The traditional K-12 schooling model is a "bundled" product that provides parents with an all-in-one package of services: instruction, transportation, lunch, extracurriculars, and athletics, all delivered by one provider in one location: the school. Historically, parental choice has been limited to selecting from among different…

The full reach of the U.S. Supreme court's 2020 ruling in "Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue" has yet to be seen, but it has the potential to reshape the school-choice landscape. The ruling, which prohibited Montana from excluding students at religious schools from a tax-credit scholarship program, will figure prominently in many…

This study looks at the impact of using a voucher on college enrollments and on degree attainment. The data covers a span of 21 years, which allows the ability to record college enrollment and attainment up to seven years after a student's anticipated date of high-school graduation and observe students' college-going behavior even if their…

A privatization extremist. A religious zealot. A culture warrior. The new Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, was painted as any or all of these things in the fevered weeks between the 2016 presidential election and her confirmation hearing. In the days following that hearing, tens of thousands of people flooded the lines of congressional…

Student performance on standardized tests in Louisiana has trailed national averages for decades. In the 2017 8th-grade reading results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Louisiana public schools tied for 42nd in the nation and rated significantly higher than only one jurisdiction, the District of Columbia. Only 25 percent of…

In the past few years, four states have established programs that provide public financial support to students who choose to attend a private school. These programs--a tax-credit-funded scholarship initiative in Florida and voucher programs in Indiana, Louisiana, and Ohio--offer a glimpse of what expansive statewide choice might look like. What…

With the 2020 presidential election campaign now underway, education-policy proposals previously at the edge of the political debate are entering the mainstream. Support for increasing teacher pay is higher now than at any point since 2008, and a majority of the public favors more federal funding for local schools. Free college commands the…

In June 2015, the Colorado Supreme Court struck down a successful voucher program in Douglas County, invoking a provision of the state constitution that harks back to an era of widespread prejudice against Catholics. But because of the court's reliance on this discriminatory provision, its decision could well be overturned by the U.S. Supreme…

The study for which James S. Coleman is best known today makes no mention of private education. The 1966 "Equality of Educational Opportunity" (EEO) study--better known as the Coleman Report--focused exclusively on the distribution of resources and student achievement in America's "public" schools. The report's ink was barely…

The excerpts presented in this article begin in the 1980s and detail the origins of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which today enables more than 25,000 low-income students to attend more than 100 Milwaukee private schools. (This article was written with Lisa Frazier Page.)

In this article, "Education Next" talks with Matthew Ladner and Nelson Smith on the topic of Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). ESAs apply the logic of school choice to the ever-expanding realm of education offerings. Rather than simply empowering families to select the school of their choice, ESAs provide families with most or all of…

Critics of voucher programs often argue that private schools do exclude most disabled students, and the matter occasionally has been the subject of litigation. Yet accurate information on students with disabilities served by private schools is notable for its absence. According to the authors, in 2006, the State of Wisconsin authorized their…

Cheating is rampant, national test scores are abysmal, school policy is set in Washington, and teacher tenure is on its last legs. That's the image of American education implied by the 250-odd education stories published by leading news organizations last year. In this article, the author takes a closer look. (Contains 1 figure.)

One year ago, the "Wall Street Journal" dubbed 2011 "the year of school choice," opining that "this year is shaping up as the best for reformers in a very long time." School-choice laws took great strides in 2011, both in the number of programs that succeeded across states and also in the size and scope of the adopted…

At the turn of the century, the United States was trying to come to grips with a serious education crisis. The country was lagging behind its international peers, and a half-century effort to erode racial disparities in school achievement had made little headway. Many people expected action from the federal government. George W. Bush and Barack…