As the nation's only federally funded voucher program, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program has had plenty of praise heaped on it recently. So why aren't more D.C. families choosing to use the vouchers they receive?
Amid the consternation over events in Charlottesville, Georgetown University President John DeGioia
penned a powerful letter urging faculty and students to embrace the moment to "enlarge and deepen our commitment to the common good."
Our connection to Georgetown also allowed us an early look at a new book
Making College Work by our colleague at Georgetown's McCourt School, Harry J. Holzer, and the Urban Institute's Sandy Baum. We shared two excerpts, one about the art of
nudging college students toward finishing their degrees, and other about how today's career and technical education can
avoid the pitfalls of yesterday's vocational education.
Earlier in the summer, our research director Raegen Miller dug deeper into the
research on chronic absenteeism, a topic you'll be hearing more about from us soon. Senior fellow Morgan Polikoff shared his idea for a
Don't Do It Depository, collecting all the education ideas that don't work. And Karin Chenoweth, who has spent years researching schools that do work, wrote about the
most powerful conversation for teachers.
We also had a pair of features highlighting issues in school choice: Louisiana state Schools Superintendent John White told us why he believes school choice can work with three essentials:
fair resources, fair access and fair accountability. And Greg Richmond, president & CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, used the recent CREDO report on charter school performance to write about
idiots, enemies and outcomes.
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Best Wishes,
Tom
McCourt School of Public Policy
