Though school choice has proven to be popular, barriers remain in some states as a result of so-called Blaine Amendments and similar policies to prevent education funding from following students to religious schools as a part of school choice options. If left to stand, these ignoble 19th century amendments will remain major impediments to the…

Recent reforms in England include the aim of converting every school into an "independent state funded school," an academy, and giving the strongest schools more responsibility for initial teacher education, offering professional development programs, and supporting the improvement of less successful schools. School leaders are…

Many countries associated with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development are seeking to raise standards and strengthen education systems by promoting school choice, illustrated by charter schools in the United States and the Free Schools in England. Australia's education system provides a relevant and useful case study of the…

The authors describe how Latino students are underrepresented in public schools of choice. They provide evidence to refute the claim that Latino students who choose to leave assigned public schools enroll in religious schools instead. Charter schools stand out as the type of public schools of choice where Latino students are well represented.…

Freedom of any kind has intrinsic value, and education freedom is controversial, in need of empirical assessment of possible and likely trade-offs between freedom from state control and social goals such as equity and cohesion. Without a reasonable empirical measure of education freedom we can only cite the controversies and choose sides. The…

In 2002, Qatar began establishing publicly funded, privately operated "independent schools" in parallel with the existing, centralized Ministry of Education system. The reform that drove the establishment of the independent schools included accountability provisions such as (a) measuring school and student performance and (b) distributing school…

Few people realize the movement's breadth and the forms in which school choice expansion is manifest. Out of slightly more than 57 million K-12 schoolchildren, almost 29.4 million--nearly 52%--are enrolled in a K-12 school choice option. This article provides an overview of the scope of school choice today and summarizes the political, policy, and…

Since articles on school choice naturally tend to concentrate on outcomes from various "initiatives," they tend to offer little by way of theoretical advance in the manner in which choice policy is understood or in the way school choice is actualized within families and how students are thought to benefit from it. Against a political backdrop in…

This commentary is in response to Tim Keller's article "The National Implications of 'Cain v. Horne.'" In his analysis, Keller asserts that the Arizona Supreme Court wrongfully struck down a voucher program for students with special needs by characterizing the voucher as aid to schools rather than aid to students. In this response to Keller, I…

This essay traces the roots of the equity approach to school choice to the work of Coons & Sugarman, which began as an outgrowth of their involvement with the landmark California school finance case, "Serrano v. Priest" (1971). Comparing the equity approach to the market model espoused by Milton Friedman, the author argues that the former is…

This reply addresses concerns raised by Dr. Harmon in "Beyond 'Cain v. Horne.'" In response to the issues she raises, I explain that the appropriate constitutional inquiry is not whether there is some incidental financial benefit to private schools but whether a challenged voucher program was enacted to assist students in obtaining the best…

The aim of this article is to outline some major defining aspects of the Swedish controlled school market and to describe and analyze how a number of urban school leaders in the Swedish cities of Stockholm and Malmo define, understand, and respond to the competition they see. Based on interviews with school leaders and research on a wide range of…

After the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in "Zelman v. Simmons-Harris," only state religion clauses represent a potential constitutional bar to the inclusion of religious options in properly designed school choice programs. The two most significant are compelled support clauses and Blaine Amendments. Both are frequently misinterpreted by state…

Discussions held at a November 10, 2008 gathering at the American Enterprise Institute provide us some high octane food for thought and scholarly research. Comments and replies will be published in future editions of this journal.

There is much interest in the effects of a larger parental role in schooling issues. That role can exist through voice--direct parental involvement in schools and participation in the political process that dictates schooling policies--or through choice from a menu of schooling options. This article addresses the limited understanding and…