The Heartland Institute

It took just eight years and 56 days for the United States to deliver on President John F. Kennedy’s pledge to put a man on the moon. But we’re still waiting on another Kennedy proposal: school reform. In fact, every president since Kennedy—10 presidents over 50 years—has had a plan to “reform” our failing public education ...

So far, Indiana’s voucher program has provided private school scholarships only to families meeting certain income requirements. In May, Gov. Mike Pence (R) signed a measure expanding the program to children zoned into failing public schools and special-needs students, regardless of family income. State Sen. Carlin Yoder (R-Middlebury ...

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam decided to pull his school voucher proposal because some Republican lawmakers insisted on trying to expand it, says state Senate Majority Leader Marker Norris (R-Collierville) in this video. "The bill will not advance this year," Norris said. "We received word that there would be more amendments, all ...

As Georgia’s legislature considers a bill to expand the state’s scholarship tax credit program and increase transparency, some are calling for additional regulations. Writing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , Adam Emerson of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute argued the Peach State should require private schools that accept scholarship ...

The Arkansas House Education Committee voted to have an interim committee study a school voucher bill rather than pass it directly. At a large rally at the state capitol on the day of the vote, organized by Arkansas Parents for School Choice, attendees sported bright yellow and blue t-shirts. Bill sponsor Rep. Randy Alexander ...

On April 9, Texas senators heard Senate Bill-1575, one of five school choice bills before state lawmakers this spring. Under the bill, sponsored by Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) and cosponsored by Sen. Ken Paxton (R-McKinney), the state would reimburse parents for private school tuition. Other Texas bills would let businesses ...

About a decade ago, James Tooley wandered out into a foreign slum and encountered a network of inexpensive private schools on every few street corners. The professor of education policy at Newcastle University and his team went back to study this system of education, and found that private schools serve the world's poor far ...

Capitalism once did a superior job providing K-12 schooling in the United States, and would do so once again if the public could overcome its fear of markets and economics, wrote Herbert Walberg and Joe Bast in their book, Education and Capitalism . It’s the book's ten-year anniversary, so Walberg joins the podcast to discuss ...

Thursday's ed news Republican squabbling could take down Tennessee's vouchers attempt. Wisconsin legislators talk school choice proposals behind closed doors. New Jersey parents join nationwide protests against standardized testing . Florida parents swarmed the capitol yesterday. A vote on Florida's Parent Trigger bill is set for today ...

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval drew first blood in education reform this legislative session, promoting tax-credit scholarships in his State of the State address. “In many ways, [Sandoval] has enacted liberal policies in the last two years,” said Nevada Policy Research Institute (NPRI) spokesman Victor Joecks, citing tax hikes and ...

Review of Divided We Fail: The Story of an African American Community That Ended the Era of School Desegregation , by Sarah Garland (Boston: Beacon Press, 2013; 239 pp; 978-0-8070-0177-6, $26.95 hardback) Government-mandated school segregation was an evil that had to be eradicated, an affront to the basic American values of equality ...

Approximately 11,000 Alabama children attending failing public schools can receive private funds for private school now that Gov. Robert Bentley has signed a school choice bill. Yesterday, the state Supreme Court lifted a restraining order on the bill. Teachers union officials who filed the restraining order promised they will ...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich placed two expansions of the state’s EdChoice voucher program in his $15.1 billion budget proposal for 2014-2015, which would increase state funding to schools over the next two years. “If a school consistently fails to provide their students with the basic reading skills they need to succeed, we want ...

This Policy Brief summarizes past research and presents new analysis showing how a proposal called the Taxpayer Savings Grant Program (TSGP) would enable the state of Texas to comply with its constitutional mandate to “establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free ...

School choice is increasingly popular among families, teachers, and legislators across the nation. Twenty-nine governors officially recognized National School Choice Week (NSCW) this year, and state legislatures are brimming with voucher and charter school legislation. For the first time, a teacher association endorsed the week, which ...

Ten states rank a cut above the rest in offering parents extensive opportunities to control their children’s education, according to the 2013 Parent Power Index from the Center for Education Reform. Indiana ousted formerly first-ranked Florida for the top seat. Florida ranked second, followed by Ohio, Arizona, the District of ...

Coloradoans who sued to stop the nation’s first voucher program run by a school district will appeal to the state supreme court after an appeals court ruled 2-1 in favor of the program. The Feb. 28 decision reversed a previous ruling against the program on grounds it sends state money to religious schools. The Colorado Court ...

The following is the text of a speech given by Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast on February 23, 2013, at the Eighth Annual Wisconsin Conservative Conference in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin I would like to dedicate this talk to the memory of Maureen Martin, who passed away in a house fire on February 5. Some of you may have ...

The speech in the attached PDF was delivered by Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast on February 23, 2013, at the Eighth Annual Wisconsin Conservative Conference, Bluemound Gardens, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. An excerpt is below: In 2016, in time for the next presidential election, every child now in high school will be eligible ...

While Texas lawmakers have so far proposed relatively small school choice programs, more than that may happen in this legislative session, say local observers. Even with Republicans firmly in control of the governor’s office and both houses of the legislature, “advancing school choice in Texas has proven enormously difficult,” said ...