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Articles by John Kristof
Students with Disabilities Are Overrepresented in Private School Choice Programs.
by Patrick J. Wolf, John Kristof, Alex Wolf, et al. Critics predicted that, once private school choice was implemented on a large scale, students with disabilities would become highly concentrated in the public school system. That hasn’t happened. We conservatively estimate that 258,844 students with disabilities are participating in private school choice programs. Students with disabilities are being served in the private school choice sector at a rate higher than that in the public school sector.
Good News! Students with Disabilities Are Overrepresented in Private School Choice Programs.
Critics predicted that, once private school choice was implemented on a large scale, students with disabilities would become highly concentrated in the public school system. That hasn’t happened. We conservatively estimate that 258,844 students with disabilities are participating in private school choice programs. Students with disabilities are being served in the private school choice sector at a rate higher than that in the public school sector.
Voucher program helps Ohio students. Cracks, devils in critic's head | Opinion Original
John Kristof and Martin F. Lueken July 17, 2026, 5:13 a.m. ET Authors from EdChoice argue a professor misrepresented a study on Ohio's school voucher program. They say the study's authors concluded the voucher program had positive long-term effects for participants. John Kristof is a Senior Research Analyst at EdChoice. Martin F. Lueken is director of EdChoice’s Fiscal Research and Education Center.
Op-Ed: New study finds 0.2% of Arizona ESA money spent on big unallowable purchases Original
For decades, cynics have used extremely rare cases of government misspending to demonize entire groups using public assistance. In the 1970s, the stereotype was a Cadillac-driving welfare recipient. Now, it’s a school choice parent and Legos. Over time, the “welfare queen” stereotype was found to be rooted in exaggeration and biases. New research questions popular narratives around school choice parents as well.
School Choice and School Closures
There’s a famous statistical truth frequently shared in college courses and pop economics books: crime rates are strongly associated with ice cream sales. If this was the level of rigor we used to make public policy decisions, we might move to ban ice cream in the name of law and order. This would be a mistake, of course. Ice cream does not cause crime, but it is more popular during warmer months, which also happens to be the time of year crime rates are higher.
Winners, Losers, and School Choice Implementation
Created by u/assainXD1 on Reddit It’s often said that the best defense is a good offense. Unfortunately, that adage runs in opposition to how humans operate politically. The school choice movement has had a very successful few years, and it’s natural to want to defend what you’ve created. But over-emphasizing protection can backfire, killing the momentum we have built over the last few years.
Research & Data - EdChoice
Despite the recent waves of school choice legislation and the national media attention, most Americans still have no idea what the education landscape looks like in their own backyards. For our October polling, we asked adults and school parents about their outlook on K–12 education, civic engagement activities, teacher pay, and priority issues in both federal and state elections.
“That Percentage of Safer”: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Homeschool Parents’ Perspectives of School Safety
School safety has been widely studied from the perspectives of administrators, teachers, and students in traditional education settings. However, parents’ perceptions of school safety have been largely overlooked. Moreover, it is unknown how homeschool parents conceptualize safety in educational settings despite school safety being a known motivator for homeschooling.
2024 EdChoice Spending Share Rankings
How public spending on private school choice compares to total K-12 spending With approximately 20 million students—or 36 %—nationwide now eligible to participate in a private school choice program, many may wonder just how spending on these programs compares to that invested in overall K-12 schooling.
Talking (and Listening) about School Choice
It doesn’t take a politico to feel like we are living in a polarized age. Polarization affects how we speak to each other, how we learn about what is happening in the world, whom we cooperate with, how we solve social problems, and even where we live. As many advocates in the school choice world have noticed in recent years, the movement is not immune to these cultural forces. School choice has a history of overcoming political division.
Bullying, Teen Mental Health, Suicide: How School Choice Could Save Lives
Sections The 74 Kristof: Parents who transfer their kids to another school most often cite bullying as the reason. But many students without alternatives are stuck Education news and commentary, delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 newsletter. Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Some education environments aren’t just subpar academically; they are catastrophic for students’ mental well-being.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: General Population and School Parents - March 2023
As another month passes, so too does more K-12 education legislation. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed a bill to expand school choice in Florida to include every student in the state. This bill makes Florida the fourth state in 2023 to pass universal school choice legislation, joining Iowa, Utah, and Arkansas. As for the rest of the country, students and families are closing the book on a well-earned spring break and are looking toward the homestretch of the 2022-2023 academic year.
