President Obama is right to draw attention to the soaring cost of a college education in America. However, his proposed solution will not only fail to fix the problem but is also likely to compound it by blunting the competition that is needed to shake up the world of higher education. President Obama proposes to slow tuition growth by…

With the tuition cost of traditional colleges and universities soaring and education technology advancing, online courses and degree programs are becoming more common. Some critics argue that an online degree cannot provide all the important features of a traditional college education, from extracurricular activities to new professional networks,…

Increasing federal intervention and the resulting burden of complying with federal programs, rules, and regulations has caused a significant growth in state bureaucracy, much of which has a parasitic relationship with federal education programs, straining the time and resources of local schools. Instead of responding first to students, parents,…

Virtual or online learning is revolutionizing American education. It has the potential to dramatically expand the educational opportunities of American students, largely overcoming the geographic and demographic restrictions. Virtual learning also has the potential to improve the quality of instruction, while increasing productivity and lowering…

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), signed in February 2009, included nearly $100 billion in new funding for the Department of Education (DOE). Over $36 billion of it remains unspent, and bills in both the House and Senate are calling for even more funding for teacher jobs. It is unlikely that billions more in federal spending will…

An education gap between white students and their black and Hispanic peers is something to which most Americans have become accustomed. But this racial division of education--and hence of prospects for the future--is nothing less than tragic. The good news is that the racial divide in learning is a problem that can be fixed. Of course, it can only…

American education needs to be fixed, but national standards and testing are not the way to do it. The problems that need fixing are too deeply ingrained in the power and incentive structure of the public education system, and the renewed focus on national standards threatens to distract from the fundamental issues. Besides, federal control over…

House Democrats recently unveiled draft legislation for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Widely touted as an economic stimulus package, the $825 billion draft legislation included as much as $142 billion for education. This includes the creation of a $79 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to assist state governments in…

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…

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…

Since its inception in 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, now known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), has directed billions of federal dollars toward low-income students. Title I, Part A of NCLB is designed to equalize educational opportunities and resources for disadvantaged children. This analysis examines whether the current…

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…

In this brief essay, the author reacts to a recent bill from the House Education and Workforce Committee by praising its identification of wasteful spending on higher education programs while expressing unhappiness with its creation of new entitlements and subsidies. In the author's opinion, the savings produced by the spending cut should instead…

On the fifth anniversary of No Child Left Behind, Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) outline their alternative for restoring state and local ownership of education policymaking while ensuring transparency about results and accountability to parents and taxpayers. The A-PLUS Act of 2007 (Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success) will…

By enacting the "Parent Choice in Education" Act (H.B. 148), Utah has created the most comprehensive school choice program in the nation. State and local policymakers across the nation should consider similar programs to expand educational options and introduce competition into education. This paper explains how the program will work, and examines…