Advocates of ‘school choice’ are often talking about wanting public funding for models like charter schools, but specialized programs should also be considered part of school choice debates.
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Letting parents choose which school their child attends positions parents as consumers, and often diverts students and funding away from public schools.
Teacher activism in the U.S. has helped pushed the Democratic party towards renewed investment in public education. Children listen as former president Barack Obama campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, Oct. 21, 2020, in Philadelphia.
(AP Photo/ Matt Slocum)
The push to expand charter schools in the U.S. contributed to a robust movement of teachers’ unions and allies demanding a well-resourced public school system.
More choice and greater information can allow parents to make more informed decisions.
Beginning in September in Alberta, an individual can apply directly to the provincial government when seeking to establish a new charter school. Here, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, March 20, 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
First, the United Conservative Party lifted the cap on charter schools, and now new legislation has cut school boards out of the process to establish a charter school.
Educating your children at home brings the power to choose what they learn.
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Over the past few decades secondary schools have become larger and fewer in number. For parents, this had made choices at once more limited, but also more complicated.
Catholic secondary schools experienced significant growth prior to 2015, but since then, enrolments have stagnated.
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Australia is in the midst of a population boom. But Catholic school enrolments have been decreasing since 2013.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center, signs a bill that creates a new voucher program for thousands of students to attend private schools using taxpayer dollars.
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Research over the past few years has shown vouchers for private schools set back student learning. So why are advocates still pushing so hard to expand them?
President George H.W. Bush in 1990.
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Though his education initiative staggered while he was in office, the late former President George H.W. Bush had an influence that continues to shape education policy, an education historian says.
Many of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ policy proposals have failed.
Matt Rourke/AP
Although many feared that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would destroy public education, a review of the past two years shows that much of her policy agenda has failed.
Children across the Gauteng often walk long distances to school and back.
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US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos's anti-Washington rhetoric represents a radical departure from that of previous education secretaries.
First lady Melania Trump, Queen Rania of Jordan and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos talk with students at the Excel Academy Public Charter School last April. Principal Dana Bogle, on left.
AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos once called Excel Academy Public Charter School a 'shining example.' A Vanderbilt scholar explains why that description was woefully off target.
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Trinity Lutheran case is blurring the lines between church and state.
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The Trinity Lutheran case signals the Supreme Court's willingness to interpret separation of church and state as religious discrimination. What will this mean for the future of vouchers and school choice?
A student takes a nap on a desk during his lunch break studying for the National College Entrance Exam in Anhui Province, China. June 2, 2012.
Reuters/Jianan Yu
Every year, 9 million students in China compete for just 6 million college admission spots. The systems that match students with schools are being overhauled. But will that improve outcomes?
The Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education to desegregate U.S. public schools sparked protests across the country. This one took place in Louisville, Kentucky, 1956.
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A mostly white community in Alabama is being allowed to secede from its mostly black school district. Parents are claiming school quality is at stake, but is it really just segregation in disguise?