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January 29, 2025

How State Governments Can Fight Degree Inflation

Key Points State governments contribute to degree inflation—the addition of college degree requirements to jobs that did not previously have them—through their own hiring practices, and through occupational licensing laws….

January 24, 2025

Testing Theories of Why: Four Keys to Interpreting US Student Achievement Trends

Key Points Average US student assessment scores appear to tell a simple story: Performance rose through the 2000s, plateaued during the 2010s, and then declined sharply during the pandemic. But…

January 24, 2025

Testing Theories of Why: Four Keys to Interpreting US Student Achievement Trends

Key Points Average US student assessment scores appear to tell a simple story: Performance rose through the 2000s, plateaued during the 2010s, and then declined sharply during the pandemic. But…

December 17, 2024

States Should Drop Accreditation Requirements for New Colleges

Key Points  Most states require private degree-granting universities to gain recognition from an accrediting agency to operate. Accreditation is a significant barrier to entry in higher education. Accreditors force colleges…

December 2, 2024

Reforming State Authorization of Colleges to Boost Competition and Lower Tuition

Key Points The higher education market is stagnant. The vast majority of students attend colleges that are more than 50 years old, and rising demand for college has not seen…

October 16, 2024

11 Ways the Federal Government Is Making It More Difficult to Access Career Pathways 

Key Points  The federal higher education and workforce systems live in mortal fear of a single dollar being wasted by those outside their reach, but when insiders waste billions of…

August 1, 2024

Financing Graduate Education: Next Steps for Federal Policy

Key Points In the interest of students and taxpayers, it is time for bipartisan and commonsense graduate financing policy reform. This issue’s complexity and importance demand a comprehensive solution that…

March 21, 2024

Three Principles for Conservative Early-Childhood Policy

Key Points Early-childhood education policy should provide relief for working families by subsidizing and stabilizing lower-cost early-childhood education options. It should also keep children connected to their families, even though…

May 25, 2023

Education Freedom and Work Opportunities as Catalysts for Increasing the Birth Rate Among Married Couples

Summary Pursuing new, commonsense approaches to education reform and work–family policies, from childcare and early education through higher education and workforce flexibility, will foster the conditions for family flourishing and…

February 23, 2023

Distance to 100: An Alternative to Racial Achievement Gaps

Policymakers and practitioners can do only so much to solve any problem without a clear, unbiased view of the underlying causes. Educators today have failed to improve student achievement largely…