Policy & Law

Stay well-informed about the ever-changing landscape of policies and laws that impact choices for students, parents, and educators.

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Everything counts in large amounts

The EdChoice blog recently delivered some good news, specifically that the number of students using private choice programs increased by 25% last year. In fact, if you cobble together some previous years’ data from the EdChoice ABCs of School Choice reports, the trend looks like: Overall, a doubling of private... READ MORE
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Strengthening public education markets
Every state’s public education system is a market with supply (i.e., instruction) and demand (i.e., students needing instruction). These markets function as the operating systems for public education. Unfortunately, since...
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Who is busting what budget exactly?
Choice opponents have been known to throw contradictory arguments out against private choice programs. One moment they will claim that the majority of kids using universal choice programs were already...
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Rev. H.K. Matthews, civil rights icon and friend of educational freedom
By John Kirtley The Rev. H.K. Matthews passed away Monday at the age of 97. As I urge you to read in this obituary, he was one of the towering...
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Arizona edupreneur wins standoff with state fire marshal over costly regulations
Nothing can stop Denise Lever. Not a raging wildfire and certainly not a state fire marshal’s effort to shut down her tutoring center by trying to impose regulations that could...
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Adventures in babysitting
Recently, someone representing a state official responded to an Arizona media outlet inquiry about the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program and referred to “tutoring and babysitting.” Consequently, Arizona’s school district industrial...
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Against the divine right of (philosopher) kings
**SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 8** Western cultures, for some strange reason, involve rituals where we pretend that various “fairy creatures” exist, particularly...
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Here we are now, going to the supply side
Last week, I had the opportunity to make a presentation about how lawmakers can support teachers who want to start their own schools. The four key features: Universal eligibility: Everyone...
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President signs education choice bill into law
Editor’s note: This story has been updated after President Donald Trump signed the bill.  Education choice, which has long been the domain of statehouses, is now enshrined in federal law....
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Technocrats wear a political dunce crown
David Osborne recently predicted academic doom for red states having recently passed universal private choice programs. “This will accelerate the process of the rich getting richer while the poor fall...
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Imagine if the District of Columbia Public Schools gave peace a chance in special education
“War, huh, yeah What is it good for? Absolutely nothing” — Edwinn Starr, “War” The District of Columbia Public School system has a troubled history with special education. In reviewing...
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