Educational Choice News

For too long, low-income children in Illinois have been prisoners of their ZIP codes. Their educational opportunities are determined by arbitrary lines on a map that pen families inside a school district's boundaries.

Lawmakers who are wrestling over a new school funding formula this week should embrace a compromise that would rescue those children. They can advance a proposal creating scholarships for low- and middle-income kids to attend school outside their district boundaries.

Continue reading "A Rare Shot for School Choice in Illinois" from the Chicago Tribune.

Private school choice advocates cheered a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court Monday, which they framed as a big win for their long-term goal of increasing access to educational options for the most underserved students, including at religious schools.

In the mid-1990s, an idea had taken root in the minds of some Pennsylvania political leaders and wasn’t letting go.

Fresh off a failed attempt to create a statewide school vouchers program, Gov. Tom Ridge and fellow supporters of school choice turned to charter schools as a backup plan for education reform. After months of meetings and rigorous lobbying, the state Legislature approved the Pennsylvania Charter School Law in June 1997.

Continue reading "Two Decades of Choice" from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.