Total enrollment at Wisconsin's public and charter schools declined by 25,000 students from fall 2019 to fall 2020 and has continued to fall in the years since then. While declining birth rates and apparent movement of some students to private or home schools likely account for at least two thirds of the decline, somewhere between 0.5% and 1.2% of…

Over the first two school years under the COVID-19 pandemic, K-12 enrollment in public schools decreased dramatically--with losses concentrated among the youngest students--and the pandemic has had historically unprecedented effects on available learning opportunities. Little is known about where these students went and what learning environments…

The Cowen Institute has conducted annual polls on perceptions of public education in New Orleans since 2007. These polls are designed to provide a snapshot about how parents, guardians, and the general public view New Orleans' highly decentralized K-12 public education system. Each year, the Cowen Institute asks some new questions about the most…

This is the second and final brief on the Cowen Institute's 2022 annual poll of parents' and guardians' perceptions of K-12 public education in New Orleans. The Cowen Institute has conducted these polls since 2007 with the intent of providing insight into how parents, guardians, and the general public view New Orleans' highly decentralized K-12…

Nationwide, public schools began to experience a youth population decline prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. After 14 years of successively smaller U.S. birth cohorts, elementary public schools now face gradually declining student counts. The complex convergence of shifting age demographics, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing…

This report arrives during a time of heightened scrutiny and civic engagement. While public attention is currently trained primarily on Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), this research encompasses the whole of the city's education system, marking both commonalities and differences between different types of publicly funded schools. It highlights…

The goal of this brief is to examine the extent to which different school choice policies have been implemented in rural communities, identify the barriers, and provide recommendations for policymakers looking to expand access to school choice in rural communities. The school choice policies discussed in this brief include: (1) Charter schools;…

Unlike previous years of our "Schooling in America" survey project, our researchers are releasing multiple sets of results in a new, chart-focused format. This report is focused on the second wave of questions we asked about public opinion on K-12 education during the COVID pandemic. We also asked respondents their opinion on educational…

The issues and arguments surrounding school choice are sometimes hijacked to make political points about government control, democratic ideals, the public good, and privatization. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, David Garcia avoids partisan arguments to offer an accessible, objective, and comprehensive guide to school…

This paper provides a descriptive account of the growing landscape of school choice in Canada through a comparative analysis of funding and student enrolment in the public, independent and home-based education sectors in each province. Given that the provinces have responsibility for K-12 education, the mixture of public, independent and home…

The landscape of school choice options in public education has been expanding faster than ever over the past decade, nationwide and especially in Florida. With this expansion has come an unprecedented array of new decisions that parents and guardians must learn to navigate as they seek the best school for their children. Options available to…

This report summarizes the state of competition in American K-12 education. It pays particular attention to the prevalence and market penetration of charter schools, private school vouchers, and tax-credit scholarships as market reforms. The effect of added institutional competition from charters, vouchers, and tax-credit scholarships on the…

The question of whether and how to offer students the option of attending a school other than the one assigned by their residence is a hotly debated issue with substantial implications for policymaking. Whether pursued as an effort to increase the availability of high-quality options in communities without equal access; to drive improvement…

"Keeping Pace with K-12 Online & Blended Learning" (2013), the 10th in a series of annual reports that began in 2004, examines the status of K-12 online education across the country. The report provides an overview of the latest policies, practices, and trends affecting online learning programs across all 50 states. In this 10th…

This paper highlights emerging trends, programmes and policies in privatization of education in Western countries. These trends are educational vouchers, choice of private schools, private school liberalization, private contracting of specific services, tuition tax credits and deductions for parents ,subsidies and assistance grants to private…