Ed Choice – A Win-Win Solution
A vast body of research shows educational choice programs improve academic outcomes for students and schools, saves taxpayers money, reduces segregation in schools and improves students’ civic values.
A free and competitive marketplace of education choices that rewards innovation, efficiency and quality, one in which the funding follows the child, will provide families with the education that best meets their child’s needs. Priorities should include student-centered education, public charter schools, special-needs scholarships, tuition tax credit scholarships, online learning environments and a focus on high-school diplomas in the corrections system.
Great Teachers’ Academy – Micro School Network
Great Teachers Academy is a micro-school network built on a hub and spoke principle. The "hub" provides all the central administrative services. The "spokes" are teacher lead micro schools that can accommodate between 40 and 160 students.
Acton Academy – Self Directed Learning
Acton Academy is a one room, innovative school originally based in Austin Texas. Acton is in year seven of re-imagining education as a private small micro-school.
How Are ESAs Like a Cell Phone?
ESAs (Education Savings Accounts) are like the operating system on an iPhone. ESA's are a platform for ideas in education, similar to the way operating systems act as a platform for the applications on a phone.
AEI Brief: The Evolution of Career and Technical Education
A new paper by Nat Malkus of the American Enterprise Institute examines “The evolution of career and technical education: 1982–2013.“
Key Points
As vocational education has evolved into career and technical education (CTE) over the past several decades, it has progressed away…
The Truth About Education Scholarship Accounts
Educational scholarship accounts (ESAs, also referred to as educational savings accounts) provide parents who remove their children from public schools with money each year that can be used to pay private school tuition, buy materials for home schooling, pay tutors, or cover a variety of other educational expenses.
ESA Trailblazer Arizona Paves Way, Provides Lessons for States
K-12 education has been slowly evolving to become more diverse, pluralistic and dynamic. Education scholarship accounts (ESAs, also known as education savings accounts) represent the next step for Georgia to modernize K-12.
Give Georgia’s Students Choices, Not Excuses
There’s enough pie for everyone to have a slice, despite the zero-summers’ protests. Now we have evidence they have it exactly backward: School choice can actually lower public school districts’ costs by more than the amount they stand to lose in funding due to choice programs.
AJC.com Publishes Op-ed on ESAs by Foundation’s Kyle Wingfield
Maureen Downey’s “Get Schooled” blog on AJC.com published, “Opinion: New study suggests vouchers may help Georgia public schools,” an op-ed by Kyle Wingfield, president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, on March 3, 2019. The op-ed is published below. Access the…
Baby Steps in Teacher Pension Reform
They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The implication is that the first step won’t be the last. That’s the right way to think about House Bill 109, which is intended to address the increasingly worrisome debt for Georgia’s teacher pension system.
Issue Analysis: The Economics of Building a Voucher or ESA Program in Georgia
Study examine effect of a voucher program on Georgia's county public school districts.
2019: Continue a Course of Bold Policies
A new governor, a new lieutenant governor, a host of new committee chairs – there are numerous reasons the 2019 legislative session is full of intrigue. Add to them Georgia’s growing political competitiveness, the possibility of a national recession sooner rather than later, and some truly important challenges, and there should be plenty of urgency, too.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Publishes Foundation Op-Ed on Legislature 2019
A new governor, a new lieutenant governor, a host of new committee chairs – there are numerous reasons the 2019 legislative session is full of intrigue. Add to them Georgia’s growing political competitiveness, the possibility of a national recession sooner rather than later, and some truly important challenges, and there should be plenty of urgency, too.
Faces Behind School Choice are as Diverse as the Options Ahead
The events and activities underscore the need for choice in children’s education: No two children are alike. They learn in different ways, in different environments and at different paces, and their opportunity to achieve shouldn’t be limited by ZIP code or their parents’ paycheck.
Five Facts Favoring Education Choice in Georgia
With the turnover under the Gold Dome, however, policymakers risk losing the lessons learned – the hard-won institutional knowledge – that reinforce the need for choice for Georgia’s families. In November’s elections, Democrats took 14 seats held by Republican legislators, shrinking the GOP majority. Republicans picked up three, giving the Democrats a net gain of 11.
Pearl Harbor Day: A Reminder to Remember
The fires of patriotism must be tended.It was a quiet Sunday morning in beautiful Oahu, Hawaii. Without warning, the peaceful residents in paradise awakened in shock and terror as all hell broke loose around them.
Georgia 2020: Educational Choice for All Students
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Teacher Pension Debt Undermines Public Education in Georgia
The money needs to come from somewhere.
Georgia’s Teacher Pension Plan Faces Significant Financial Risk
The Teachers Retirement System (TRS) of Georgia alarmed legislators and stakeholders when it requested over $588 million in increased contributions in the 2017 and 2018 legislative sessions combined, largely the result of missed actuarial assumptions.
Georgia’s Teachers Retirement System
Georgia TRS: Historic Solvency Analysis and Prospects for The Future
By Jen Sidorova and Anil Niraula
Project Directors: Leonard Gilroy, Reason Foundation Kyle Wingfield, Georgia Public Policy Foundation
The Teachers Retirement System of Georgia (TRS) surprised many during the 2017 legislative session by requesting an…
