Nation's Report Card

Across the country, policymakers have long assumed that boosting K-12 funding is the surest path to better student outcomes. Yet decades of rising spending have proven otherwise. The missing ingredient is not money — it’s meaningful choice. Florida provides one of the clearest examples. In 2001, the state launched a modest tax-credit scholarship program to help low-income students access alternative educational options. Roughly 15,000 students participated in the program’s first year. Today, Florida’s school choice ecosystem serves over 500,000 students across multiple programs, giving families options tailored to their children’s needs. Critics long warned that policies empowering parents with educational options for their children harm public schools and their students. The data, however, tell a different story — the positive Read More ›

What if you could help a child receive a better education at no cost to yourself? Beginning in 2027, Americans will be able to do exactly that. Under the Education Freedom Tax Credit, taxpayers can contribute up to $1,700 annually to approved scholarship-granting organizations and, in return, receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit. Every dollar donated will be offset against the taxpayer’s debt to the federal government. Enacted as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law on Independence Day last year, the policy establishes the first federal tax-credit scholarship program in U.S. history. Many states already have successful state-level tax-credit scholarship programs that can serve as a proof of concept. Nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations such as ACE Scholarships, which Read More ›

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Declaration of Independence With the 250th anniversary of our nation upon us, many are reflecting on the past while also considering the future. What makes America unique? Where is the great American experiment headed? Are our best days behind us? Is America doomed to decline? Despite all America has overcome and achieved in the past, many people hold a pessimistic outlook for our nation’s future. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan delivered a charge to the nation in his Inaugural Address. His words ring resoundingly Read More ›

President Joe Biden’s appointed secretary of education, Miguel Cardona, is out the door as President Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office. The end of Cardona’s tenure couldn’t come soon enough. K-12 student learning achievement is pitifully low. Chronic absenteeism has skyrocketed. Condoned college campus protests are a disgrace. Federal student aid, including the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (known as FAFSA) form and process, is a mess. Despite four catastrophic years, Cardona released a glowing report last week. It boasts about the U.S. Department of Education’s “accomplishments” under his watch and opens with a full-page letter from the secretary. “This report, The Impact: Fighting for Public Education, is about more than documenting the successes under the Biden-Harris Administration. Read More ›