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IN THIS EDITION |
What to Watch
Detroit parents are embracing school choice. | Number of the Week
Are taxpayers really willing to pay more for education funding? | Quote of the Week
The root differences between vouchers and education savings accounts. | Don't Miss
The school choice movement makes great strides in 2012. | |
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Education Savings Accounts: The Way of the Future
By Amanda Lucas
 |  | Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) are “the way of the future,” writes Matthew Ladner in a new report released this month.
While vouchers give parents the ability to choose private schools for their children, ESAs allow parents to receive the state education dollars designated for their school-age children in savings accounts that they can then access with debit cards to use for a variety of education options: private school tuition, online courses, private tutoring, community college classes, etc. Remaining funds can be rolled into college savings accounts (e.g., 529 accounts).
Besides giving parents maximum flexibility, ESAs have the potential to improve the quality and efficiency of education. Unlike today’s education system, ESAs put pressure on schools to offer the best education at the most reasonable price in order to attract students. Over the last four decades, per-pupil costs have gone up dramatically while student outcomes have flatlined. Taxpayers paid $4,060 per child for public education in 1970, but more than double that amount in 2006—$9,391 (adjusted for inflation)—with no academic improvement to show for it. ESAs have the potential to break this ever-growing inefficiency.
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| What To
Watch | | Detroit Parents Embrace School Choice
Nearly 80 percent of Detroit residents polled in a recent survey said they would choose an option other than the Detroit Public Schools for their child, such as a charter or private school, or a public school outside the city, reports The Detroit News. | |
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Number of the Week
35 Percent
Only 35 percent of Americans support raising taxes to fund education.
The number drops to 24 percent when survey participants are told the actual cost of per-pupil spending.
See “Reform Agenda Gains Strength,” Education Next | | | Quote of the Week |  | “[Vouchers], although important, work only with schools and don’t always allow parents to choose a different approach to education….ESAs, on the other hand, give parents the flexibility to fill in their children’s learning gaps with specialized services, like tutoring or online courses. There’s not any other tool that allows parents to do that.”
-State Senator Rick Murphy (R-AZ) | | |
Don’t Miss
School Choice Marches Forward
“School-choice laws took great strides in 2011….Yet education associations and teachers unions wasted no time in challenging the laws in court,” explains a new Education Next report by Jonathan Butcher. “Nevertheless, the school-choice laws that passed in 2011 were a departure from previous reforms in both size and scope. From Wisconsin to California, more students were included in the new laws, and the laws gave them more options.” |  | |
 | About The Heritage Foundation
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute -- a think tank -- whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. | |
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