2011 has been a milestone year for school choice, setting the bar high for state legislatures across the country to increase families' educational options. What began with a crucial re-authorization of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program continued with 12 states creating or expanding school choice options. The movement toward educational…

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 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…

Policies that give parents the ability to exercise private-school choice continue to proliferate across the country. On Capitol Hill, however, recent Congresses have not implemented policies to expand private-school choice although many Members of Congress exercise school choice for their own families. A Heritage survey of the members of the 111th…

Debates about how to improve public education in America often focus on whether government should spend more on education. Federal and state policymakers proposing new education programs often base their arguments on the need to provide more resources to schools to improve opportunities for students. Many Americans seem to share this view. While…

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…

The estimated 518,000 children in foster care in the United States are among the most at-risk children in American society. Research shows that foster children are more likely to be at risk of poor life outcomes. The quality of a foster child's primary and secondary education is a major factor in future life success. Early warning signs of these…

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…

On April 5, 2005, the Georgetown Public Policy Institute released its first of several reports on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. The 100+ page report describes the characteristics of the initial group of participating students and their families and offers important first-year comparative data. Moreover, the report provides important…

This document raises several discussion topics concerning low-income high school students in relation to Pell grants and Advanced Placement (AP) classes. It points out that bright, low-income high school students can perform college-level work either by taking Advanced Placement (AP) classes or by attending classes at a local college. AP classes…