As a new GI Bill moved through Congress in 2008, a handful of influential politicians grew concerned. Would such a generous education program trigger an exodus of service members during two wars? At the Pentagon's urging, the lawmakers proposed a fix: Give troops the option to transfer their benefits to a child or spouse. That policy quickly…

Since the enactment of the "Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975" ("EHA"), Public Law (P.L.) 94-142 and its successor statute, the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" ("IDEA" or "act"), the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (secretary) (and her predecessor, the…

University education remains a major player in the socio-economic revamping of Africa even though most African national governments have not leveraged the high output of the private sector for educational development. For the most part to date, private universities are running as parallels to their public counterparts. With fewer infrastructures,…

Given that many jobs of the future will be STEM jobs, that our K-12 system is "middle of the pack" in international comparisons, and that progress on STEM education at multiple levels is critical to building a just and inclusive society, there is an urgent need to continue to improve STEM education in the United States. Much knowledge…

K-12 educators comprise a large and influential presence in American politics. Not only do they vote in significant numbers, but they also, at least in theory, possess the power to shape a new generation of young voters, not least by encouraging informed civic participation. When it comes to myriad issues related directly to education, their views…

This spring, Congress is considering the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. In the 14 years since the law was passed, AEI Education has devoted extensive analysis to how it worked in practice. AEI has distilled their work into a series of brief chapters to provide a one-stop shop for understanding why the law was passed, what went…

The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the Census of Governments and the Annual Surveys of State and Local Government Finances as authorized by law under Title 13, U.S. Code, Sections 161 and 182. The Census of Governments has been conducted every 5 years since 1957, while the annual survey has been conducted annually since 1977 in years when the Census…

A new class of financial tools is being developed to promote human capital investments that benefit society. Social innovation financing (SIF) entails raising private capital to support promising social interventions, with the expectation that those providing the funding will eventually be repaid. Funds are allocated based on service providers'…

Building on the premise that closing achievement gaps is an economic imperative both to regain international educational supremacy and to maintain global economic competitiveness, I ask whether it is possible to rewrite the social contract so that education is a fundamental right--a statutory guarantee--that is both uniform across states and…

This hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions examines No Child Left Behind, focusing on innovation to better meet the needs of students. The questions addressed are: (1) What is your State, district, or school doing to implement innovative approaches to improve academic outcomes for students, particularly low-income and…

This study explores four instances where parental choice has been employed as a legal "circuit breaker": (a) First Amendment Establishment Clause cases related to public funding, (b) Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection cases regarding race-conscious student assignment, (c) Title IX regulations concerning single-sex education, and (d) a…

Congress completed the fiscal year 2011 appropriations process on April 14th, 2011, finalizing annual funding for nearly all federal education programs through September 30, 2011 at $68.3 billion, up $4.2 billion from the prior year. Making sense of the federal education budget and the appropriations process can be a frustrating task for education…

Research based on randomized experiments (along with high-quality quasi-experiments) has gained traction in education circles in recent years. There is little doubt this has been driven in large part by the shift in research funding strategy by the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences under Grover Whitehurst's lead, described…

About two decades ago, a consensus began to take root among educators and policymakers that school systems in the United States could no longer afford to ignore the inadequate building conditions that made teaching and learning difficult in many classrooms. Since then, billions of dollars have been spent, and thousands of modern classrooms have…

Education advocates brace for cuts in the fallout from the hard-fought deal to avert a U.S. default. The hard-fought deal places 10-year caps on federal spending, including a $7 billion overall reduction from current levels in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. It creates a new bipartisan congressional committee charged with finding $1.5 trillion…