School Choice

family empowerment scholarship

Florida education choice expansion heads to full House

Editor’s note: This update appeared earlier today on newsserviceflorida.com. A proposal that would make all Florida students eligible to receive taxpayer-backed school vouchers is headed to the full House, after getting some changes Friday. The Republican-controlled House Education Quality Subcommittee approved the proposal (HB 1) in a near party-line vote.[Read More…]

ESAs’ surge is decades in the making, and advocates are prepared for pushback

Editor’s note: This commentary from Adam Peshek, senior director and senior fellow at Stand Together Trust, appeared today on the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s website. In the summer of 2015, I sat at my desk and Googled “health savings account providers.” At the time, I had been in states across[Read More…]

Nebraska needs to step up on school choice

Editor’s note: This commentary from Katie Linehan, national director of communications and marketing at the American Federation for Children, appeared Wednesday on washingtonexaminer.com. Linehan’s mother, Nebraska state Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, is lead sponsor of the Opportunity Scholarships Act. This week, the Nebraska Legislature is debating a school choice bill that[Read More…]

Companion bills that would massively expand education choice in Florida win committee approvals

Historic legislation that would expand education choice in Florida got a big boost Wednesday as two committees approved House and Senate versions of bills that would allow every K-12 student in the state to be eligible for education savings accounts. Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Education voted 9-4,[Read More…]

podcastED: Florida mom expresses gratitude for scholarship that benefits her daughter, contributes to her own success as tutor, advocate

On this episode, reimaginED senior writer Lisa Buie talks with Danyse Streets, a reading specialist who owns and operates Bridging the Reading Gap, a tutoring and special education advocacy company in Fleming Island, Florida, just south of Jacksonville. Her 12-year-old daughter, Kate, receives a Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students[Read More…]

Florida legislative session opening day: What they’re saying about education choice

Editor’s note: Today marks the first day of the two-month 2023 legislative session, although committees have been discussing bills since December. The state’s top legislative leaders, House Speaker Paul Renner, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, each cited education choice expansion as a priority during opening speeches to their chambers. Likewise, Gov.[Read More…]

Education freedom and student achievement: A happy marriage

This commentary from Patrick J. Wolf, Distinguished Professor of Education Policy and 21st Century Endowed Chair in School Choice in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions.; Jay P. Greene, a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education[Read More…]

School choice changed our lives

Editor’s note: This commentary from Jayleesha Cooper and Brandon Villanueva Sanchez, members of the American Federation for Children’s 2023 Future Leaders Fellowship cohort, describes the life-changing possibilities of education choice and advocates for Nebraska’s Opportunity Scholarships Act. Our stories are unique, but we have many things in common. We were[Read More…]