Abstract
Mapping Education Freedoms: Successful Public Schools among American States
Track: Education
Author(s): Russell Harrison, Joseph Rudnicki
In the 2008 Presidential race both Barrack Obama and John McCain advocate school choice policies such as charter schools or private school vouchers. There are two components of what Jay P. Greene has labeled “education freedoms”. This index resembles indexes of “economic freedoms” popularized by the Fraser Institute in Canada and the Heritage Foundation in the United States.
This new research documents that deficient education freedoms combine with defective administrative structures to maximize negative externalities – such as dropout rates, classroom disruptions, and academic failures. This report maps interactions among all these problems. It shows the geographical dispersion nationwide in high school dropout rates, classroom disruptions, and academic failures among secondary students. Then it maps how each problem manifests in states that combine defective administrative structures with deficient economic freedoms.
In short, to minimize harm to both students and teachers from defective administrative structures for K-12 schools.
Russell Harrison
Rutgers University
401 Cooper Street
Camden City , New Jersey 08102
United States
Phone: 856-225-6084
E-mail: ruharris@camden.rutgers.edu
Joseph Rudnicki
State of New Jersey Office of Management and Budget
40 West State Street
Trenton , New Jersey 08625
United States
Phone: 856-904-5629
E-mail: rudnickj@camden.rutgers.edu