Mississippi’s ESA Bill Breakdown

What to know about Mississippi's ESA bill

As the first national private school choice organization to work with parents and advocates in Mississippi, beginning several years ago, we are excited to share the news about their recent success. The Mississippi legislature passed Senate Bill 2695, an education savings account (ESA) program for children with disabilities that is now headed to Gov. Phil […]

Improving America’s Classrooms Through School Choice

School choice could help with improving America's classrooms

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 […]

A Friedman Foundation Refresher Course

What does the Friedman Foundation do?

“What do you do when you go to work, Daddy?” That was the question I got from my inquisitive 8-year-old son sitting across the table from me.   Trying to keep it simple, I said, “I tell people about the idea that parents should be able to send their kids to whatever school they wanted […]

How School Choice Can Help Public Schools in Tennessee

How could school choice help public schools in Tennessee?

Faulty faucets that constantly drip can prove costly over time. In Tennessee, the legislative efforts to fix our education system via school choice have been dripping for the past five years. And indeed, that pattern not only is costing many children their futures, it’s adding up for taxpayers. As the Tennessee legislative session reaches high […]

Friday Freakout: What Teachers Say about School Choice vol. 2

What teachers say about school choice

We’re back this week with the second installment of this series, which features Facebook feedback we regularly receive from teachers across the country. In our first post on the topic, we said, “Our ultimate hope is teachers, many of whom might be reading right now, will see that we aren’t all talk. We do listen. […]

Six Survey Snapshots of Nevada’s Education Landscape

Learn about Nevada's education landscape

At the start of the year, an internal “poll” among staff at the Friedman Foundation named Nevada the state most likely to succeed in creating its first school choice program. In fact, a bill that would create a tax-credit scholarship program is making its way through the state legislature right now. But what does Nevada’s […]

BRIEF: School Choice in the States February 2015

school choice in the states

Arizona – Leslie Hiner @LeslieHiner The Arizona Senate passed, with a bipartisan vote, the expansion of education savings accounts (ESAs) to include Native American families living on tribal lands. Florida – Leslie Hiner @LeslieHiner A bill to clarify and revise technical aspects of the Florida Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts, an ESA program, was introduced in […]

Roll Tide — Major Victory for School Choice in Alabama

Victory for school choice in alabama

Justice is on the side of school choice and the families who use it. That was the outcome this week in Alabama, where the state’s Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s attempted termination of the Alabama Accountability Act, a law that included two school choice measures: a tax-credit scholarship program and an individual refundable tax […]

Friday Freakout: Does School Choice Destroy Democracy in Education?

Does school choice destroy democracy

Today’s freakout comes to us from the comments section of The Atlantic article, “Saving School Choice Without Undermining Poor Communities,” and it concerns how implementing a school choice system would affect democracy in education by changing the ability of taxpayers and communities to influence public education. Check out how this conversation got started below. Kryten8 […]

A New Look at Data from the Nation’s Largest School Choice Program

School vouchers in Indiana

Indiana’s statewide school choice program is either incredibly controversial or wildly popular, depending on with whom one speaks. To the former, vouchers only help the rich. And sometimes with the latter, it is suggested only families in “poor-performing” public schools use the freedom to choose in education. Thankfully, facts exist to respond to such opinions. This […]