“Voucherizing Title I” is worth a shot
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Why not try strapping Title I dollars to the backs of needy kids and letting them take it to the schools of their choice?
Your guide to the Romney education plan
Tyson EberhardtMike analyzes Governor Romney's education proposal on WSJ.com.
Putting a Price Tag on the Common Core: How Much Will Smart Implementation Cost?
Patrick J. Murphy, Elliot RegensteinThe Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English language arts and mathematics represent a sea change in standards-based reform and their implementation is the movement’s next—and greatest—challenge. Yet, while most states have now set forth implementation plans, these tomes seldom address the crucial matter of cost. This report estimates the implementation cost for each of the forty-five states (and the District of Columbia) that have adopted the Common Core State Standards and shows that costs naturally depend on how states approach implementation.
Tax-credit scholarships need a critical, not hostile, eye
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Program design matters
Fordham volunteers to pilot vetting process in Cleveland
The Education GadflyTerry Ryan's writes today that Fordham would be willing to lead the way in going through a vetting process led by the Transformation Alliance in Cleveland.
The voucher animus
Chester E. Finn, Jr.8 reasons private school choice still struggles
How School Districts Can Stretch the School Dollar
Michael J. PetrilliThe "new normal" of tougher budget times is here to stay for American K-12 education. So how can local officials cope? This policy brief, by Mike Petrilli, provides a useful tool for navigating the financial challenges of the current school-funding climate, complete with clear dos and don'ts for anyone involved in or concerned with local education budgets.
Next stop for Louisiana: Accountability, done right
Adam EmersonLouisiana became the latest state to embrace the introduction of school vouchers, but the legislative moxie it showed should stimulate a new conversation about private school choice and accountability.
10 years after Zelman, challenges still loom for voucher advocates
Adam EmersonThe U.S. Supreme Court's decision a decade ago didn't end the fight over private school choice, even though it should have caused states to rethink what they so sweepingly consider “aid” to sectarian institutions.
Wisconsin, school vouchers, and the perfidy of Tony Evers
Adam EmersonWisconsin's top educator has again used his position to imply that the Badger State is throwing more money at a voucher program he once called "morally wrong."
3 thoughts about the future of school integration
Michael J. PetrilliMike provides his take on how to approach the integration issue from a recent panel discussion co-hosted by the Century Foundation, Howard University, and the Fordham Institute
Georgia House passes measure to test the “134-year-old status quo”
Adam EmersonThe Georgia House this week took another step toward exiling last spring’s state Supreme Court decision prohibiting the state approval of charter schools to the history books, where it belongs.
It SHOULD be hard to pull the parent trigger
Adam EmersonThe recent failure to enact a parent trigger in a California community is an example of how the system should work.
Santorum lends extremes to a movement that should find a center
Adam EmersonThe spotlight shining on the GOP candidate's educational philosophy is both a blessing and a curse for home-schooling parents and their advocates.
A price tag on misbehavior? An embattled Chicago charter network isn’t alone
Adam EmersonA charter network's practice of charging fees for misbehavior has precedence in some Catholic school codes of conduct.
Graduating to a new conversation of parental choice
Choice Words' new editor Adam Emerson outlines the need for a reinvented dialogue on school choice.
Charter school teachers would be hit hard by new Treasury Department ruling on pensions
Guest bloggers Michael Podgursky, Stuart Buck, and Renita Thukral explain why proposed regulations would have a "dramatic and detrimental effect" on the ability of charters to accomplish their education goals.
The Gadfly Daily’s week in review
Writers on the Gadfly Daily blogs analyzed issues from around the country this week, discussing everything from the lessons that the Louisiana Recovery School District has to offer to the tough talk coming from
The challenges of charter-district collaboration
Cooperation between charter and district schools has potential, but Fordham’s bloggers highlighted a few reasons for concern.
Negotiate from a position of strength
Michael J. PetrilliMike channels realpolitik to analyze district-charter collaboration.
Fordham Institute names Adam Emerson its “school choice czar”
Tyson EberhardtMeet the newest member of the Fordham team, and the editor of the Choice Words blog.
School choice, subsidiarity and the common good
Guest blogger Adam Emerson explains why education reformers need to learn the value of subsidiarity.
The Costs of Online Learning
The latest installment of Fordham's Creating Sound Policy for Digital Learning series investigates one of the more controversial aspects of digital learning: How much does it cost? In this paper, the Parthenon Group uses interviews with more than fifty vendors and online-schooling experts to estimate today's average per-pupil cost for a variety of schooling models, traditional and online, and presents a nuanced analysis of the important variance in cost between different school designs.