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The right to a free public K-12 education in the United States is enshrined in state constitutions. As a result, states play the lead role in K-12 education policy. For example, states determine how local public schools are funded (in large part, by providing significant funding to local districts), how educators are licensed to teach,…

Researchers Deja Thomas and Dean Bonner discuss key findings from the latest PPIC Statewide Survey, which examines Californians' views on the quality of K–12 public education, school funding and resources, and state officials' handling of the K–12 system.

Call for Papers for a Workshop in Nuremberg on October 16–17, 2024. Deadline: June 30, 2024

Call for Papers for a Conference in Nürnberg on October 12–13, 2023. Deadline: July 1, 2023

The passage of the appropriations bill by the United States Congress has had major implications for future generations of New Mexicans by providing funding for the state's early childhood education constitutional amendment, which was adopted by the state legislature in 2021 and supported overwhelmingly by voters in 2022. The last step to finalizing the state's…

Education, not unlike all sectors of industry, benefits from a free market understanding. The competition that arises from private and public schools is one that creates a more innovative and sensible product, that being students.The value added tax (VAT) on private schools is another of many regulations attempting to downplay this competition. Christine Maxwell does not see it in this way listing three reasons she disagrees with those against the VAT on private schools through the lens of a proposed secondary option of giving free places to low-income students in independent schools in avoidance of paying the tax:1. State schools will still need to exist, albeit with fewer pupils. This would result in budget cuts for them as their income is directly linked to the number of pupils on their rolls. In order to run effectively, they would have to cut staff, or the state would have to increase the amount paid per pupil.2. Most independent schools select their intake. Independent schools that claim to act charitably when educating, at a discount, children from poorer families are more likely to take pupils with special education needs and disabilities or behavioural problems. Indeed, this is demonstrated in the statistics.3. There is a benefit for all students, no matter their background, character, or make-up.I do not believe that anyone is arguing for the dissolution of state schools, however, the line of thinking which is used in the first argument is incorrect. As highlighted in the ASI's paper Short-Term Thinking: Analysing the Effect of Applying VAT to School Fees, the tax would not only generate no net revenue, resulting in no net change to the funding for state school staff, but further resulting in a greater competition for preferred state schools. Christine Maxwell likens the absence of a VAT to pauperisation, instead it drives competition leading to a more efficient and productive market for everyone. With the VAT exemption, independent institutions may poach some pupils from state schools, leading to less state school funding, however this funding should correlate efficiently with the cost to the school for each student. Even if staff cuts happen, there should be an inverse need for staff at independent schools, resulting in no net market change.While the second argument, that independent schools take only more able students (which is not true) is an issue which is not facilitated by some ableist form of thinking, rather, it stems from a lack of resources for students with special education needs and disabilities in state schools. While one cannot argue that the resources in which these pupils need is necessary, the competition that arises between the different types of schools, benefits students by offering a school that best fits their needs, which may be the independent school. Furthermore, fairness is something difficult to discuss, through its apparent subjectivity, but looking through an economic framework there is still no net social benefit. When a tax such as the VAT is applied to only part of the independent sector, not to mention favouring the tax-funded supplier in state schools, it further distorts competition harming the little competition that the state has. Finally, the last argument, which I believe to be true, goes both ways. In the same sense that there is a benefit for all students when there are more affluent families and more able pupils in the mix, one must also argue that there is an equal, or possibly greater, benefit to the inclusion of low-income students to independent schools.Stick with Harris and keep the VAT off private schools.

One of the biggest problems in K-12 education for a long time is how to help students who are already lagging behind in early grades catch up through middle-school and high-school, so that attending college, if they wish to do so, is a live possibility. As a result of the school closures during the pandemic, … Continue reading KIPP Schools and Lessons for Education Catch-up
The post KIPP Schools and Lessons for Education Catch-up first appeared on Conversable Economist.

This blog is based on an article in Social Policy and Society by Ana Suárez Àlvarez and Ana Jesús López Menėndez. Click here to access the article. Family background characteristics and educational resources are crucial in shaping individuals' income. The unequal distribution of these resources is thus a potential source of inequality of income and opportunity. In… Continue reading What Role for Family and Education in Explaining Inequality? →

Since the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in the federal elections in India in 2014, the country's performance in key indicators of democratic quality has suffered. Over the course of its two terms in power, the party has sought to subvert key institutions for accountability, enact an ethno-cultural majoritarian electoral agenda, and use federal law enforcement agencies against their political opponents. While there is extensive literature on the erosion of civil-political rights in the past ten years, the effects of the BJP government on social rights like education and healthcare remain under-explored. Therefore, in this post, I explore three striking dimensions of primary educational policy under the BJP government.

Ultimately, policies should allow funding to follow students to freely selected institutions fitting their unique needs.

Ten years ago, California implemented the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) in an effort to improve student outcomes and increase equity. PPIC president and CEO Tani Cantil-Sakauye and a panel of experts—Chief Deputy Cabinet Secretary Ben Chida, Assemblymember Josh Hoover, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond—discuss what LCFF has meant for K–12 education and talk about key issues moving forward.

By borrowing, legislators push the costs down the road for future legislators and taxpayers to deal with.

Τhe education system in Greece contributes to the goals of social mobility and cohesion in many and important ways. Still, there are significant challenges in intergenerational mobility in education and persistent socioeconomic inequalities between students of different backgrounds can be observed. Additional efforts are required in order to achieve a more equitable distribution of educational … Continued