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The holy grail of research is the causal claim. That is, if you can prove that A causes B, not that A is related to B or that A is similar to B, you can cure diseases, create rockets that leave our atmosphere, and design social programs that help people live better lives. In medicine, […]
The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) reported that 39.3 percent of voucher recipients (7,779 students) were never previously enrolled in public schools in Indiana, implying that these vouchers are an additional fiscal cost to the state because, as many are interpreting it, “those kids would have paid their way to a private school with or without […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A new Friedman Foundation report released today found what education reforms were most popular, in terms of their perceived effectiveness, among surveyed adults. The graphic below shows where Americans ranked them in importance, with one perceived as the most efficacious, and seven viewed as the least efficacious. When looking at Americans’ top three favored reforms […]
In a new Friedman Foundation report, I used survey data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) to examine several specific questions about public opinion and support for school choice: Is there a significant difference in support for choice based on reasons for school choice? (“Reasons” were defined as increasing equality, introducing competition, or facilitating […]
Historically, American public school districts have been governed by locally appointed or elected school boards, and families (mostly) have been free to live in whatever school district they wished. Several decades ago, this system provided a large degree of choice for many families, but over the past 70 years, choice among public school districts has […]