For a decade, the nonprofit Institute for Innovation in Public Choice (IIPSC) has helped the cities of New York, Boston, Denver, and New Orleans bring order to the Wild West of school choice, using the one-two punch of economic theory and custom software. To match students with seats in public schools—either district or charter—the IIPSC builds algorithms that employ three kinds of data: the schools that families want their kids to attend, the number of available seats in every grade at each school, and each schools’ admissions rules. Newly flush with a $1.2 million grant from the Dell Foundation, the IIPSC plans to expand into Philadelphia, Washington, and possibly Detroit. Hat tip!
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education released proposed priorities for a new competitive grant program for charter school support organizations, to come from the annual “national activities fund.” These priorities highlight what the Department deems to be the “key policy issues facing charter schools on a national scale,” and they include gaining efficiency through economies of scale, improving accountability, providing quality education to students with disabilities an English language learners, and supporting personalized technology-enabled learning. While these are important policies at the surface level, it is unclear what the long-term implications and unintended consequences may be of focusing grant making solely on the bigger charter entities and whether smaller, unaffiliated charter schools will realize any benefits.
On Wednesday, President Obama delivered a big speech on inequality, in which he brought up education as a driver of opportunity. Aside from his usual talking points—expanding early-childhood education, boosting education spending—he specifically mentioned career and technical education through apprenticeships (check out this New York Times piece for an interesting profile of a German company implementing such a program in South Carolina). This is an idea that could realistically gather bipartisan support. But where would one obtain the funds for such a program, you ask? Mike Petrilli has an idea—and it rhymes with Dell. (And starts with a P.)
There was big news on the pensions front this week. A judge ruled that Detroit’s municipal pension plans were fair game in the bankruptcy case. While Detroit teachers’ pensions will not be affected, as they are part of a state-administered system, the Economist predicts that the case will have aftershocks in other municipalities and states grappling with public-pension quandaries. And over in Illinois, lawmakers finally passed a huge bill to shore up the state’s debt-riddled pension system—currently $100 billion in arrears, solidifying the state’s worst-in-the-nation credit rating. Could this be the turning of the tide?
