Arizona's "Wild West," free-market education approach via school-choice policies reflects the expansion of neo-liberal reforms, which emphasize private provision and governance of public services once markets are established. Indeed, charter schools, tax credit programs for public (state) and private schools, inter-district open…

Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos wants to privatize American education using charter schools, vouchers, tax credit scholarships, education savings accounts, and portable federal funds. Court and legislative decisions are facilitating these ends. Understanding the school choice agenda and its fiscal, academic, and legal aspects can help…

In Arizona, individuals can receive a tax credit of up to US$200 per individual taxpayer for donations to public schools. We analyze public school tax credit donations to charter schools and document inequalities in the distribution of donations associated with the percentages of more advantaged students charter schools serve. The differences in…

American public higher education is in trouble. Besieged by declining state and Federal support for more than 30 years, public colleges and universities are facing a "game-changing" set of challenges that threaten to alter the very nature of the institutions. As two recessions withered state budgets in the first decade of the 21st…

A company that runs one of the nation's largest networks of online schools recently decided to discontinue a program that arranged for high school teachers in the United States to send their students' English essays to India for evaluations by reviewers there. The existence of the program by Herndon, Virginia-based K12 Inc. is an example of the…

This annual report, in its seventh edition, found that Education Management Organizations (EMOs) tend to focus on managing charter primary schools and on enrolling relatively large numbers of students in those schools. Fifty-nine EMOs operate in 24 states and the District of Columbia, enrolling some 239,766 students. The report is the most…

This article explores how the law currently influences accountability in three different privatization contexts: (1) private schools operated independently of the state; (2) public schools operated by private organizations under charter or subcontract with government entities; and (3) private schools participating in publicly-funded voucher…

The number of children in foster care has nearly doubled in recent years. Despite reform efforts, the U.S. child welfare system is not increasing the number of children who get adopted. The federal government spends over $12 billion annually on child welfare programs, but the growing government bureaucracy has allowed the problems to worsen. The…

In response to increased federal requirements for mandated services under child support reforms, several states have begun privatizing child support enforcement services that were traditionally delivered by public agencies. This report to the U.S. House of Representatives examines: (1) states' rationale for full-service privatization; (2) how the…

Much of the literature on charter schools treats them as an undifferentiated mass. Here we present and test a typology of charter schools that is grounded in the norms, traditions, and perspectives of the founding organization or organizers. We suggest that there are two broad categories of charter founders--those who are more mission oriented and…