school choice

Recently, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow and American Center for Transforming Education Director, Keri D. Ingraham, returned to the White House. In recognition of her education work, Ingraham has received a dozen invitations over the past year. The first invitation came in March of 2025 from President Trump to attend the “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities” executive order signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House. It was a special day that provided her with the opportunity to speak individually with nine governors and many other state and national leaders. Following that, Ingraham was invited to the White House for meetings and then for the America 250 Summit in August. In September, she was invited Read More ›

Roughly $800 billion is spent annually on K-12 education, yet the National Assessment of Educational Progress results indicate that, on average, seven out of 10 public school students score below grade-level proficiency in reading and math. As I wrote in my article last month in The Daily Wire, when it comes to the pitiful student learning results in education, “The missing ingredient is not money — it’s meaningful choice.” Parents have been trapped by the government-run, teacher-union controlled K-12 public education monopoly. While federal spending accounts for only roughly 10% of overall education spending, it controls perhaps 90% of the rules and regulations. This federal bureaucracy significantly hinders the ability of states to innovate. Thankfully, for parents and the American Read More ›

It’s been just over one year since President Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and return authority to the states. It was a historic day to take the first step toward stopping the status quo of pouring astronomical amounts of money and layering on more and more federal bureaucracy, without improving learning. Education is intended to be governed at the state and local level. While it will take votes in Congress to fully eliminate the Department of Education, under the leadership of Secretary Linda McMahon, much progress has already occurred in downsizing it. For example, $2 billion in funds that supported radical ideologies have been cut, staffing has been downsized nearly 50%, and it Read More ›

On May 7, Keri D. Ingraham attended the Independent Women Policy Summit and Awards Gala at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C. The day provided Ingraham with the opportunity to speak one-on-one with several cabinet members and other top national leaders. In addition to her full-time work at Discovery Institute as Senior Fellow and Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, Ingraham’s work is amplified by Independent Women, where she has been a Senior Fellow for the past three-and-a-half years. At the policy summit, Ingraham spoke with Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, who is part of President Trump’s Cabinet. That evening at the gala, Ingraham had conversations with U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of War Read More ›

On May 5, Keri D. Ingraham, Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, spoke at the ACE Scholarships Education Freedom Tax Credit Symposium. The event was held at the Four Seasons in Denver, Colorado.  In recognition of her national leadership in advancing education freedom, Ingraham was invited to deliver formal remarks titled “The Research Doesn’t Lie.”  The event was co-moderated by Norton Rainey, CEO of ACE Scholarships, and Hanna Skandera, President and CEO of Daniels Fund. Skandera provided a warm introduction of Ingraham, noting her professional accomplishments and influence. In her remarks, Ingraham stated:  U.S. K-12 public education spending is 38% higher per student than the average developed country — yet the majority of those countries outperform U.S. students academically.  Despite this, politicians, education leaders, and teachers unions remain fixated on the Read More ›

On April 15, Keri D. Ingraham appeared on the Pioneer Institute’s education podcast, The Learning Curve, co-hosted by Professor Albert Cheng and Walter Blanks. Dr. Ingraham explains why she is passionate about giving kids school choice, the dismal state of public education in the United States, the importance of choice in education, how school choice improves learning outcomes even at public schools, and more.

On April 2, Keri D. Ingraham appeared on The Rod & Greg Show to discuss her Daily Wire article about parents taking control of their children’s education. Dr. Ingraham explains how the Covid-19 pandemic sparked the “great parent awakening” and a mass exodus from public schools, how competition improves learning outcomes for all students, and the importance of advancing education freedom in every state. Segment runs from 24:29-35:08

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 ›

Earlier in March, the U.S. Supreme Court had to step in and reaffirm the basic reality that parents, not schools, must be the primary decision-makers for their children. In the Mirabelli v. Bonta ruling, the Court determined that the California law, which barred schools from telling parents about their child’s claimed gender identity, violated parents’ constitutional rights — both their First Amendment free exercise rights and their Fourteenth Amendment rights to make decisions about their children’s upbringing. For most of American history, parents were recognized as the primary authority in their children’s lives. Today, that authority is repeatedly under attack, especially in public schools. Across the country, families are being shut out of what their children learn, denied access to 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 ›

California’s Children’s Educational Opportunity (CEO) Act is a proposed statewide ballot measure for November 2026 that is currently gathering the required voter signatures to qualify. Led by former Thousand Oaks Mayor Kevin McNamee, it is positioned to become one of the most consequential school-choice initiatives in the country, as well as a potential template for other states seeking durable education reform through their constitutions rather than ordinary legislation. Supporters of the CEO Act begin with an indictment of California’s current K-12 performance: large numbers of 11th graders cannot read or do basic math proficiently, yet most still receive diplomas, and community colleges are forced to reteach core skills to recent graduates. This is happening even as the state spends roughly Read More ›

On February 3, Keri D. Ingraham appeared on The Carrie Abbott Show to discuss the exciting new federal tax credit scholarship that will provide education freedom to millions of students across America. Last year, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill into law, which included the federal tax credit scholarship. “What that is,” Dr. Ingraham explained, “it’s a first in our nation’s history federal school choice program, and governors just need to opt in to that program so students in their state can benefit.” Thus far, 27 governors have opted their states into the program. Dr. Ingraham explains how this dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit scholarship works.