Think Twice Weekly Report
AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 5, 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
Special Education / ESAs
Source: CRPE
Date: 9/4/25
Flipping the Script: Searching for Opportunity When a Child Has a Disability
Families of children with disabilities are often at the center of debates about education choice, but their voices are rarely heard directly. In a new exploratory report, CRPE researchers share stories from 28 families in Arizona and Florida using education savings accounts (ESAs) to educate their children with disabilities.
Tuition Tax Credits
Source: Urban Institute
Date: 9/2/25
What Comes Next for Federal Tax Credit Scholarships?
The 2025 reconciliation bill, signed into law by President Trump on July 4, 2025, included a provision that allows states to opt into participating in a federal tax credit scholarship program. This brief uses evidence to explain how such a federal tax credit might need to be implemented and raises questions for state policymakers.
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 Factbook: 2025 Edition
Source: Fiscal Research and Education Center (FERC) of EdChoice
Reviewed by: Mark Weber, Rutgers University
As enrollment in school privatization programs grows, right-wing ideological think tanks such as EdChoice have continued to argue that school vouchers and education savings accounts (ESAs) strengthen public school finances. Its Fiscal Factbook purports to find that voucher programs do not harm public school finances. The data presented in the report, however, fail to support its assertion.
In his review of Fiscal Factbook: 2025 Edition, authored by the Fiscal Research and Education Center of EdChoice, Rutgers University lecturer Mark Weber highlights several ways the report falls short of providing credible support for its conclusions.
What We're Reading
Research and articles that we want to highlight for subscribers as potential resources:
Selling Florida's Public Schools, Piece by Piece
By: Accountabaloney Florida
"Florida's public schools stand at the edge of a profound and largely unrecognized danger. Step Up for Students, the state's powerful voucher organization, is no longer content with diverting funds to private and homeschool programs. Now, they are actively recruiting elected school boards to join their new "education marketplace"-a system designed to dismantle public schools and sell their programs off piece by piece. And the Florida School Boards Association is helping spread the word."
Public Education Under Threat: 4 Trump Administration Actions To Watch in the 2025-26 School Year
By: Paige Shoemaker and DeMio Weadé James, Center for American Progress
"As public K-12 schools across the country face increasing threats from federal policies and actions, state and local leaders should prepare to respond." The piece is part of a series.
$5 Billion in Federal Funding for Nine K–12 Formula Grant Programs Hangs in the Balance Between White House and Senate Proposals
By: Michael A. DiNapoli Jr. and Wesley Wei, Learning Policy Institute
"This blog is part of the series, Money Matters, exploring research on the role of school funding in advancing equitable opportunities and outcomes for all students and elevating evidence-based policy and practice solutions."
Confusion as Kids Head Back to School and RFK Jr. Calls the Shots on Vaccines
By: Amanda Geduld, The74
"Kids are heading back to school this fall as the country experiences some of the lowest childhood vaccine rates and highest levels of public health uncertainty in known memory."
About the Think Twice think tank review project
The goal of the Think Twice project is to provide the public, policymakers and the press with timely academically sound reviews of selected think tank publications. The Think Twice project is funded by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. The reviews that are part of this project are expert third-party reviews produced by the National Education Policy Center.
About the Great Lakes Center for Education Research & Practice
The Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice is an independent nonprofit organization supported by education stakeholders across the country. The mission of the Great Lakes Center is to support and disseminate high quality research and review of research for the purpose of informing education policy and to develop research-based resources for us by those who advocate for education reform.
