Cato’s education research is grounded in the understanding that education works best when it is rooted in free decisions. Parents must be able to choose the education they think best for their children, and educators must be able to teach as they see fit. In higher education, those who will reap the benefits of their education should pay with their own money, or funds voluntarily given by others. And early‐childhood education must be the purview of families and providers, not government.
Education
Featured Content
Public Schooling Battle Map
Americans are diverse—ethnically, religiously, ideologically—but all must pay for public schools. The intention is good: to bring people together and foster social harmony. But rather than build bridges, public schooling often forces people into wrenching conflict. This map aggregates a relatively small, but especially painful, subset of such battles: those pitting educational effectiveness, basic rights, moral values, or individual identities against each other.
COVID-19 Private School Closures
The COVID-19 crisis has wrought havoc on all schools, but private schools could be in especially grave danger. Many have long been on a precarious financial footing, forced to keep tuition as low as possible to remain viable against “free” public schools. That razor‐thin financial model could be difficult to sustain during the pandemic. Cato has been tracking private school permanent closures at least partially connected to COVID-19 since the beginning of local and state lockdowns.
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Featured Book
School Choice Myths: Setting the Record Straight on Education Freedom
So many myths stand in the way of expanding educational freedom to all Americans: choice drains money from public schools; choice segregates; choice undermines democracy; and so on. In School Choice Myths, editors Corey A. DeAngelis and Neal P. McCluskey bring clear logic and overwhelming evidence to bear against all the major anti school‐choice myths, giving readers what they need to see though them and understand how even well‐intentioned people can be deceived.