Schooling in America Series: Support for Universal Education Savings Account Trends Upward
Arizona made history in July when it became the second state to create a universal education savings account (ESA) program. The expanded Empowerment Scholarship Program is available to students regardless of household income or special needs status. This expansion, combined with recent reforms achieved in other states, suggest a growing preference among choice-friendly lawmakers to make school choice programs be available universally to all students, rather than a select few.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways November 2022
November is a singular month for America’s classrooms. In even-numbered years like this one, the last gasps of election season consume the first week (or two). November also sees the beginning of holiday season busyness, and while often joyous, it can sometimes translate to a little added stress in the classroom. As we approach the midway point in the 2022–23 academic year, this is as good a time as any to take a pulse of Americans’—and especially parents’—perspectives on K–12 education.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways October 2022
With election season upon us, it is as important as ever to get a pulse of public sentiment around K–12 education. The EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker has been offering that every month since Jan. 2020, and a new wave just published on our tracker website. In partnership with Morning Consult, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of American adults 18 and older (N = 2,200) from October 7–9, 2022.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways September 2022
We began our Public Opinion Tracker project in January 2020 to observe the country’s evolving perspectives on K–12 education. This is now the fourth school year in which we will be polling a nationally representative sample of Americans and American parents every month to take their pulse on the education issues of the day.
Top 10 Findings from the 10th Year of EdChoice’s Schooling in America Survey Project
In 2022, we at EdChoice mark the 10th year of the Schooling in America (SIA) survey, our annual national poll of the general public and parents of school-age children in collaboration with Braun Research. A lot has happened in the last decade. We have seen three presidential administrations, a pandemic, and record numbers of school choice programs, just to name a few changes. We have asked several questions every year. Most notably for our mission, we always ask Americans about school choice.
Conservative Lawsuit Pushes Back Start of Ed Dept. Parent Council Original
Education news and commentary, delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 newsletter. Sign up here for The 74’s daily newsletter. Donate here to support The 74's independent journalism. A recently established U.S. Department of Education parent council will not convene until long after school starts in most states due to a lawsuit challenging the group’s political makeup.
Watch Live: Experts Talk the Politics of Education, Parent Power & the Midterms
Sign up here for The 74’s daily newsletter. Donate here to support The 74's independent journalism. The 2022 midterms are right around the corner, and if the past two years are any indication, education will be on the ballot. You’re invited to join The 74 and the Progressive Policy Institute at 1 p.m. ET this afternoon for an expert panel discussion about the upcoming election, particularly as it applies to the question of education priorities and parent voice.
Teens Have Changed Their Higher Ed Plans - Survey Shows They May Never Go Back
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Each of the nearly 4 million students who graduated high school this spring faces major decisions this summer. Do they want to pursue further education? If so, what do they want to study and where? How will they afford it? Will they begin working immediately? If so, are they moving out of their family home? Are they prepared for the hassles of adulthood?
Teens Have Changed Their Higher Ed Plans - Survey Shows They May Never Go Back
Each of the nearly 4 million students who graduated high school this spring faces major decisions this summer. Do they want to pursue further education? If so, what do they want to study and where? How will they afford it? Will they begin working immediately? If so, are they moving out of their family home? Are they prepared for the hassles of adulthood?
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways April 2022
It’s been just over two years since schools across the country first closed their doors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Few parents or educators knew what to expect at that time and no one could anticipate how long the virus would impact our school system. Are we finally back to normal?
Public Opinion Tracker Deep Dive: Perspectives of Teenagers and High School Parents (March 2022)
American teenagers and their parents have felt enormous turbulence and disruption during the pandemic. K-12 education was turned upside down by the far-reaching instability of the pandemic. We have seen a varied landscape of opinions, controversies and innovative proposals from people both inside and outside of K-12 education landscape. Teenagers watched this from the front lines.
Public Opinion Tracker: Teacher Survey Top Takeaways - April 2022
It has been more than a year since teachers gained access to COVID-19 vaccines, which promised to transform the relationship between the pandemic and education. In March 2022, the pandemic continues to affect the classroom in practice—some people still get sick, and some protection measures continue to be in place. But there are signs that COVID-19, at least as a cultural experience that shapes and filters our expectations about the world, is fading.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways January 2022
Another new semester, another COVID surge. Just as the fall 2021 semester began under the shadow of the Delta variant, the highly-transmissive Omicron variant reshaped conversations about education and safety within a month. The December wave of our monthly opinion tracker was in the field just two weeks after the first confirmed Omicron case in the United States, so we saw just the beginning of Americans’ reaction to the newest pandemic concern.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways December 2021
Fall 2021 began with Delta and ended with Omicron. Nearly two years after the novel coronavirus disrupted schools across the country, its variants still pose challenges to K–12 education. We began our monthly Public Opinion Tracker to identify sentiment at different snapshots in time.
