The Heartland Institute

In this 2012 study, researchers Anders Bohlmark and Mikael Lindahl examined the performance of students who used vouchers to attend one of the nearly 400 independent schools in Sweden. They found that school choice raised student performance regardless of student demographics, competition was the central driver of student and ...

Rick Hess discusses the education policy implications of yesterday's Supreme Court healthcare ruling . It is likely to squeeze state education budgets further, but possibly reduce federal coercion over state policies, he says. The Wall Street Journal hosts a debate on whether the U.S. should have national education standards . Are ...

Virginia and New Hampshire passed into law Wednesday statewide school choice programs funded by businesses' tax-deductible contributions to nonprofits that in turn pay students' private school tuition. Both houses of the New Hampshire legislature overrode Gov. John Lynch's veto of the bill to pass it into law by a 69 percent ...

The New Jersey General Assembly unanimously approved legislation to reform teacher tenure after almost two years of debate. The bill would require annual evaluations that incorporate evidence of student achievement growth before a teacher becomes eligible for tenure. Teachers would become eligible for tenure after four years of ...

New Jersey is one of several states—including Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Nevada, South Dakota, and Virginia—that recently considered tightening qualifications for teacher tenure or replacing it with rolling contracts. New Jersey legislators are considering two such proposals. One, sponsored by state Sen. Teresa Ruiz, would remove tenure ...

Despite America’s struggling economy, companies are hard pressed to find adequately trained workers to fill jobs in manufacturing and other technical sectors as baby boomers retire. Technical training in U.S. schools is increasingly sophisticated and appealing, in some places beginning to mimic long-established European counterparts ...

Americans are looking to certificates at an unprecedented rate as a quick, cost-effective way to better their wages and employment opportunities, according to a Georgetown University study. According to the study, the number of certificates awarded has increased more than 800 percent over the past 30 years. In postsecondary education ...

A record-low number of Americans—29 percent—say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the nation’s public schools in Gallup’s latest poll . Confidence has been declining since the mid-1980s, when approximately half of Americans polled expressed that much confidence in public schools. “The declining confidence ...

Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ education system was defined by corruption, dropouts, and illiteracy. Then Katrina leveled the city. In the storm’s aftermath, a flow of federal, state, and private dollars coupled with political backing to upend the city and state’s education system has strengthened student achievement and ...

“Liberal mayors would never have dared to challenge union power even a few years ago, but now they see charter schools, parent trigger and even vouchers as a chance to side with parents against an increasingly unpopular special interest,” writes the Wall Street Journal editorial board. Iowa did not receive a federal No Child ...

Pennsylvania lawmakers are merging previous school vouchers and tax credit scholarship legislation to provide more options, especially to students in the worst 15 percent of public schools. Legislators have attempted to pass similar bills this past year and for at least a decade, said state Rep. Jim Christiana (R-Beaver). Voucher ...

Recent reports claiming the Obama administration supports Parent Trigger or parent empowerment legislation are untrue. The administration has not yet taken a public stance on the issue, U.S. Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton told School Reform News . Parent Trigger laws have passed in four states after first becoming ...

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced his education policy platform in May. He supports tying federal education dollars directly to poor and disabled students to help them attend public, charter, or private schools or pay for online education and tutoring. He also supports reversing the nationalization ...

Speaker of the House John Boehner and Sen. Joe Lieberman have reached a deal with the U.S. Department of Education to continue funding the endangered DC vouchers program. The agreement means no cap on program enrollment, current students can continue participating, and new students can apply. A U.S. Department of Education spokesman ...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush discusses the Common Core, Parent Trigger, ALEC, third grade retention, and federal involvement in education. California lawmakers prefer to the governor's budget one that would spend a billion more on education. A judge's ruling means student test scores may soon be used to evaluate Los Angeles teachers ...

Today the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools announced it elected Nina Rees as its new president and CEO. Rees is a former senior vice president for global education provider Knowledge Universe, former head of the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, where she oversaw the D.C. vouchers ...

In May 2012, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced his department would offer approximately $200 million in competitive grants of up to $25 million apiece that local school districts nationwide can apply to receive. This is the latest iteration of Race to the Top, a $4.35 billion pool of money originally allocated ...

As more schools and districts begin adding objective components to annual teacher evaluations, some are asking students to flip the traditional arrangement and grade their teachers. This fall, Georgia will be the first state to include student perceptions in teacher evaluations. Along with student test growth and principals’ classroom ...

The Alabama Senate has passed a resolution expressing disapproval that the state Board of Education adopted and refuses to reconsider Common Core education standards for the dangers that action poses to state control over education. “Education standards should be left to the purview of state governments, not the federal government ...

Barely more than a year old, Indiana’s voucher program has grown in popularity, sent an extra $4 million to public schools, and yielded clear evidence of taxpayer savings. In May the Indiana Department of Education paid $4 million extra to school districts and charter schools statewide because of the vouchers program. A special ...