Dear Colleagues:
Several states are providing families with options that meet their education and health needs as schools reopen. Amid ongoing debates around COVID-related mandates, Florida is providing <[link removed]> families access to the Hope Scholarship school voucher program if they find their child’s public school mask requirements to be too lax or too rigid. Arizona recently followed suit, using funding from the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan to provide income-eligible families with a $7,000 voucher <[link removed]>if their child’s school closes or if they
disagree with a school mask mandate. Lawmakers in Tennessee are considering similar options <[link removed]>. 


What We’re Watching 



Education choice is an answer to the ongoing debates around school closures and COVID-related mandates. And as the 2021-22 school year begins, more children than ever have access to school choice options like vouchers and education savings accounts (ESAs).

The American Federation for Children’s Director of National Research Corey DeAngelis sat down with the Daily Signal <[link removed]>to
discuss this year’s exceptional rise in school choice. As he explains, 18 states have expanded school choice options this year, with seven enacting entirely new school choice programs. Five of those programs are new education savings account options. As Corey explained:

“I think families have started to finally figure out that there isn’t any good reason to fund closed institutions when you can fund the students directly instead. Other families figured out they didn’t really like what was going on in the classroom when they got to listen in during remote learning or remote instruction over the past year.

Families are [also] fighting back against things like critical race theory or other curricular issues in the classroom that they don’t see align with their values.”

Here’s What Else We’ve Been Working On


Senior Research Fellow Jay Greene continues to raise awareness about administrative bloat in the form of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) staff on college campuses. As Jay explains in a new piece for the Daily Signal <[link removed]>, although college tuition continues to rise in part because of non-teaching administrative staff bloat, “the real danger of universities hiring staff who do not engage in teaching or
research is not the expense, but how it corrupts the core mission of higher education.” He goes on to explain:

“Universities are no longer focused on free academic inquiry in pursuit of the truth or the development of capable adults. Instead, they have employed an army of staff who either distract from that mission by providing therapeutic coddling to students <[link removed]>or subvert truth-seeking by enforcing an ideological orthodoxy.”

Read Jay’s full report, Diversity University: DEI Bloat in the Academy <[link removed]>, co-authored with the University of Arkansas’s James D. Paul. As they found, the average university has more than 45 people devoted to diversity, equity, and inclusion <[link removed]>.

Jay also joined Anchored, a podcast produced by the Classical Learning Test, to discuss the history and flaws of public schooling. You can listen below.
Upcoming Event

At the State Policy Network (SPN) annual meeting this year Jonathan Butcher will speak with Kyle Wingfield, president and CEO of the Georgia Policy Foundation, and Michael Chartier, senior director of policy initiatives at SPN, about the long-term expectations for learning pods after the pandemic. Will the trend last and what policies are needed to make pods successful? Jonathan's session will be held on September 1. You can register for the event here <[link removed]>.
Sincerely,

Lindsey Burke
Director and Mark A. Kolokotrones Fellow
The Center for Education Policy

Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity
The Heritage Foundation

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