It has only been a year since Arizona passed the country’s first comprehensive school choice program. But since then, seven other states, including Florida, have followed suit with at least eight more on track to adopt similar bills in the near future. Families who take advantage of such legislation typically get a separate account from the state …
In a surprise development, teachers’ unions in eight states recently announced drives to pass legislation that would establish so-called “wealth taxes.” Working with progressive legislators in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, and Washington, the unions have devised what they believe are the best ways to tap, not just the incomes, but the …
Teacher Unions Unwittingly Promote School Choice Read More »
A new Arizona law which funds all the state’s K-12th grade children to attend a school of their family’s choosing, public or private, has been widely hailed as a landmark education reform, although evidence suggests the benefits will go far beyond academics. Studies by the Manhattan Institute, New Jersey’s E3, and Connecticut’s Yankee Institute all show that subsidizing students to use …
Universal School Choice Will Transform Every Community Read More »
No one need ask why the strict public health regime to manage Covid — masks, mandates, quarantines, and required inoculations — has begun to collapse. Between angry truckers, unfavorable polling for continued lockdowns, the perception of a Wuhan coverup, changing reports of vaccine effectiveness, and declining hospitalizations, even President Biden and blue state governors realize …
Our Post-Covid World Has Some Unexpected Benefits Read More »
If, like me, you enjoy scanning the comment section at the bottom of provocative political articles, you already know the sentiment you are most likely to encounter: “Just leave your politics behind!” It is always written, of course, by some red state resident trying to make blue state newcomers realize that the economic problems they …
Red States Should Worry About Education Reform, Not Their New Neighbors from Blue States Read More »
It’s no secret that America’s 564 state and local public pension plans are in serious trouble. Joshua Rauh of Stanford’s Hoover Institution recently put the cumulative underfunding at $3.4 trillion. Less widely known is that the shape of a long-term cure for this deficit has already begun to emerge — along with the unexpected opportunity …
Solve the Public Pension Crisis with School Choice Read More »
The argument for school choice—letting parents decide how to spend the public money allocated for their child’s education—has until now rested on two well-documented findings. First, that creating a K-12 education marketplace tends to improve the academic performance of all schools within its region, public and private. And second, that this increase in quality typically comes in …
The Immorality of Public School Monopolies in Today’s Political Environment Read More »
Comparing today’s high school education to a 50-year-old mainframe computer, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates once said that our schools were created “to meet the needs of another age.” He predicted that, until we reinvent them, “we will keep limiting – even ruining – the lives of millions of Americans every year.” Interestingly, this is …
A recently released school reform study in New Jersey promises timely fiscal as well as educational benefits, and not just for the Garden State. Some quick background helps us appreciate the study’s nationwide implications. In 2011, Arizona became the first state to adopt what is called an education savings account, or ESA, policy. ESA plans …
When Public Funding for Religious Schools Is a Government Windfall Read More »