Think Twice Weekly Report

MARCH 1 - MARCH 7, 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


Financial Education

Source: ExcelinEd
Date: 3/4/2025
Financial Literacy in the United States: A 50-State Scan

A new report from ExcelinEd, "Financial Literacy in the United States: A 50-State Scan," examines how each state approaches financial literacy education across three key areas: High school financial literacy requirements and student access to instruction.

Financial literacy education in grades K-8. Teacher preparation and staffing for financial literacy instruction.

By analyzing state policies and implementation strategies, the report identifies emerging trends, challenges and opportunities for strengthening financial literacy education nationwide.

Homeschooling

Source: Heritage Foundation
Date: 3/4/2025
Homeschooling, Homesteading, and the Renewal of American Citizenship

Far from merely withdrawing from modern social ills, homeschooling and homesteading actively work to heal them. In part because the home is no longer the primary place of work, school, or social gatherings for most Americans, it is typically thought of as a private retreat away from the "real world," where the obligations of citizenship recede as personal concerns take center stage. But such a conception overlooks the formative role that is proper to the home. When centered as the locus of family life, the rightly ordered home can serve as a school for citizenship, offering lessons in self-government, voluntary association, and patriotism.

Immigration

Source: Heritage Foundation
Date: 3/7/2025
Educating the American Citizen: Changes in Schools as Assimilators of Immigrants

Schools are increasingly abandoning their mission as assimilators of immigrants because education elites no longer believe in that mission. But parents and the American public still do. The best way to strengthen schools as assimilating institutions is to shift power from education elites toward parents. If parents have access to school choice, allowing them to find public or private options that best fit their values, those schools will reflect the preferences of parents rather than those of the education establishment that trains teachers and administrators.

School Choice

Source: EdChoice
Date: 3/5/2025
The EdChoice Friedman Index

How much private educational choice is really available to families in your state? To measure how much K-12 choice is available, we have created the EdChoice Friedman Index which evaluates three key factors: student eligibility-the percentage of children who can participate in taxpayer-funded private K-12 choice programs; flexible use of funds-assessing whether families can apply these funds not only to private school tuition but also to other educational expenses such as tutoring, textbooks, test fees, and special needs therapies; and funding parity-determining whether choice programs receive funding comparable to state and local per-student allocations for public schools.

Student Achievement / Absenteeism

Source: Manhattan Institute
Date: 3/6/2025
Chronic Absenteeism Is Hampering School Improvement Efforts in New York City What Can Be Done About It?

Absenteeism has been on the rise since schools reopened after the Covid-19 pandemic. The Return to Learn Tracker, produced by the College Crisis Initiative (C2i) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), shows that the average national chronic absenteeism rate almost doubled between 2019 (15%) and 2022 (28%).[5] Virtually all districts across the country experienced increased student absenteeism, but the growth was much higher in districts with low academic performance and high rates of low-income students. AEI's Nat Malkus, an education-policy expert and leading researcher on absenteeism, estimates that one in three students in those districts are chronically absent. This issue brief provides descriptive statistics on chronic absenteeism in New York City public schools to help local policymakers address this issue and improve the city's schools.

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 Fiscal Effects of School Choice: The Costs and Savings of Private School Choice Programs in America Through FY 2022

Source: EdChoice
Reviewed by: Mark Weber, Rutgers University

The expansion of voucher programs, which provide taxpayer-financed subsidies for families enrolling students in private schools, has prompted a debate about their fiscal impact. A recent EdChoice report argues that these programs do not negatively affect public school finances and actually save taxpayers substantial sums of money. Today's review explains how this argument rings hollow.

In his review of Fiscal Effects of School Choice: The Costs and Savings of Private School Choice Programs in America Through FY 2022, Mark Weber of Rutgers University and the New Jersey Policy Perspective walks readers though the report's simplistic and unvalidated methods, showing how they lead to the invalid conclusion that the programs result in taxpayer savings.



What We're Reading


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



Education groups urge Congress to reinstate teacher workforce grants

By: Anna Merod, K-12Dive

Congress needs to order the acting U.S. secretary of education to reinstate canceled federal grants that sought to address the shortage of qualified educators in schools, a letter signed by over 100 leading national and state education organizations urged last week.


'Stay of execution': Where's Trump's order to shut down Education Department?

By: Naaz Modan, K-12Dive

An executive order, when and if it comes, would follow through on Trump's repeated threats on the campaign trail and in the Oval Office to shutter the department. The silence from his administration on Thursday left educators, consultants and other education experts on edge as they anticipated an order down the road.


Abolishing the Dept of Ed Vimeo

By: Network for Public Education

This is a 2 minute explanation, via graphics, on the impact of closing down the Department of Education. "The U.S. Department of Education has a critical mission protecting students in states that appear hellbent on destroying their public schools. And that's why it needs to be preserved."


Why do we need the US Department of Education?

By: Save Our Schools Arizona

This is another strong media graphic from SOS Arizona that explain why we need the Department of Education. This is good for social media posting.


This charter school superintendent makes $870,000. He leads a district with 1,000 students.

By: Ellis Simani, ProPublica, and Lexi Churchill, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica

Why doesn't Musk come after this guy? "On paper, Salvador Cavazos earns less than $300,000 to run Valere Public Schools, a small Texas charter network. But taxpayers likely aren't aware that his total pay makes him one of the country's highest-earning superintendents."


What Will 2025 Mean for Labor?

By: Joseph A. McCartin, Albert Shanker Institute

"... 2025 is shaping to be one of the most consequential years that U.S. workers and their movement have ever faced."