October 17, 2023
Measuring Value in Higher Education
Event Description As Republicans and Democrats on the Hill and in state legislatures nationwide seek to address the rising debt burden facing college graduates, new focus has been placed on institutions of higher learning and how well they prepare graduates for entering the workforce and paying off accrued debt. This event explores the prospect of…
October 16, 2023
Serve Students, Not Institutions
More than 20,000 physical therapists left the profession in 2021 alone, notes a recent report. It’s therefore hard to imagine why anyone would want to discourage universities from offering more physical therapy programs to help renew the ranks. Unfortunately, that’s just what the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) did recently when it voted to stop…
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…
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…
October 3, 2023
A Way Forward for School Reform: A Conversation with Frederick M. Hess and Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan
A decade ago, for better or worse, education improvement was widely seen as a bipartisan cause. Today, fights over schooling are increasingly polarized. Are there opportunities for principled agreement on action regarding choice, teacher pay, parental involvement, the teaching of American history, or much else? Join AEI’s Frederick M. Hess, former US Secretary of Education…
October 2, 2023
Shopping for Colleges Just Got a Little Easier for Some Students
Shopping for college can be a nightmare. As the market for consumer products has gotten easier, more transparent, and faster than ever before (read: Amazon), the market for college degrees has only gotten more and more opaque. The prices listed on college websites aren’t paid by pretty much anyone, and in order to find out…
September 27, 2023
A Conversation with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on the Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act
As the Biden administration continues to push massive and controversial overhauls of America’s federal student loan system, Republican lawmakers have put forward a broader vision for higher education reform. The proposed reforms seek to address the underlying causes of the student debt crisis and target core challenges facing the United States’ higher education system. Join…
September 22, 2023
Repairing the Damage Columbia’s Teachers College Did to American Kids Will Take Years
I’ve come to bury Lucy Calkins, not to praise her. Columbia University’s Teachers College announced this month what once seemed unthinkable: It’s “dissolving” its relationship with Calkins, sending the controversial literacy guru and her cash-cow publishing and consulting empire packing. The divorce came a few months after the New York City Department of Education made the…
September 21, 2023
How Health Policy Laws Are Hurting College Students and Their Families
In the midst of all our discussions about what is causing the youth mental health crisis, it might be worth examining the public policies that are making it worse. One such policy is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or at least colleges’ interpretation of that law. A recent article in The New York Times documented the…
September 21, 2023
How Health Privacy Laws Are Hurting College Students and Their Families
In the midst of all our discussions about what is causing the youth mental health crisis, it might be worth examining the public policies that are making it worse. One such policy is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or at least colleges’ interpretation of that law. A recent article in The New York Times documented the…