Nearly 70 years after Milton Friedman first proposed K-12 education vouchers, students in Arizona, Iowa, Utah, West Virginia, and other states can customize their education using education savings accounts (ESAs). ESAs allow parents to spend public education funding on expenses such as private school tuition, tutoring, and homeschooling curricula.…

Over the last quarter-century, tax-credit scholarship (TCS) policies have helped hundreds of thousands of American families provide their children with the learning environment that meets their individual needs. Although less well-known than school vouchers, TCS policies are the most-used form of private school choice. Now available in 23 states,…

This work discusses how the complex relationship between welfare policies of equity and market efficiencies/deficiencies of education policies is handled in local practices. It offers contributions from the five Nordic countries - Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland - and pays special attention to questions about access and diversity in…

In Philadelphia, if a student chooses not to attend their neighborhood school, other options include schools with specialized programming in the arts, sciences, or business fields, schools with career and technical education options, and competitive magnet schools. But choosing an out-of-catchment school rather than a neighborhood school may…

School closure is relatively common in the United States. An analysis by the Urban Institute found that about 2% of public schools, on average, were closed each year between 2003 and 2013, and these closures were found in urban, suburban, and rural communities. A substantial number of public schools have been closed in Michigan, California, Ohio,…

Through powerful narratives of parents of Black and Latinx students with disabilities, this book provides a unique look at the relationship between disability, race, urban space, and market-driven educational policies. Offering significant insights into complex forms of educational exclusion, the text illustrates the actual challenges and…

In the United States, students are assigned to public schools based on where they live. School districts have set boundaries and students living in the neighborhoods within those boundaries attend the district's schools. The district's boundaries are further delineated into attendance zones, in which particular homes and neighborhoods are assigned…

For over 150 years, the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) has been committed to developing and advocating for high-quality school systems for students of color and low-income students throughout the South. Policymakers, including those both elected or appointed to critical state and local positions, maintain tremendous influence over the quality…

New York City has the largest public school district in the U.S., but the city's diverse educational landscape also includes charter, private, and religious schools, all of which have undergone a major transformation in the two years since the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last two school years, overall school enrollment in the city was down by…

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) in education are a global phenomenon of education reform that is increasingly being implemented in several countries, including Pakistan. These are being framed as effective policy tools to increase equitable access to education. There are different manifestations and designs of PPPs in different regions, based…

Today, nearly all states either offer or allow digital learning in some form, with instruction provided by a variety of providers. This instruction typically takes one of three forms: (1) Full-time virtual schools: Students take their entire course load online via an independent, charter, or district-sponsored program; (2) Blended learning models:…

Private school choice options are being proposed and adopted in numerous states across the country. As of the spring of 2019, 62 private school choice programs were in operation in 29 states and the District of Columbia, serving more than 400,000 children. Although growth in private school choice programs and enrollment has been considerable over…

In 2007, the U.S. Department of Education commissioned WestEd to develop a guide on using quality authorizing to promote high-quality charter schools. At the time, notions about how authorizers could contribute to the existence of such schools were in their infancy, and the publication, which profiles the oversight practices of eight selected…

This timely book outlines the growth and development of marketing and branding practices in public education. The authors highlight why these practices have become important across key fields within public education, including leadership and governance, budgeting and finance, strategic initiatives, use of new technology, the role of teachers in…

For the past 30 years, America's K-12 education system has experienced an era of expanding educational choice. Although students who participate in private school choice programs and are enrolled in charter schools comprise a small portion of the K-12 population relative to students in district schools, choice is becoming a larger part of the K-12…