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Across the United States, policymakers are increasingly adopting education policies that give families the power to choose their children's schools. Nonetheless, the idea of providing school vouchers to allow children to attend private schools remains controversial. For instance, congressional leaders and the Obama Administration have tried to end a successful school voucher program for low-income children in Washington, D.C. American policymakers on the Left and the Right may be surprised to learn that a universal school choice program has taken hold in Sweden. The author interviewed Thomas Idergard, Program Director of Welfare and Reform Strategy Studies at Timbro, a free-market think tank based in Stockholm. In this interview, Thomas Idergard talked about Sweden's voucher program. (Contains 1 footnote.)

While many have focused on the program's positive impact on academic achievement, a recent Department of Education evaluation also studied how the program has affected students' educational experiences in other ways, including school safety and school climate. Past evaluations have reported that school safety was an important reason why families chose to participate in the Opportunity Scholarship program. The 2009 evaluation reported that school safety was the second-most-cited reason for seeking a scholarship (after academic quality.) The latest evaluation has found that the experience of participating in the scholarship program has improved parental confidence in the safety and climate of their children's chosen school. Available data indicate that the D.C. public school system is among the most dangerous in the nation. Students attending D.C. public schools are exposed to a variety of incidences of crime in school, exposure that likely has a negative impact on feelings of personal safety and the schools' learning environment. The data support D.C. parents' belief that improving the safety of their children's schools is a priority when trying to exercise school choice. Members of Congress and the D.C. City Council should recognize the persistent problem of school violence and crime in public schools in the nation's capital. Consequently, policymakers should empower all District families with greater power to choose a safe school environment for their children (Contains 10 notes and 3 tables.)

The authors express reservations about additional federal funding for the National Science Foundation, including new funding for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education programs, provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. For more than 50 years, American political, business, military, and academic leaders have emphasized the need to improve performance in STEM education, but U.S. students continue to underperform in these subjects. The authors advocate that, rather than focusing on federal solutions and increasing federal spending, policymakers and the private sector should refocus attention on systemic education reforms at the state, local, and school levels to increase the number of students who succeed in STEM fields at school and in the workforce. (Contains 38 footnotes.)

The U.S. Senate will soon render its advice and consent to the nomination of Chicago Public Schools Chief Arne Duncan to be secretary of education. The word "education" is not mentioned in the Constitution, and the federal government has historically played a limited role in funding and regulating public education across the country. The federal government currently provides only 9 percent of the funding for K-12 public education in America. But federal spending is at an all-time high. The federal government currently spends $71 billion annually on K-12 education programs. Through programs like No Child Left Behind, which has seen funding increases of more than 40 percent during the Bush Administration, the federal government now exerts greater authority over public schools across the nation. Unfortunately, more than 40 years of increasing federal involvement in education has yielded little progress in improved student learning. History has shown the limits of what the federal government can and should do to improve education. The new Administration has a historic opportunity to transform the federal role in education and, in the process, support reform at the state and local level to ensure that all children have an opportunity to receive a quality education. To evaluate whether Secretary-designate Duncan will support this transformation, Senators should keep the following questions in mind as they consider his confirmation: (1) The Appropriate Federal Response to State Budget Challenges; (2) Reforming, Not Expanding, the Federal Role in Education; (3) Cutting Waste from the Department of Education's Budget; (4) Reforming Federal Early Childhood Education Programs; and (5) Supporting Parental Choice in Education. (Contains 10 footnotes.)

This paper reviews nationwide education reforms under No Child Left Behind and state reforms in Florida--comparing federal and state results. The paper examines the danger that federal regulations and incentives pose to testing and accountability systems in Florida and every other state. The limits of No Child Left Behind and the promise of Florida's success suggest that federal policies that give states greater authority to direct education reform hold promise for improving education when states and citizens commit to effective reforms. The paper states that as policymakers review No Child Left Behind, Congress and the Obama Administration should recognize three important lessons: (1) No Child Left Behind has failed to deliver meaningful improvement in student learning; (2) Florida's experience demonstrates the opportunity for state-directed education reform; and (3) NCLB's accountability regulations threaten to undermine state accountability reforms. Given these lessons, Members of Congress and state policymakers should re-evaluate federal and state governments' current approach to improving public education. At the federal level, Congress and the incoming Administration should limit federal policymaking authority and transfer greater power back to the state and local levels--and they should end perverse incentives for states to weaken state standards. State policymakers should learn from Florida's success and implement systemic education reform to hold schools and students accountable for results, expand parental choice, and improve school and teacher effectiveness. Appended to this document is: "Safe Harbor Schools in Florida," showing Florida School Districts Making Safe Harbor, by Year, Based Upon Overall Math and Reading Results Alone, 2003-2008. (Contains an executive summary and 27 notes.)

The Washington, D.C. school system has a long history of poor academic achievement; however, over the past decade, the District of Columbia has made strides in offering families greater choice about which schools their children attend, thanks to a strong charter school law and the federally funded D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. District leaders and Members of Congress should implement policies to give all District families the opportunity to choose good schools for their children. Specifically, Congress and local policymakers should: (1) strengthen and expand the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program; (2) offer scholarships for students with special needs; (3) offer scholarships to foster children and homeless children; (4) offer District taxpayers tuition and/or scholarship tax credits; (5) offer District taxpayers tax incentives for contributions to education savings accounts; and (6) offer tutoring and summer school scholarships. (Contains 78 footnotes and 2 charts.)

Twenty-five years after the seminal report "A Nation at Risk," American education remains in a state of crisis. Millions of students continue to pass through the public schools without mastering basic skills and knowledge. Policymakers and the public must recognize both this persistent failure and the attendant need for systemic reform in American education. Federal policymakers should limit federal intervention and restore greater state and local authority. State policymakers should expand parental choice and implement reforms to hold schools and students accountable. (Contains 51 footnotes and 2 charts.)

