. That means accountability needs to start with an understanding of how we help people grow into their human potential. The lack […]

BRIEF: School Choice in the States July 2016

July 2016 State Brief

LEGISLATION AND LITIGATION Arkansas – Brittany Corona @BrittanyLCorona Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed the state’s 2016–17 budget in June, which included funding for the Succeed Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities, a statewide school voucher program for public school students with special needs and active-duty military families. The Reform Alliance is continuing its work with the Arkansas Department […]