Springfield Needs Charter Schools
A version of the following commentary appeared in the Springfield News-Leader. Of Missouri’s four largest cities—Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, and...
Schools After the Storm with Noah Devine
Susan Pendergrass speaks with Noah Devine, executive director of the Missouri Charter Public Schools Association, about how charter schools in St. Louis are responding after the recent tornado damaged multiple campuses.
Charter Schools Are Highly Effective in Missouri
In 2023, the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University released its third National Charter School Study....
Climbing Down the “Fiscal Cliff” with Stéphane Lavertu
In this episode, Susan Pendergrass speaks with Stephane Lavertu, Professor at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio...
Are Missouri Students in School Enough?
Recently, I came across a fascinating paper from Matthew Kraft of Brown University and Sarah Novicoff of Stanford University about...
How Unions Choose School Board Candidates with Michael Hartney
Susan Pendergrass speaks with Michael Hartney about his new latest report, Students or Salaries? How Unions Choose School Board Candidates....
The Lifetime Pandemic Education Tax
Dr. Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, has been studying the relationship between academic...
How We’re Writing Off an Entire Generation with Michael Petrilli
Susan Pendergrass speaks with Michael J. Petrilli about his recent op-ed featured in The New York Times, titled ‘We Can...
Where Are the Students?
In addition to declining enrollment, public education in Missouri has another serious problem—chronic absenteeism. Schools have been reopened for two...
Inflation in America: The Role of the Fed and the Risk of Recession
On May 10, 2022, Aaron Hedlund, chief economist at the Show-Me Institute, and Tyler Goodspeed, Kleinheinz Fellow at the Hoover...
Podcast: Let’s Redesign High School with Stanford’s Macke Raymond
On the inaugural episode of There’s a Policy for That, Susan Pendergrass is joined by Macke Raymond. Macke is the...
Charter Schools Are Working in Kansas City
Charter schools are making strides across the nation, and Kansas City’s own charter schools are no exception. New research from...
Don’t Be Nostalgic for A Failed Policy
There are a lot of policies that seem like a good idea, but aren’t. Busing low-income children of color to...
Charter Schools Outperform in Indianapolis
In Missouri, because of the narrow availability of school choice, you have to be lucky to have access to charter...
Private Schools and the Making of Americans
There is a strange notion going around that public schools are the only place, or the best place, to inculcate...
On Superintendents and Their Districts
Does it really matter who’s running a school district? Put another way, is paying top dollar for a superintendent a...
I Don’t Think the Data Say What You Think They Say
Much to the consternation of public education officials, the State Board of Education voted to remove the commissioner of education,...
If You’re Paying, I’ll Have an Ice Rink
It’s far too easy to spend other people’s money. If you’ve ever had a credit card or your identity stolen,...
We Need to Make Missouri More Attractive to Charter Management Organizations
Earlier this week, the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University released a new study of Charter...
Attacking Charter Schools with “Alternative Facts”
In a recent letter to the editor of the Joplin Globe, Caroline Tubbs, a public high school teacher, makes a...
