education
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Major Choices: What Pushes Women Out of STEM Fields?
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Although women have entered the workforce and obtained degrees in higher education in increasing numbers over the past several decades, the wage disparity between genders persists. This phenomenon can be partially explained by differences in choices of college majors: women tend to choose majors associated with lower-paying jobs, such as…
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The Data Doesn’t Seem to Be Vouching for Vouchers
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Arguments supporting private management of schools date back to the founding of the United States and have reflected a variety of ideological positions. The call for privatization policies like school vouchers intensified in the mid-20th century due largely to the assertions of economist Milton Friedman. Friedman proposed that the government…
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Teachers’ Unions Improve Student Achievement: Insights from California Charter Schools
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Over the past several decades, public sector unionization rates have held fairly steady, even as private sector unionization rates have plummeted. Among economists and social scientists, a debate persists as to whether public sector unions serve the public interest. Proponents argue that these unions increase the efficiency of the public…
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Paying for Prejudice: How Public Funds Are Being Used to Fund Discrimination in Schools
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With the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as the United States Secretary of Education, the subject of vouchers has gained a powerful mouthpiece. Currently, 15 states and the District of Columbia offer some form of publicly funded tuition voucher or voucher-like education savings accounts to subsidize private school enrollment. Another 16…
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Do Charter Schools Raise Student Earnings? Evidence from Texas
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Texas education policy in the 1990s provided the blueprint for Bush-era school reforms. In 1993, the Texas legislature introduced high-stakes testing, followed by the authorization of Texas’ first charter schools—schools that are publicly funded but privately managed—in 1995. When George W. Bush left the Governor’s Mansion for the White House,…
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How Does Compulsory Math Education Close the Racial Income Gap?
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STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education has been a national imperative for decades. More recent administrations have prioritized STEM in schools due to the rising importance of mathematical skills in the labor market. The American Competitive Initiative, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2006, committed a…
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Education Migration: Why Teachers Are Leaving the Profession
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Teacher shortages are a harsh reality in states across the nation. From California to South Carolina, recruiting and retaining teachers is an imminent concern for school districts, parents, and students. These problems are often more pronounced in high poverty, racially segregated (HPRS) schools. In 2000, annual turnover rates for all…
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Higher Education in the Digital Age: A Conversation with Michael Lovenheim
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Since its inception, online education has faced heavy skepticism, if not downright opposition. A recent study by David Deming, Michael Lovenheim, and Richard Patterson finds that students benefit from the education quality improvements that traditional brick-and-mortar institutions make in response to the disruptive threat posed by their online competitors. Michael…
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Building School Latrines in India to Increase School Enrollment
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UNESCO estimates that there are still 263 million children ages six to 17 years old who do not attend school. Of these children, 23 percent reside in India. One of the contributing factors to low enrollment in India is a lack of sanitation in school. Without school latrines, students are…
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Popularizing Remedial Education in India
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Since the turn of the century, primary school attendance has increased worldwide. UNICEF reports that the number of children who are primary-school age not attending school declined globally by 40 percent between 2000 and 2013. Despite impressive progress, many of these students are unable to demonstrate the expected skills required…
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La educación superior aún es clave para la movilidad social, pero menos que antes
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En 2013, el economista francés Thomas Piketty publicó El capital en el siglo XXI, donde describe la distribución del ingreso y la riqueza en Europa y Estados Unidos a partir del siglo XVIII. También analiza la manera en que su evolución se ha visto afectada por el crecimiento económico y…