In March the Harvard Education Press released a new book by Jack Jennings. Presidents, Congress, and the Public Schools analyzes a half century of national school improvement efforts, such as Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the No Child Left Behind Act. In lieu of those
It’s late August, and thoughts are turning toward getting the kids ready for school. It seems hardly a few weeks ago that school was over for the summer, and here it is time for them to go back. Kids will be in a higher grade than last year, and they
One in 10 U.S. students in grades preK-12 attends a private school, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. Surprised it’s not a higher share? Perhaps even more surprisingly, the private school share of total enrollments has decreased over the past 15 years, from about
Daily, members of Congress orate on the need for American schools to improve. Yet today, the legislation authorizing every major federal program to assist education has expired or will soon lapse due to the lack of action by Congress. The only way these programs continue temporally is under a Congressional
Mitt Romney has pledged that if elected president he will enact a voucher program that would allow parents of low-income and special needs students “to choose from any district or public charter school, or a private school where permitted by state law.” This position has become the norm for Republican
In the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, private school advocates tried to build support for tuition vouchers, payments of public tax funds for private school tuition. President Richard Nixon most notably endorsed this idea. Proponents of vouchers argued that parents who sent their children to private schools were “taxed” twice
