AEI is rereleasing some of its most prescient and groundbreaking works from its earliest thinkers and innovators. These books, part of a series called AEI Classics, are available for download as Adobe Acrobat PDFs.
School choice is the most talked about reform of American public education, yet writings about choice remain highly speculative because no state has adopted a free market approach to education--until now. The charter school is fast becoming one of the most significant attempts at public education reform in this country. Over 1100 charter schools operate in twenty-seven states, with several hundred more to be added in the next two years. School Choice in the Real World looks at the charter school movement through a highly focused lens: it examines charter schools in Arizona, which currently account for nearly one-quarter of all charter schools.
Since 1994, Arizona has implemented a charter school law with the lowest barriers to entry in the nation. As a result, Arizona has more than 200 charter school campuses. Some districts have even lost more than 10 percent of their students to charter schools. Using the state of Arizona as a case study, the editors examine the experiences of actual charter school operators, social scientific analysis, policy discussions, and criticism and forecasting for the future. The editors bring together academics, policy-makers, and practicioners, and they explain and evaluate how school choice works in the real world.
Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar at AEI.
Table of Contents
Theoretical and National Perspectives
And This Parent Went to Market: Education as Public vs. Private Good: L. Elaine Halchin
The Death of One Best Way: Charter Schools as Reinventing Government :Robert Maranto
Congress and Charter Schools: David L. Leal
Charter Schools: A National Innovation, an Arizona Revolution: Bryan C. Hassel
Social Scientists Look at Arizona Charter Schools
The Wild West of Education Reform: Arizona Charter Schools: Robert Maranto and April Gresham
Why Arizona Embarked on School Reform (and Nevada Did Not): Stephanie Timmons-Brown and Frederick Hess
Do Charter Schools Improve District Schools? Three Approaches to the Question: Robert Maranto, Scott Milliman, Frederick Hess, and April Gresham
Closing Charters: How A Good Theory Failed in Practice: Gregg A. Garn and Robert T. Stout
Nothing New: Curricula in Arizona Charter Schools: Robert T. Stout and Gregg A. Garn
How Arizona Teachers View School Reform: Frederick Hess, Robert Maranto, Scott Milliman and April Gresham
Practitioners Look at Arizona Charter Schools
The Empowerment of Market-Based School Reform: Lisa Graham Keegan
A Voice From the State Legislature: Don't Do What Arizona Did!: Mary Hartley
Public Schools and the Charter Movement: An Emerging Relationship: Lee L. Hager
Whose Idea Was This Anyway? The Challenging Metamorphosis from Private to
Charter: Jim Spencer
Lessons
In Lieu of Conclusions: Tentative Lessons From a Contested Frontier: Robert Maranto, Scott Milliman, Frederick Hess, and April Gresham
What lies ahead for Cuba after Castro? Mark Falcoff writes that an economically unviable and otherwise dysfunctional Cuba could in coming years pose an even bigger threat to the United States than in its communist heyday.
The promise of "healthy aging" offers significant opportunities for economic growth and development for Europe in the decades ahead--if governments and citizens are willing to grasp them.
