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In “Voucher Schools Provide Choice, Except When They Don’t,” the author Erin Prangley’s diatribe against school choice exposes the self-serving, “it’s good for me, but not for you” attitude that underlies the American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) position against vouchers. Ms. Prangley begins by affirming AAUW’s position supporting “quality public education for all.” It […]
Slate already posted a correction to its story that takes issue with school choice, “Publicly Funded Schools That Are Allowed to Teach Creationism.” Now it could use some context. Private schools accepting voucher or tax-credit scholarship students are not “publicly funded schools” any more than grocery stores that accept SNAP card users are publicly funded. But […]
An ambitious school choice proposal is on the table in Oklahoma. Last week, state legislators introduced a bill to create an education savings account system (ESA) for low- and middle-income students. (See a short video of the press conference and an explanation of how ESAs work.) The proposal is bigger than Arizona’s ESA program, a […]
What does Sen. Lamar Alexander’s (R-TN) introduction today of the “Scholarships for Kids Act of 2014” federal voucher legislation mean for the future of school choice? Allowing public education dollars to “follow” students makes sense at any level of government, from school boards all the way up to the federal government. Sen. Alexander’s proposal certainly […]
Today’s Friday Freakout comes from the heated comments section of Diane Ravitch’s blog titled,“How Embarrassing for the Friedman Foundation.” We responded to her blog post here, but something very interesting happened in the comments section between Diane and school choice supporter Greg. See the exchange below, then read our final thoughts. Two of the most […]
Centralization in public schools through school district consolidation was pitched as a way to save administrative costs in American public schools. Instead, public school administration has mirrored the trend of virtually every other government input: growth. Such centralization has contributed to a decrease in the ability of parents to “vote with their feet” for better […]
Following Eric Cantor’s speech about school choice last week, The Washington Post published an article called “Eric Cantor and Bill de Blasio exchange fire over schools”. One exchange in the comments section claiming that private and charter schools aren’t better at improving student outcomes serves as a perfect example of how common it is for […]
Milton Friedman said if the traditional public schools are as good as its defenders claim, they shouldn’t be afraid of competition. In a similar vein, some school choice supporters argue that if private schools are performing well then they shouldn’t fear state standardized tests. Such is the implication of a new policy toolkit released yesterday by […]
Despite the message of those adorable AT&T commercials that “more is better,” there is evidence to the contrary regarding money for public schools. In a little-discussed report, issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in September 2007, economist Rajashri Chakrabarti, Ph.D. presented a highly quantitative and rigorous analysis of the effect of school choice […]
Yesterday education historian Diane Ravitch recognized the Friedman Foundation’s research on her blog, specifically our new survey showing where Americans rank the efficaciousness of seven education reforms. However, I am concerned Ms. Ravitch believes “surprise (and, no doubt, embarrassment)” overcame our foundation given the results. We actually were quite encouraged by the findings. Survey respondents […]