Displaying 1-30 of 151 results
Students in a classroom
Commentary
3.27.2025
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice

Do education savings accounts increase the cost of private school tuition?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Education savings accounts (ESAs) are taxpayer-funded spending accounts with differing eligibility requirements and usage guidelines depending on the state. Between the 2021–22 and 2022–23 school years, participation in them nearly tripled nationally, rising to roughly 489,000 total students.

Students in a classroom
Cat
Commentary
3.20.2025
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

LOLCats: A real efficiency effort for our schools

Michael J. Petrilli

Set aside for a moment the debate about whether Elon Musk’s DOGE is an honest effort to cut waste, fraud, and abuse from the federal government. Let’s ask a different question: What would a serious effort to get more bang from our education buck look like?

Cat
Giving money
Commentary
3.12.2025
School Finance, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Should schools pay students to attend remediation programs?

Alina Adams

When my middle child was in high school, nothing I said or did could keep him from dropping out. But what if I’d tried paying him?

Giving money
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Commentary
11.22.2024
Accountability & Testing, Facilities, School Finance, Governance

The high cost of maintaining under-enrolled schools in Baton Rouge

Adonica Pelichet Duggan

At peak enrollment in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, our local school system educated over 70,000 children. Now, in essentially the same facilities, it serves just over 34,000 children. The district has been experiencing a steady decline in student enrollment since the early 2000s, losing around 2 percent of our student population each year on average.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Catholic school
Commentary
11.7.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice

How to ensure accountability in private-school choice programs

Michael J. Petrilli, Devon Nir

Yes, choice itself is a form of accountability, but “customer satisfaction” isn’t enough when tax dollars are in play—even for private-school choice programs. The public has a right to know that participating students are gaining essential skills. To that end, this post discusses four tiers of escalating accountability and where state policy should land, depending on the amount of taxpayer dollars provided to individual schools, among other considerations.

Catholic school
Chalkboard with dollar signs and question marks
Commentary
10.11.2024
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Districts spent $190 billion in federal pandemic funds. Did it work?

Chad Aldeman

Editor’s note: This was first published by The 74. Say your boss gives you an unexpected bonus at work. Would you save the money, make those home upgrades you’ve been putting off or splurge on a nice vacation?

Chalkboard with dollar signs and question marks
Suburb
Commentary
10.3.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Urban school drama has come to the leafy suburbs

Tim Daly

A 6,000 student Midwestern district recently adopted a budget that would result—if all goes according to plan—in a $13.2 million deficit, or more than $2,000 per student. This follows $10 million shortfalls in each of the previous two years. Cash is dwindling.

Suburb
Houston, Texas
Commentary
9.26.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The Texas-sized surge in uncertified teachers

Dale Chu

Houston’s local ABC news affiliate recently ran a report that the Houston Independent School District, Texas’s largest, has more than 2,000 uncertified teachers (out of a teaching force of approximately 10,000).

Houston, Texas
Working repairing a roof
Commentary
9.26.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, School Finance, Governance

Does spending on school facilities raise student test scores?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Schools across the country spend billions of dollars each year on the construction and renovation of their facilities—everything from roof repairs to new science labs and from classroom expansions to whole new buildings. How do these expenditures impact students and the taxpaying community around schools?

Working repairing a roof
Catholic school classroom
Commentary
7.4.2024
School Finance, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Public funding for religious schools can help ease our culture wars

Michael J. Petrilli

Knee-jerk reaction against public subsidies for religious education is unwise. That’s because allowing religious families to choose sectarian schools for their children could very well be a saving grace for our society. And you don’t have to be among the faithful to believe so.

Catholic school classroom
Kamala Harris
Commentary
6.28.2024
Accountability & Testing, School Finance

The Democratic replacement candidates on education

Daniel Buck

Watching the debate last night, all I could think about was my time spent on the playground with my toddler. Her wobbly legs ever close to tumbling down the ladder and causing me constant low-grade anxiety. I felt the same watching Biden fumble through answers, stare into space, and exhibit all the hallmarks of an aging man in cognitive decline.

Kamala Harris
Coins in a jar
Commentary
5.30.2024
School Finance

Are poor schools underfunded? It's more complex than you'd think.

Emma Camp

One of the most persistent myths in K–12 education is the idea that high-poverty schools are near-universally, significantly underfunded. However, the truth is much more complicated. As it turns out, poor districts get more money in almost every state—and school spending has an incredibly weak relationship with school quality in the first place.

Coins in a jar
Hammer piggy bank
Commentary
4.4.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice

School choice need not mean an expensive windfall for the rich

Michael J. Petrilli

The school choice movement continues to rack up dramatic wins nationwide. This growth in “educational freedom,” as many advocates now call it, is a fantastic development. But under the surface of these victories, an important debate is brewing: how to balance the drive for maximum choice with other values, including fiscal responsibility and fairness.

Hammer piggy bank
Commentary
2.15.2024
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

On teacher housing, is the juice worth the squeeze?

Meredith Coffey, Ph.D.

In recent months, housing programs for school teachers have begun to receive high-profile attention. And with good reason: As costs of living have risen, teacher salaries have not kept pace, thereby decreasing some educators’ ability to live near their workplaces. But are such policies actually a good thing? In short: We really don’t know.