public school

New Analysis Maps K–12 Schooling ‘Deserts’ in Choice-Rich Indiana

The authors of our latest report—Indiana’s Schooling Deserts—used Geographic Information System software to map families’ drive times to traditional public, magnet, charter and voucher-participating private schools. That first-of-its-kind mapping allowed us to identify where three kinds of “schooling deserts” exist: A-rated schooling deserts, meaning no A-rated schools of any kind are within a 30-minute drive […]

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. […]

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 […]

Friday Freakout: How to Debate School Choice with a Public School Superintendent

How to Debate School Choice with a Public School Superintendent

Today’s freakout comes to us from Twitter, where we were excited to chat with a public school superintendent who is an active fighter of school choice programs. Dr. Jason Glass is the Superintendent of Eagle County Schools in Colorado. Here are helpful resources to learn more about Eagle County as well as the local debate […]

Friday Freakout: What Teachers Say to School Choice Advocates vol. 1

What teachers say to school choice

Our previous two blog posts on how top-down reforms are not market reform and how school choice actually increases demand for educators garnered a lot of attention from public school teachers on Facebook. As it’s one of our goals to listen and learn from more educators, we were excited so many were willing to take […]

More School Districts Move Toward “Recovery-Style” Model for Greater School Autonomy

Greater School Autonomy

The state of Louisiana sparked a paradigm shift in education when it created the New Orleans’ Recovery School District in 2004. RSD is now almost entirely composed of charter schools. School principals gain autonomy over budget, staff, and curriculum while central office staff focus on addressing school failure. This experiment has delivered encouraging results. Just […]

Friday Freakout: Do It to Your Own Children, Not Other People’s

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 […]

Friday Freakout: Teacher Licenses Are Like Doctor Licenses

Today’s featured commenters come from the comments section of a Huffington Post piece called “Debbie Squires, Education Official, Says Teachers Know What’s Best For Kids, Not Their Parents”. More and more people are debating the true value of colleges of education and teacher licenses. Regardless, we believe when all families have school choice, they will choose […]