Think Twice Weekly Report

JANUARY 18 - JANUARY 24, 2025

The Think Twice Weekly Report compiles public education-related policy reports, research and articles of interest to policymakers, educators and stakeholders. This list is not exhaustive but is meant to highlight recent reports that may be used to support or undermine the work of our subscribers in supporting public schools. We encourage you to take a moment to scan these reports and determine if they may be used by policy makers to assist or erode your mission.



Policy Reports


Early Childhood Education

Source: Manhattan Institute
Date: 1/21/2025
The Persistence of Religious Discrimination in Publicly Funded Pre-K Programs

This report details unconstitutional religious discrimination in public pre-K programs. While our report is not comprehensive-undoubtedly, religious discrimination persists in many programs that we do not discuss here-we hope that this report will draw attention to pre-K programs that fail to comply with the Free Exercise Clause's nondiscrimination principle.

School Choice

Source: EdChoice
Date: 1/22/2025
The ABCs of School Choice: The comprehensive guide to every private school choice program in America

This report from EdChoice is an in-depth review of the available research on private school choice programs in America. Areas of study include: private school choice program participant test scores, program participant attainment, parent satisfaction, public school students' test scores, civic values and practices, racial/ethnic integration and fiscal effects.

School Finance and Funding

Source: Commonwealth Foundation
Date: 1/22/2025
2025 State of Education Spending in Pennsylvania

The national trends impacting education in Pennsylvania in 2025 include an impending fiscal cliff, under-enrolled schools, and population decline, all of which lead to school closures across the state.

Pennsylvania taxpayers will spend $16.8 billion to educate K-12 students in the 2024-25 school year, at a cost of more than $21,985 per student, even though there are 39,000 fewer K-12 students in Pennsylvania's public schools than in 2019-2020.

Despite declining enrollment, numbers for school staff, teachers, and administrators have increased. School districts simultaneously raise taxes while holding excessive reserve fund balances. The numbers for migrant students and special education learners keep growing, even as district school populations shrink.

No one policy solution can solve all of Pennsylvania's education challenges. However, allowing state funding to follow students to the school of their choice-through Lifeline Scholarships and tax credit scholarships-would address many of the issues.

Student Achievement

Source: AEI
Date: 1/24/2025
Testing Theories of Why: Four Keys to Interpreting US Student Achievement Trends

Although national test scores provide clear evidence on student achievement across time, they do not illuminate what is driving gains or losses. Nonetheless, careful examination of test scores can corroborate some explanations for changes in student achievement and discount others.

This report examines recent trends in US student achievement, as measured by national and international assessments, and identifies four key trends that any satisfactory explanation of recent US student performance should account for: a downward trend beginning around 2013; declines driven by the bottom half of the distribution, both before and after the pandemic; higher absolute achievement gap growth in the US than other nations; and adult assessment trends that closely match those of students. The report concludes by evaluating how common explanations of student achievement trajectories align with these trends.

Reports Reviewed


GLC seeks to ensure that policy briefs impacting education reform are based on sound, credible academic research. Below are reviews conducted with GLC support.



Review of Resource Realities: A Comparative Analysis of Charter and District School Funding in Washington, D.C.

Source: Bellwether
Reviewed by: Clive Belfield; Queens College, City University of New York

A recent Bellwether report explores how much public financing charter schools receive and whether they are funded fairly compared to traditional public schools, specifically in the District of Columbia. After finding disparities, it offers a series of recommendations to reduce those disparities, but upon review these findings and recommendations are not well-supported.

In his review of Resource Realities: A Comparative Analysis of Charter and District School Funding in Washington, D.C., Clive Belfield of Queens College, City University of New York determines that the report's oversimplistic analyses account for the unfounded conclusions.



What We're Reading


Research and articles that we want to highlight for subscribers as potential resources:



U.S. Department of Education Ends Biden's Book Ban Hoax

By: U.S. Department of Education

The language in this press release sets the tone for the agenda we are going to see ramrodded in the new administration.


Exclusive: Elizabeth Warren's Plan for How Musk Can Cut $2 Trillion in U.S. Spending

By: Eric Cortellessa, Time

Warren also wants to eliminate or substantially reduce funding for the Charter Schools Program, which was designed to provide federal grants for charter schools but which the Government Accountability Office has found mismanages and wastes most of its funding. Warren estimates that cuts to this program could save up to $400 million from being frittered away each year. Another target in the educational sector includes for-profit colleges, which have a long history of ripping off students. Warren wants to make them ineligible for federal aid grants.


These Conservative Texans Oppose School Vouchers

By: Have You Heard

"PODCAST: Vouchers are not conservative. That's what we heard again and again when we talked to Texans who consider themselves Republicans but oppose their party's top education priority. We hear from rural Texans who are taking the attacks on their local schools very personally, and business minded Republicans who fear the consequences of privatizing education for workforce development. But the real lesson in this episode is political. The big money push to expand school vouchers, and expel voucher opponents, is spurring rising discontent within the ranks of the Republican party, including among some of Trump's staunchest supporters."


Federal Policy Watch from the Economic Policy Institute

By: Economic Policy Institute

This is an online tool to document actions by the Trump administration, Congress, federal agencies, and the courts that affect working people and the economy. Maintained by a team of EPI's economists and lawyers, Federal Policy Watch will serve as a one-stop shop for cataloguing and analyzing legislation, regulations, executive orders, and court rulings as they unfold.  It is comprehensive, searchable, and user-friendly.