Note: This week on the blog, parents who have chosen a variety of schooling options will be sharing their educational wishes for 2016. by Lydia Burton When I think of the wishes that I have for my child, so many of them revolve around his education. Not just the ability to tailor[Read More…]
Education Savings Accounts
ESAs and equity: Why the educational choice movement needs the left
Educational choice advocates have urged caution amid early reports that show, so far, Nevada’s new, near-universal education savings account program seems to be attracting families who are relatively well-off. They’re right to note these participation numbers reflect the “earliest of the early adopters.” It will take time for outreach efforts to inform low-income families about[Read More…]
Florida House panel backs expansion of special needs scholarship accounts
A Florida House panel this morning unanimously approved legislation expanding Florida’s newest educational choice program. The measure would codify changes approved last year that allowed 3- and 4-year-olds with special needs to access Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts. It also expands uses for the accounts. Because the changes were part of a[Read More…]
School choice, regulation and parents’ diverse needs
Parents need access to quality educational options. But, as several school choice advocates said during an education reform gathering in Orlando on Thursday, they will define quality based on their children’s needs. Hergit Llenas is the director of local engagement for the Nevada School Choice Partnership. Her state is home to[Read More…]
ESAs and the next wave of education innovation
Backers of the newest generation of educational choice programs seem to have found a favorite analogy. Education savings accounts, they’ll often say, are like the smartphones of school choice. To skeptics, might sound like another lazy tech metaphor in education reform, but there’s a reason the parallel between education savings accounts and iPhones has[Read More…]
Education savings accounts and trusting parents
DENVER – There were more than a few wet eyes in a room full of education reform advocates when Katie Swingle told her story of finding the right school for her son. After learning a traditional public-school setting wouldn’t work, she found a specialized private school that could help her son[Read More…]
A radical’s take on educational freedom
This guest post is part of our continuing series on the center-left roots of school choice. It may be hard for younger readers to imagine a time when to be anti-establishment was a position of the political left. Today, of course, the left is so well-ensconced in positions of power[Read More…]
Is 2015 the new ‘year of school choice?’
The school choice movement has already set a new high-water mark this year. The Wall Street Journal labeled 2011 the “year of school choice,” after states either created or expanded 13 school choice programs. But 2015 has surpassed that tally, and then some. Jason Bedrick of the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute has been[Read More…]