(Guest post by Greg Forster)
I’m grateful for the attention to the recently released fourth edition of my report A Win-Win Solution, reviewing the evidence on school choice programs.
You can now hear a podcast of yours truly discussing the report here.
As in past years, the table in the executive summary kind of says it all:
If that graphic doesn’t show well on your monitor, here’s the scorecard on what empirical studies have found for school choice programs:
- Academic Outcomes of Choice Participants: 14-2-2
- Academic Outcomes of Public Schools: 31-1-1
- Fiscal Impact on Taxpayers and Public Schools: 25-3-0
- Racial Segregation in Schools: 9-1-0
- Civic Values and Practices: 8-3-0
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Greg, Congratulations on your 4th edition. Are there any pre-post studies on charters that had to adopt Common Core’s standards and give its tests? I ask because I just saw this:
From Gates Foundation to New Venture Fund Date: August 2015 Purpose: to support the implementation of the Common Core Standards Amount: $10,800,000 Term: 10 months.
I’m afraid my report doesn’t cover charter schools and I don’t keep up with the charter literature. Someone else in the big JPGB family may be able to help!
Thanks for the clarification.
There’s one other BIG “win” provided by school choice — and it’s the number one reason the educator unions are so opposed to this option. But it’s considered “bad form” to say this reason out loud, even if you are in favor of it.
SCHOOL CHOICE REDUCES TEACHER UNION MEMBERSHIP — AND POWER. Okay, okay — two related wins. Obviously private schools are seldom unionized, but so too are a significant number of charter schools — even when nominally controlled by the school districts..
The number one enemy of quality education is the teacher union. Well, unions. Gut the public employee unions every chance you get.