Center for School Transformation

Education

Since the 1970s, American students have averaged the same flabby test scores, while federal and state spending and regulations have increased madly in an attempt to boost them. Average per-pupil spending has risen about 300% during that time period. Public school enrollment has increased about 10% since 1970, while public school employment has doubled. 

Everyone knows we must try something better and different, and fast. The Heartland Institute's Education Issue Suite not only aggregates decades of the latest school reform news and research, but reaches behind the scenes to bring you experts analyzing which of these expanding options actually do expand the options for students and their families. No other think tank or publication instigates and investigates education reform this way. Browse by daily for the best and latest in student-centered education policy.

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Featured Works

The ‘Parent Trigger’ in California: Some Lessons from the Experience So Far

The Parent Trigger: A Model for Transforming Education

Ten Principles of Higher Education Reform

Transformational Innovation in K-12 Education: Achieving More, Spending Less in Schools, Districts, and States

Ideas

  • Digital Learning

    The use of broadband and computer-assisted learning programs can revolutionize K-12 schooling by boosting student achievement, reducing the need for small class sizes, and making more distance learning possible. Students, parents, and taxpayers all benefit when regulatory barriers to digital learning are repealed.

  • School Vouchers

    Giving public funds to consumers in the form of vouchers is not a radical idea. Existing voucher programs include food stamps, low-income housing vouchers, the GI Bill and Pell Grants for college students. There can be little doubt that the schools parents would choose under a school choice program would be different from those currently funded with tax dollars.

  • The Parent Trigger

    This might just be the most powerful education reform policy since Milton Friedman advocated the school voucher. Begun in California, the Parent Trigger allows a majority of parents to petition to have their local school reorganized or transformed into a charter, or even to receive vouchers to choose private schools. Built on the framework of choice and democracy, the Parent Trigger crosses ideological lines and empowers parents.

Education

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School Reform News is The Heartland Institute's monthly print publication sent both to paying subscribers and each and every elected official. Click on the image below to browse the publication's archives.

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