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December 8, 2023

Biden’s Even Worse Version of “Free College”

The Biden administration has abolished the federal student-loan program, at least if a “student-loan program” is one in which students borrow money and then eventually repay it. What’s being erected in its stead is a scheme that’s rife with moral hazard, seemingly designed to inflate college costs, and best described as a “student-fraud program”—in which…

By Frederick M. Hess

October 12, 2023

I Spoke to Arne Duncan About School Reform. Here Are 5 Takeaways

Last week, at the American Enterprise Institute, former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and I sat down to talk about the future of school reform with The New York Times’ Erica Green (you can see the video here). Across town, at exactly the same time, Rep. Matt Gaetz and his gang of very online arsonists were…

By Frederick M. Hess

October 6, 2023

After a Banner Year for School Choice, the Challenge Is to Ensure New Programs Work

The last few years have been historic ones for the school choice movement. Dozens of new programs have been adopted, existing programs have been expanded, education savings accounts (ESAs) have morphed from an oddity into a legislative reality, and new school models have flourished. But we’ve seen time and again that this kind of success…

By Frederick M. Hess

September 19, 2023

It’s OK to Like Both Public Schools and School Choice

Education savings accounts. Universal voucher programs. Charter schools. These are words guaranteed to inspire heated debates among policymakers, parents, and educators. Teachers’ union leaders denounce school choice as part of a malicious “war on public education.” School choice advocates rail against “failing government schools.” These debates manifest themselves as morality plays in which one is either for…

By Frederick M. Hess

September 12, 2023

Time Is a School’s Most Precious Resource. Where Does It Go?

In schools, it can feel like there’s never enough time. Even though American students spend as much or more time in school as their peers around the globe (a fact that’s not widely known), valuable units, lessons, conversations, and projects are always running into time constraints. Teachers, for instance, articulate a clear set of priorities for which…

By Frederick M. Hess

August 29, 2023

How to Reengage Parents in Their Children’s Schooling

I wrote recently about the opportunity (and need) to rethink the parent-educator partnership. Inevitably, a bunch of practical questions arise about how to do that. After all, for every frustrated parent who feels unwelcome or out of the loop, there’s an equally frustrated teacher who has stories of parents not showing up for meetings or not responding…

By Frederick M. Hess

August 28, 2023

Where Does School Time Go?

As the new school year gets underway, there’s a lot of talk about programs, technology, and staffing challenges. But one opportunity for school improvement seems to consistently get overlooked: time. Three decades ago, the National Education Commission on Time and Learning observed, “Learning in America is a prisoner of time. For the past 150 years, American…

By Frederick M. Hess

July 18, 2023

The Education Community’s Views on School Improvement Have Fundamentally Changed

A few months back, I reflected on the 40th anniversary of “A Nation at Risk,” the landmark 1983 report. But there’s one important point that I didn’t really address: that the report was characterized by confidence in the DNA of Horace Mann’s familiar schoolhouse, whereas the momentum today is moving in a decidedly different direction. This struck…

By Frederick M. Hess

June 15, 2023

AI and the Future of Schooling

Over the past year, eerily human artificial intelligence has crossed from the province of science fiction into daily reality. Displaying an astonishing ability to write poetry, code programs, summarize research, and ace the SAT, AI has profound implications for education. The early response has tended to take one of two forms: sky-is-falling panic or an…

By Frederick M. Hess

June 8, 2023

Oklahoma Has Approved the Nation’s First Religious Charter School. What’s That Mean?

The school choice landscape has been in flux of late. Earlier this week, Oklahoma approved the nation’s first religious charter school. In the past two years, seven states have adopted Education Savings Accounts or expansive school voucher programs, and the legal status of state “Blaine amendments” is very much in question. It seemed like a good time to check…

By Frederick M. Hess