Education Savings Accounts

The New Frontier in School Choice

Nat Malkus, Adam Peshek, Gerard Robinson

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9798216222668
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Administration

School choice has been central to American education policy debate for a quarter-century. But throughout, school choice has been just that—school choice. In a potentially profound development, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) reimagine parent choice in ways that may upend many assumptions that have framed issues of school choice in the past. ESAs offer something wholly new, allowing parents to customize their child's education by stitching together traditional schools and different education providers, including tutors, therapists, online and blended models. Of course, a raft of new questions and potential challenges accompany these new ESA programs, which in 2015, existed in five states—Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada and Tennessee—and were introduced by legislators in another sixteen. Yet, for all their potential import, ESAs are barely understood. This volume seeks to provide a comprehensive, fair-minded treatment of ESAs and will address the rationale for them, the challenges they pose, what it takes for them to work and the political and legal dynamics at play.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One You Say You Want an Evolution? The History, Promise, and Challenges of Education Savings Accounts
• Chapter Two The Constitutional Case for ESAs
• Chapter Three Education Savings Accounts: The Great Unbundling of K–12 Education
• Chapter Four Public and Policymaker Perceptions of Education Savings Accounts: The Road to Real Reform?
• Chapter Five The ESA Administrator’s Dilemma: Tackling Quality Control
• Chapter Six State Education Agencies, Regulatory Models, and ESAs
• Chapter Seven Parents and Providers Speak Up
• Chapter Eight Hubs and Spokes: The Supply Side Response to Deregulated Education Funding
• Chapter Nine Settling on Education Savings Accounts
• Conclusion
• About the Editors
• About the Contributors