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Teacher pay has made lots of headlines the last couple years, with educators in Illinois and Indiana among the latest to take action to up their salaries. Because K-12 funding is so complicated, we thought it would be a good time to throw out the Top Five questions we get asked about pay. Some of […]
In his recent Forbes column, my colleague Mike McShane highlighted new polling data that reveals public school teachers’ negative sentiment around inter-district busing, especially for the purposes of racial and economic integration: To be totally honest, this result surprised me. I would have guessed, perhaps prejudicially, that parents would be the most opposed and teachers […]
The new “gotcha” argument from school choice opponents is that school choice is inefficient. Charter schools and private schools create redundancies by duplicating the services, systems and governing structure of public schools. Some even take it a step further and argue that choice robs from traditional systems, and if it would go away, all that […]
LEGISLATION AND LITIGATION District of Columbia The Council of the District of Columbia completed and submitted to Congress its budget request act for the new fiscal year. In it, D.C. lawmakers requested $40 million for the program that houses the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. That program is now funded at $15 million and must be reauthorized […]
“How could anyone be for private school vouchers? Aren’t they just a corporate scheme to privatize and defund our public schools?” your mom friend asks as the kids play on the jungle gym. We’re no stranger to loaded questions like these, and you shouldn’t be afraid to speak up for what you believe in. Next […]
LEGISLATION AND LITIGATION Florida Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 7070, a bill that creates a voucher program for 18,000 children from low- and middle-income families. The cap on enrollment increases by about 7,000 scholarships per year, and priority is given to children from low-income families (earning up to 185 percent of the federal poverty […]
LEGISLATION AND LITIGATION Arkansas After passing the Arkansas Senate during the last week of March, SB 539 died in the Arkansas House of Representatives in late April. The bill would have established a tax-credit scholarship program for low-income students and those already eligible to participate in the Succeed Scholarship Program. A pilot tax-credit scholarship bill for […]
LEGISLATION AND LITIGATION National Indiana Rep. Jim Banks introduced the Education Savings Accounts for Military Families Act of 2019 in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill would allow children of active-duty military members to use an education savings account (ESA) for tuition and a variety of educational expenses, up to $6,000 per year. Arkansas […]
In many ways, Florida is at the top of the class when it comes to private schools and educational choice. Florida has a lot of private schools. In fact, only California, Pennsylvania and Texas have more according to the most recent Private School Universe Survey (PSS) estimates. And when it comes to the number of […]
LEGISLATION AND LITIGATION Arizona The Arizona Senate Finance Committee passed SB 1395, a bill that would improve the administration of the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program. The bill clarifies eligibility for students living within the attendance boundary of a low-performing district school, clarifies that students are eligible to receive an ESA to enroll in kindergarten until […]