Adam B. Schaeffer (Author at The Cato Institute)

Tax Credits, Not Vouchers, Are Keeping School Choice a Viable Option (Commentary)

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Many school choice supporters are discouraged after having suffered a series of setbacks on the voucher front, ranging from the loss of Utah's nascent voucher program last year to the recent death sentence handed to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. A rambling and inaccurate article in the n...

FL School Choice Measure Passes with Overwhelming Bipartisan Support (Scholar Comments)

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Tuesday, the Florida Senate voted to significantly expand the revenue base for the state's business donation tax credit program. The House voted last week to do the same, and soon Governor Christ is expected to sign the bill.

Missing from most reports is how bipartisan the support for education tax credits has become in Florida.

Nearly half of House—47 percent—voted for the program expansion. House Republicans voted 100 percent in favor.

Nearly a third of Senate Democrats—31 percent—voted to expand the tax credit program. And 92 percent of their Republican colleagues voted for the bill.

In all, 43 percent of state Democratic legislators voted in favor of education tax credits.

Partisanship on choice is fading away in Florida. Politicians have come to realize that school choice saves money and children, and that it's the most proven and effective systemic reform available.

The future of education reform is looking bright in the Sunshine State and across the nation.

NAEP Report Shows More Spending Not Translating to More Learning (Scholar Comments)

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Once again, national NAEP scores demonstrate overall stagnation and tiny improvements at best for some African American students. Decades of "reforms" and billions of dollars have accomplished nothing of lasting value.

How long must we wait for real results?

How many hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars must we throw down this hole of inequity and failure?

How many generations of low-income children must we write off before trying a different approach to education reform?

School choice is the most rigorously studied and proven systemic education reform. It's far past time we focus on what is working now rather than what we hope, fruitlessly, might work someday.

School Choice Support Has Mainstreamed (Commentary)

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT

President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats recently served an educational eviction notice to more than 1,700 poor children in the nation's capitol. A small provision buried in the omnibus spending bill sets requirements for the survival of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program that are ex...

The Push for Universal Pre-K (Daily Podcast)

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Investing in What Doesn't Work (Commentary)

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST

President Barack Obama, in discussing the $800 + billion economic stimulus package now working its way through Congress, promised that "we will invest in what works." Well, if that's true, every piece of education spending-- totaling a whopping $150 billion-- in the mammoth stimulus bill should fall...

School Choice Works for Tight Times (Commentary)

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST

The economy's on the skids and perhaps still heading toward a cliff. State budgets are in the hole after years of unsustainable increases, and a lot of states are talking about program cuts andtax increases. We are all in desperate need of practical policies that save money. And there just happen...