School Choice

Charter Lessons for School Choice, Including Accountability via Authorizers

Having state-approved authorizers oversee private schools that participate in voucher programs would expand the educational options available to disadvantaged kids, ensure that participating schools are high performing, and allow private schools to maintain their distinctive characteristics.

How Private Schools Adapt to Vouchers: Five Case Studies from Ohio

Private schools that accept voucher students struggle to make ends meet, but are strikingly mission focused, often with a crusader’s zeal to educate every child that comes through their door, bearing a voucher or not.

Executive Action I Can Support: Weighted Lotteries for Charter Schools

The U.S. Department of Education issued new guidance for the Public Charter Schools Program that will allow charters to use “weighted lotteries” without forfeiting their chance to receive federal start-up funds.

Nuances of School Choice

What does it mean to support school choice? A wide variety of programs fall under the umbrella of “school choice,” and some are better than others.

Am I Being Consistent on Testing Requirements?

I would be happy opposing state testing requirements for all schools (choice and traditional public) if those schools had some reasonable mechanism for accountability.

Testing Requirements Hurt Choice

State testing makes choice schools look worse than they really are, and there's no evidence that state testing requirements improve outcomes or ensure quality.

The Problem With ‘Bad Voucher Schools Aren’t a Problem’

Students receiving publicly funded scholarships or vouchers should take state assessments and that the results should be reported publicly.

The Common Coring of Private Schools

Though Fordham’s accountability plan for voucher schools is well-intentioned, their justifications are unpersuasive and their proposal is more likely to do harm than good.

Why and How Parents Choose Schools

I agree with the study’s authors that we ought to do all we can to make school information widely available so parents can make informed choices, but I’m still of a mind that some level of regulation is needed

Tough Advice for Faith-Based Schools from a Critical Friend

Families are becoming smarter and pickier customers. Why has the faith-based schools community barely reacted or adapted to this new environment?

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