Opponents of education choice often make two arguments about its effect on rural areas: (1) education choice will not help in rural areas because there are few or no alternatives to the district school system; and (2) education choice will destroy the district school system because so many students will leave for alternative options. These two…

Virtual charter schools--public charter schools that operate entirely or mostly online--largely depend on self-paced, asynchronous (accessed at any time) instruction and often rely on parents to act as instructors, according to the US Government Accountability Office's (GAO's) review of a nationally representative sample of virtual charter school…

Charter schools are publicly funded schools freed from some of the regulations placed on traditional public schools (TPS). In exchange for that greater level of autonomy, public charter schools are required to meet performance goals contained in their authorizing charter or face the prospect of closure. Most public charter schools may enroll…

As England attempts to close educational attainment gaps faced by socioeconomically disadvantaged children using Pupil Premium funding, no attention is given to how different types of academies do so, nor to policy transfer's role in informing policies for disadvantaged pupils. Employing a qualitative comparative case study methodology with…

The U.S. Department of Education has projected enrollment declines over the next decade, leading to budget cuts for school districts, which will be particularly impactful in urban and rural areas serving vulnerable students. As federal COVID-19 funds expire, districts will face challenges in cutting costs, potentially leading to layoffs or school…

The purpose of the "Iowa K-12 & School Choice Survey" is to measure public opinion on, and in some cases awareness or knowledge of, a range of K-12 education topics and school choice reforms. EdChoice and the Iowa Alliance for Choice in Education developed this project in partnership with Braun Research, Inc., which conducted the…

Academisation of schooling in England is a significant development with consequences for the disavowal of the role of community and democracy in education at the local level and wider resonance for geo-policy jurisdictions where neoliberal education reforms play out. This study analyses the operation of power and control of Multi Academy Trust…

Across the globe school autonomy reforms have been criticised for opening up public assets to various dangers or risks, from misappropriation of public monies by private sponsors to secretive governance structures maintained by homophilic groups. While these risks are not the exclusive product of school autonomy reforms, they are an endemic…

U.S. charter schools are publicly funded through state school finance formulas that often mirror the traditional public school finance systems. While charter school advocates and critics disagree over whether charters receive an equitable share of funding, few discussions are based on rigorous analyses of funding and expenditures. Most prior…

The research on full-day kindergarten and its benefits are robust, from improving literacy skills, greater math and reading gains during the school year, and overall academic growth. In addition, children with developmental delays and special learning needs are able to be identified earlier and supported with appropriate interventions. Fully…

The public schools of Arkansas, open enrollment public charter schools, and education service cooperatives annual statistical report (ASR), 2020-2021 actual and 2021-2022 budgeted, is presented here. The rankings of selected items of the public schools, 2020-2021 actual, are also included. The school districts are listed according to Local…

Finding funds to build and renovate facilities is a major hurdle for public charter schools because most state laws do not provide charter schools with the full amount of state and local funding that other public schools receive. Although an increasing number of states are passing laws to address charter school facility funding gaps, inequities…

Historically, debates about educational choice have wrestled with big, unresolved tensions that lie at the heart of American life, having to do with individual rights, community obligations, public and private interests, religious freedoms, and more. But in recent years, school reformers have tended to talk about choice as though it referred only…

The 2020 Democratic Party platform promises a ban on all federal funding for for-profit charter schools, explaining that "education is a public good and should not be saddled with a private profit motive." A look at Academica, a large U.S.-based education service, and their response to the COVID-19 crisis might temper some of that…

This report presents data on public elementary and secondary education revenues and expenditures at the local education agency (LEA) or school district level for fiscal year (FY) 2019. Specifically, this report includes the following types of school district finance data: (1) revenue, current expenditure, and capital outlay expenditure totals; (2)…