Think Twice Weekly Report

 
May 3 - MAY 9, 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


School Funding

Source: Learning Policy institute
Date: April 2025
How Money Matters: Education Funding and Student Outcomes

"A large and growing body of evidence shows that money, when spent equitably and effectively on key school resources, improves student outcomes and closes achievement and opportunity gaps. Research consistently shows that when more money is spent on education, especially for students from low-income families, achievement and graduation rates improve, along with life outcomes such as employment and wages."

Education Policy and Policymaking

Source: AEI
Date:5/5/25
Sketching a New Conservative Education Agenda

Key Points The fourth edition of Sketching a New Conservative Education Agenda compiles all reports in the series from the past four years, since the Conservative Education Reform Network's (CERN's) inception, offering a raft of ideas for conservative education reformers. With contributions from over 70 education experts, the volume explores policy proposals and educational innovations from across the education spectrum-from early childhood to workforce development. This project reflects CERN's commitment to building a big tent conservative community focused on advancing practical, forward-looking solutions for America's students and families.

Higher Education

Source: Brookings Institute
Date: 5/6/25
Persistent gaps in academic preparation generate college enrollment disparities

This analysis identifies disparities in academic preparation as an important proximate cause of college enrollment disparities across groups. SES, gender, and race disparities in academic preparation likely have overlapping but distinct underlying causes, but in each case, they reflect persistent group differences in opportunities to learn that policymakers should work to address.

Private Schools

Source: Beacon Center
Date: 5/6/25
The ABC's of Private School Regulations

Beacon's newest report, “The ABC's of Private School Regulations,” provides an analysis on how state regulations on private schools have taken some autonomy from what should be fully independent educational options. In addition to heavy-handed regulations, Tennessee's categorization and rules for private schools have made it arguably the most complex and convoluted process for educational entrepreneurs in the nation.

Tuition Tax Credit

Source: Brookings Institute
Date: 5/6/25
How a federal tax-credit scholarship plan would benefit the wealthy and underserve rural America

In this piece, we dig into the proposed federal tax-credit scholarship program. We explain how this type of program could work, and we explore some of its implications, especially for rural communities. In doing so, we focus our analysis on the bill currently before Congress: the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) of 2025.


Tuition Tax Credit

Source: Urban Institute
Date: 5/8/25
Analyzing the Distribution of Benefits under the Educational Choice for Children Act

The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA), introduced by House and Senate Republicans, would provide a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit for donations to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs). These SGOs, in turn, would provide funding to support students enrolling in private school or to help school-age children and their families pay for costs such as books, online instructional programs, test fees, and tutoring. Families are eligible for SGO funding if their income is up to 300 percent of the area median income. In this essay, we estimate the potential effects of the ECCA bill.

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 The Enrollment Decline Windfall

Source: EdChoice
Reviewed by: David E. DeMatthews and Jinseok Shin of the University of Texas at Austin

Most U.S. states continue to heavily rely on per-pupil funding models. Accordingly, projections of declining school-aged populations through 2030-combined with the rapid expansion of private school voucher policies-have raised serious concerns about the future adequacy of public school funding. A recent EdChoice report downplays these concerns.

However, in their review of The Enrollment Decline Windfall,David E. DeMatthews and Jinseok Shin of the University of Texas at Austin explain that the report's analysis is fundamentally flawed due to its overly simplistic treatment of a complex issue.



What We're Reading


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



Judge orders Education Department to restore COVID spending extensions

By: Kara Arundel, K12Dive

The reprieve only applies to the 16 states and the District of Columbia that sued for access to the funds.

After Uvalde, school mental health grants had bipartisan support. Now Trump is cutting them.

By: Kalyn Belsha, Chalkbeat

"Schools will likely have to lay off social workers and counselors, and college programs designed to train mental health providers may shut down after the Trump administration decided it would stop funding grants created under a bipartisan law passed in response to mass school shootings."


Virtual teachers are on-screen in more KCK classrooms as shortage persists: 'Just chaos'

By: Sofi Zeman, The Kansas City Star

“Moni Khadka is fed up with splitting his attention between two teachers. He said it doesn't help that one of his instructors, who looms large on a screen over his college prep algebra class, breezes through core topics - like the notorious quadratic formula - from states away. Although his classroom's in-person aide tries to keep Khadka on pace as his questions pile on, the Wyandotte High School senior recently told The Star he has often felt overwhelmed and unmotivated throughout his final semester in the district.”


The five-alarm fire that public education is facing

By: Hilary Wething, Economic Policy Institutet

"All children deserve to attend welcoming and well-funded schools where they can learn and grow, regardless of race, disability, or income. But funding for public schools, where nearly 90% of all U.S. students learn, is at a near crisis point. The Trump administration's goals, which are taken right out of Project 2025, seem to be to defund public education to the point that it doesn't work, then offer private school vouchers as a solution to a manufactured problem. In this post, we highlight five ways public education is on fire in the United States and the damage this will do to students' abilities to learn and thrive. Instead of cutting funds, lawmakers should invest in public schools, one of the best tools we still have to build a prosperous, equitable country."


The Plot Against (Rural) America

By: Donald Cohen, In The Public Interest

"The billionairocracy running the federal government right now has proposed or promised a wide variety of initiatives that have placed a target on America's small towns and rural populations. They want to defund, deregulate, destroy, or privatize – or a combo platter of several of those-much of what makes rural America, well, great."