The education landscape is rapidly evolving as state policymakers enact and significantly expand private education choice initiatives. These initiatives, currently operating in 29 states and counting, provide public dollars directly to families to support approved educational purchases, including, but not always limited to, private school tuition.…

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…

Approximately 650,000 military dependent children in the U.S. face various challenges that may affect their schooling, according to Department of Defense (DOD). The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to examine the schooling options available to school-age dependents of active-duty servicemembers. This report describes: (1) available…

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…

Private school choice programs are frequently mired in political and legal controversy. Two primary factors fuel this controversy. First, these programs trace their roots to the 1960s in the height of school desegregation. Tuition-grant laws came forth across the South during this period, enabling White families to access public funds to pay…

The purpose of this fact sheet is to make this information easily available to policymakers, activists, and parents/caregivers, and to contribute to a substantive discussion about developing equitable educational opportunities for all children.

Growth of voucher and education savings account (ESA) programs has drawn attention to how states ensure accountability and transparency to parents and the public. With over half of voucher and ESA programs designed for students with disabilities, there is interest in the information parents receive about special education services and rights when…

In 2011, Indiana enacted the broadest school voucher program in the country. In the program's first year, almost 4,000 families used vouchers to attend participating private schools, with the number of students applying for vouchers more than doubling in each of the following two years, to 9,324 students in 2012-13, and 19,809 in 2013-14. The…

The 2016 Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI) is the fifth release of an annual compilation of data on the condition of K-12 school choice in the geographical areas served by the nation's 100 largest school districts. The ECCI captures information on: (1) the extent of choice; (2) the characteristics of the process by which parents and…

Communities across the country are grappling with different approaches to improving their schools. Introducing or expanding charter schools is one of the approaches that states and school districts have considered or implemented. Charter schools serve more than 5 percent of public school students nationwide and make up close to 7 percent of all…

Hurricane Katrina set the stage for a transformation of public education in New Orleans, replacing the city's existing school system with a decentralized choice-based system of both charter and district-run schools. Using principal, teacher, and parent surveys administered three years after Katrina, this study examined schools' governance and…

The question of how information is used by parents in selecting schools is a central issue in school choice debates, where advocates and opponents frequently intermingle theory (often economic), ideological beliefs, and empirical evidence in constructing arguments about the potential of this reform. We employ a nomination strategy to analyze…

Reports on a conference on school choice at Hillsdale College attended by many Black educators. Describes the popular system implemented in Detroit Public Schools. Discusses problems of racial discrimination and school finance. (FMW)

This report looks at 78 privately funded voucher programs in New York City; Dayton, Ohio; and Washington, D.C. All three were longitudinal studies, tracking participants over 2 or 3 academic years. The programs shared numerous characteristics and faced common challenges, but they varied widely in the dollar amount of the vouchers they awarded and…

This 1980-81 survey, which follows up a similar 1979-80 study, explores parents' reasons for transferring their children into or out of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Rockville, Maryland. A total of 277 parents of students leaving MCPS for private schools in Maryland and 281 parents of students entering from private schools in Maryland…