A growing number of American families are choosing to homeschool their children. While research evidence is limited, evaluations of student outcomes suggest that homeschooling is successful for participating students: They do well in their learning environment, perform as well on national college assessment tests as traditional high school graduates, and experience positive life outcomes. Federal and state policymakers should therefore protect all families' right to educate their children at home and implement policies to enable more families to homeschool their children in the future. Included herein is a map showing levels of state homeschooling regulation. (Contains 34 footnotes and 1 map.)

School choice improves parents' satisfaction with their children's schools, and public schools that face competition have shown improved performance, yet opponents continue to oppose reforms that give parents the opportunity to choose their children's schools. State and federal policymakers should reform existing education policies to give all families the opportunity to choose the best schools for their children. Specifically, Congress should: (1) expand parental choice in the District of Columbia where Congress has oversight authority over the local public school system by reauthorizing the D.C. Choice Incentive Act of 2003; (2) expand Coverdell Education Savings Accounts to give families greater ability to save for and pay for their children's K-12 education costs to ensure that they receive a quality education; and (3) reform No Child Left Behind to restore greater state and local control in education and to restore parental choice. State policymakers should: (1) enact education reforms that give families greater school choice options; (2) expand parental choice within the public education system; and (3) expand education savings options for families. Included in this report is a state-by-state overview of private school choice programs that are available. (Contains 82 footnotes.)

The more than 500,000 children currently in foster care are among the most at-risk children in American society. Research shows that adults who were formerly in foster care are more likely than the general population to succumb to poor life outcomes. Many of these problems are at least in part a product of problems in the classroom, where foster children tend to have lower educational attainment than their peers. Foster children on average have lower scores on standardized tests and higher absenteeism, tardiness, truancy, and dropout rates. In this lecture, the author discusses the root causes of poor educational outcomes for foster children and possible ways of addressing their need for greater stability, high expectations, and better educational outcomes. He concludes that a school choice scholarship program for children in foster care would have several benefits, and suggests ways in which Congress could help encourage school choice for foster children. (Contains 10 footnotes.) [This Heritage Lecture was originally delivered on June 19, 2007.]

As Congress considers reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, it should recognize the need for fundamental reform of federal K-12 education policy, which since 1965 has followed a path of greater federal control of education, the proliferation of bureaucracy, higher administrative costs, and new federal programs. Under the proposed Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success (A-PLUS) Act, states could opt out of NCLB and instead decide for themselves how to use federal funds to improve local education. States would maintain state-level standards, assessments, and public reporting to preserve transparency in public education. By restoring greater state control of education, the A-PLUS Act would allow states to end inefficient and ineffective federal programs, reallocate funds toward state-directed initiatives to improve student learning, and reduce spending on administrative costs and bureaucracy. Returning greater authority to the states would empower parents, local school leaders, state policymakers, and governors to take responsibility for local schools and implement reforms to strengthen public education. (Contains 14 footnotes.)

Across the United States, nearly 50 million students are served by 96,000 public schools. Federal policymakers cannot be expected to diagnose the diverse learning needs of these students and to craft solutions adequate to meet all of them. Four decades, eight reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and expenditure of billions of federal dollars have not succeeded in improving student achievement. The authors advocate that Congress should seek to restore federalism in education governance in order to encourage state and local leadership that is more directly accountable to parents and taxpayers, by enacting a charter state option. Congress should allow all states to enter into an alternative contractual arrangement with the federal government in which they would be freed from federal program mandates while taking responsibility for results. Such federalism would create an environment in which promising state and local education strategies can flourish. (Contains 24 footnotes and 2 charts.)

In 2006, President Bush proposed the America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids initiative in his budget request for the Department of Education. The plan would make $100 million available in competitive grant awards to provide scholarships to low income students in persistently failing public schools. Only low-income students attending public schools that are in the "restructuring" phase of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) would be eligible to participate. Restructuring occurs when schools fail to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) for six consecutive years. The America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids initiative would provide better opportunities to an estimated 23,000 students and demonstrate the positive benefits of student-centered education reform. Millions of American children are not receiving a quality education in their current public schools. If roughly 30 percent of the nation's 8th graders in public schools are scoring "below basic" in math and reading, the current public school system is leaving behind approximately 14 million students. Many of these students could benefit from the opportunity to attend schools of their parents' choice. The report asserts Congress should provide families with greater ability to choose their children's schools. The Bush Administration's America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids initiative would provide real school choice to American parents. In addition to helping these children, the Opportunity Scholarship initiative would provide a model for how federal, state, and local policymakers can provide better educational opportunities for America's disadvantaged students through student-centered reforms. Sections in the report include: (1) The Need for Opportunity Scholarships; (2) The America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids Initiative; (3) Millions of Children Trapped in Underperforming Public Schools; (4) Examples of School Districts That Could Benefit; (5) Strong Demand for School Choice among Low-Income Families; and (6) The Benefits for Students. (Contains 20 endnotes and 3 tables.)

Despite growing evidence of the success of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program (DCOSP), its future beyond 2009-2010 remains uncertain. This spring, Congress included legislative language in the Omnibus Appropriations Act requiring that the DCOSP be reauthorized by Congress and authorized by the D.C. City Council before receiving new federal appropriations. Since the DCOSP was created, supporters and opponents have pointed to evaluation by the Department of Education as a critical factor in determining whether the program should be continued. On April 3, the Department's Institute of Education Sciences released the results of the third-year evaluation of the program, which found that the offer and use of a scholarship has had a statistically significant positive effect on students' reading achievement. The author advocates that, in light of these findings, Congress, the Administration, and the D.C. City Council have sufficient support to continue the program. (Contains 5 notes.)