Articles

RIP Andrew Coulson

February 08, 2016 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Liberty lost one of her staunchest defenders yesterday morning, when Andrew Coulson passed away after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. Andrew was a Senior Fellow in education policy at the Cato Institute. In that position, Andrew researched, published,and advocated for school choice. I have long been an admirer of Andrew Coulson’s work ...

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The economic underpinnings of school choice

August 25, 2015 | By WENCONG FA

Two seemingly unrelated phenomena in education often befuddle those interested in the topic. First, substandard public schools continue to fail no matter how much money the government throws their way. Second, teachers’ unions across the country categorically oppose school choice programs of all shapes and sizes. The same economic principle e ...

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Back to School Choice 2015

August 24, 2015 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

School choice is too important to only celebrate for one week in January, so three years ago PLF created Back to School Choice Week. Much like it’s bigger brother Back to School Choice Week is designed to raise awareness of school choice. As children are headed back to school after the summer, we think it’s an important … ...

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Obamacare's defenders resort to low blows

November 11, 2014 | By ETHAN BLEVINS

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty once said, “it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more nor less.” Congress lacks that luxury because the judiciary judges the meaning of its words. However, in a venomous New York Times article, Paul Krugman says that judges who try to rely on the plain language of Ob ...

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New Hampshire school choice victory

August 28, 2014 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

This morning, the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld the state’s landmark Education Tax Credit Program. The Program allows businesses to claim a tax credit on their tax bill for donations to tuition scholarship organizations approved by the state. Those organizations, in turn, provide scholarships to low-income students to attend public or ...

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PLF defends school choice in Alabama

July 28, 2014 | By JONATHAN WOOD

PLF has filed an amicus brief in the Alabama Supreme Court defending the constitutionality of school choice in the Heart of Dixie. The Alabama Accountability Act creates a system of tax credits to help parents transfer their kids from failing public schools to better public or private schools. Should be uncontroversial, right? Wrong. The statute w ...

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The fight for school choice in New Hampshire goes to the Supreme Court

November 12, 2013 | By JONATHAN WILLIAMS

Today, we submitted this brief to the New Hampshire Supreme Court in support of the state’s recently enacted school choice law. Last year, the New Hampshire legislature overwhelmingly adopted a tax credit program – even overriding the governor’s veto to bring educational choice to New Hampshire students. This New Hampshire tax credit ...

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#Back2SchoolChoice — Is there school choice in California?

August 22, 2013 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

We often get asked here at PLF why there isn’t school choice in California.  The answer I usually give is that Californians do have some choices in education.  Californians, of course, have one of the most robust charter school laws in the country.  Further, California law permits transfers from one public school district to another scho ...

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#Back2SchoolChoice — What are tax credits?

August 21, 2013 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

When most people hear about school choice, they typically think about vouchers.  Vouchers are basically a check that parents receive from the state that they can use to send their children to private schools.  The check, or “voucher,” can be used by parents to send their children to either sectarian or secular schools.  The anti-cho ...