Get out your pom-poms. The Alliance for School Choice has released its 2010-11 yearbook—offering a visually stimulating look at the nation’s twenty private-school choice programs, as well as some background on the school-choice movement in general. The report declares that 2010 “showcased the resilience of the school choice movement” after a challenging 2009. A few highlights: Student enrollment in private-school choice programs—defined by the Alliance as vouchers and tax credit scholarships—grew by four percent (bringing total participation in these programs to 190,000); two new choice programs were enacted with bipartisan support in Louisiana and Oklahoma; and existing programs saw growth (those in Ohio and Louisiana even exceeded their enrollment caps)—all amidst a troubling economic environment. The yearbook rounds out with a recap of choice-friendly research from 2010 and state-specific profiles of the various private-school-choice programs in thirteen states. Like any yearbook from advocacy groups, this one is slightly self-aggrandizing. But the fact remains: Private-school-choice programs have come a long way since their inception twenty years ago.
Andrew Campanella, Malcolm Glenn, and Lauren Perry, “Hope for America’s Children: School Choice Yearbook 2010-2011” (Washington, D.C.: Alliance for School Choice, 2011). |