How & Why The Arkansas Parental Empowerment For Education Choice Act of 2017 (HB 1222) Saves the State Money

The Education Savings Account (ESA) Program created by HB 1222 would save the state money because officials at the Department of Finance & Administration have to follow state law

How HB 1222 Would Save Arkansas Money

Private school choice programs have a positive fiscal impact on states because the amount of state money spent on a child in the program, or the amount of state revenue foregone in the case of tax-credit funding, is less than the state would pay if the student attended a public school

Will Democracy Endure Private School Choice? The Effect of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program on Adult Voting Behavior

We employ probit regression analysis to compare the adult voting activity of students who participated in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) to their matched public school counterparts. We use a sophisticated matching algorithm to create a traditional public school student comparison group using data from the state-mandated evaluation of the MPCP. By the time the students are 19-26 years old, we do not find evidence that private school voucher students are more or less likely to vote in 2012 or 2016 than students educated in public schools. These results are robust to all models and are consistent for all subgroups

No Excuses Charter Schools: A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence on Student Achievement

While charter schools differ widely in philosophy and pedagogical views, the United States’s most famous urban charter schools typically use the No Excuses approach. Enrolling mainly poor and minority students, these schools feature high academic standards, strict disciplinary codes, extended instructional time, and targeted supports for low-performing students. The strenuous and regimented style is controversial amongst some scholars, but others contend that the No Excuses approach is needed to rapidly close the achievement gap. We conduct the first meta-analysis of the achievement impacts of No Excuses charter schools. Focusing on experimental studies, we find that No Excuses charter schools significantly improve math scores and reading scores. We estimate gains of 0.25 and 0.16 standard deviations on math and literacy achievement, respectively, as the effect of attending a No Excuses charter school for one year. Though the effect is large and meaningful, we offer some caveats to this finding and discuss policy implications for the United States as well as other countries

Does Private Islamic Schooling Promote Terrorism? An Analysis of the Educational Background of Successful American Homegrown Terrorists

Some commentators argue that private religious schools are less likely to inculcate the attributes of good citizenship than traditional public schools, specifically proposing that private Islamic schools are relatively more likely to produce individuals sympathetic to terrorism. This study offers a preliminary examination of the question by studying the educational backgrounds of Western educated terrorists. While data are limited, in accord with prior work findings indicate the vast majority of both Islamic and reactionary terrorists attended traditional public schools and had no religious education; hence findings suggest that early religious training and identification may actually encourage prosocial behavior

School Choice and the Branding of Catholic Schools

How useful are “corporate brands” in markets? In theory, brands convey reliable information, providing consumers with shortcuts to time-consuming provider searches. We examine the usefulness of a corporate brand when parental school choice is expanded through K–12 tuition scholarships. Specifically, we evaluate whether Catholic schools carry an identifiable education brand (1) preferred even by non-Catholics, (2) for reasons connected to the brand, (3) signaling largely accurate information resulting in an enduring “match” of school characteristics to student needs, and (4) leading to exit from the program when a Catholic school fails to meet consumers\u27 brand expectations. We test these hypotheses using attitudinal and behavioral data from a scholarship program in Washington, DC. The results largely confirm our hypotheses about the Catholic school brand being attractive, familiar, generally accurate, and, when not accurate, an instigator of programmatic attrition—results that speak to enduring policy issues involving school choice

School Choice and the Branding of Catholic Schools

How useful are corporate brands in markets? In theory, brands convey reliable information, providing consumers with shortcuts to time-consuming provider searches. We examine the usefulness of a corporate brand when parental school choice is expanded through K-12 tuition scholarships. Specifically, we evaluate whether Catholic schools carry an identifiable education brand (1) preferred even by non-Catholics, (2) for reasons connected to the brand, (3) signaling largely accurate information resulting in an enduring match of school characteristics to student needs, and (4) leading to exit from the program when a Catholic school fails to meet consumers\u27 brand expectations. We test these hypotheses using attitudinal and behavioral data from a scholarship program in Washington, DC. The results largely confirm our hypotheses about the Catholic school brand being attractive, familiar, generally accurate, and, when not accurate, an instigator of programmatic attrition--results that speak to enduring policy issues involving school choice