This has been a good year for evidence on the effectiveness of charters, highlighted by a major national study from CREDO and a new study in the continuing work from New York City. Nonetheless, understanding and interpreting the scientific research within the political and media environment is made more difficult by the political context.

As Jay Greene and I argue in our brand new Ed Next article, "The Case for Special Education Vouchers," parents of special ed students should be provided with vouchers that would allow their children to attend private school. The moral and equitable case for providing special ed vouchers is strong: some special ed students get a raw deal from the traditional public schools, which often are unable to provide the needed services or specialized teachers that a disabled student needs.

Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. tackle another hot topic in...

Earlier this week I submitted the following letter to the editor to the Wall Street Journal. I don’t know whether it will be published. I am less sanguine than the paper’s editors regarding the intentions of Senator Durbin.

It’s true that charter opponents can’t look at the recent Hoxby study and claim that it unfairly compares one type of student to another. But it doesn’t prove at all that charter schools aren’t creaming. Of course they are creaming. And good for them for doing it.

Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. discuss the week’s education news,...

There are more than 4500 charter schools across the United States today, but in...

The editorial board of the Washington Post has recommended some beach reading for President Obama.

Earlier this month, Mike Petrilli moderated a Fordham Institute discussion about whether charter schools had eclipsed private school vouchers as the most promising education reform.

Major changes this year to Milwaukee's 20-year old voucher program please some and dismay others.