Providing quality choice options

Lindalyn Kakadelis

September 6, 2005

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The states’ slow progress in meeting No Child Left Behind demands has most governors looking for ways to increase how quickly and effectively school districts change. How’s this for a spark? Providing Quality Choice Options in Education, authored by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Joe Nathan’s Center for School Change, offers up school choice as a solution.

The policy prescriptions that the NGA presents aren’t novel but they’re sound–and good to see in an NGA report. Details aren’t spelled out, and the report favors leaving specific policies for individual states to decide. But it does construct a school choice framework, including: disbursing per-pupil funding equally and offering start-up resources for school providers; funding transportation for choice schools; and encouraging and strengthening charter laws. The report also wisely notes that schools of choice must be held to account for their results.

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