Public Opinion Tracker: Teacher Survey Top Takeaways Q3 2021
Since the June wave of our quarterly survey of teachers, a new academic year began, some schools have had to handle more COVID-19 outbreaks, and much of the uncertainty from the last two school years has returned. As schools continue to make difficult decisions about classroom safety, remote learning, and curriculum development, the perspectives of the teachers leading the classrooms are especially important.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways September 2021
Schools across the country continue to make difficult decisions about how to keep the classroom safe while providing quality education for children. To that end, many states are presenting schools with policy options. In Indiana, for example, schools are no longer ordered to require that children quarantine when exposed to classmates or teachers who test positive for COVID-19—if that school enforces a universal masking policy. Ohio’s guidelines are similar.
Public Opinion Tracker Deep Dive: Black K-12 Parent Perspectives (August 2021)
During the pandemic, several news outlets have covered Black families’ educational experiences, frequently highlighting their frustrations with their local school systems. As we’ve worked on our monthly polling of the public and parents over the last year and half, we’ve noticed Black parents consistently indicate more favorability toward homeschooling and other schooling modes.
Public Opinion Tracker Deep Dive: Teen Perspective (August - September)
The high school classes of 2022 and 2023 will remember their teenage years much differently from their older peers. These students have had three high school years affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in some way. With vaccines now available to them, teens can be more protected against infection than they were in previous years, but the rise of the Delta variant has complicated many schools’ decisions about how to operate in academic year 2021-22.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways August 2021
Listeners of our monthly tracker podcast will recall we’ve wondered for a few months whether concern about COVID-19 during the rise of the Delta variant would ever re-emerge in our monthly opinion polling. Even with case numbers rising over the summer, public opinion on most education topics held steady. In August, the shoe finally dropped—COVID-19 is making an imprint on our monthly survey results once again.
The Top 10 Findings from EdChoice’s 2021 Schooling in America Survey
Schools sit in the crosshairs of American politics. All eyes turn to the 2021–22 school year as K–12 education institutions across the country enter their third academic year responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also emerge out of a summer of bitter conversations about curriculum and the relationship between politics and the classroom.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways July 2021
Many families had hoped for a school year that looked more normal than the last one, but it’s clear the 2021-22 school year will not be free of COVID-19 discussions in the United States. As the Delta variant causing outbreaks in some communities across the country, schools and parents both continue to face difficult constraints and decisions. With the new school year upon us, it is helpful to know how Americans are approaching K-12 compared to last year.
Public Opinion Tracker Deep Dive: Black K-12 Parent Perspectives (June 2021)
With a new academic year rapidly approaching, schools are making final decisions about how to serve their students, families and broader communities. The last year has seen historic injections of funds into schools, as well as unprecedented expansions of school choice options for families. Given well-documented ways Black families have experienced the educational fallout from the pandemic, it is important to understand their perspectives on the upcoming school year.
Public Opinion Tracker: Teacher Survey Top Takeaways Q2 2021
With summer break in full force, teachers have had some time to reflect on a highly volatile academic year. As fall rapidly approaches, teachers also are turning their attention ahead to a new school year. With COVID-19 vaccinations widespread and potential approval for use among younger students on the horizon, many are looking at the 2021-22 year with much less trepidation than they felt going into 2020-21.
Public Opinion Tracker Deep Dive: Black K-12 Parent Perspectives (May 2021)
The first half of 2021 saw many children return to the classroom, and there have been numerous reports detailing their struggles with learning loss. Districts have faced difficult decisions about testing and how to spend massive injections of federal funds. State legislatures across the country have passed historic improvements in school choice options for families.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways May 2021
With the 2020-21 academic year over, education decisionmakers across the country are evaluating what schooling should look like in the long-term. Some schools are innovating, and others seek a return to normal. Likewise, parents have had to adapt to new schooling formats over the course of the pandemic, and some are using their experiences to rethink how to best help their children learn.
Parents and Teachers Both Want More Learning Pods
We knew parents liked learning pods. It turns out teachers might be even more excited. When schools shut their doors in response to COVID-19, some parents worried their kids were not learning well through online instruction. Others feared a lack of social or emotional development. Among parents who transitioned to working from home, some felt they could not adequately help their kids through the school day and do their jobs simultaneously.
Edchoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways Q1 Teacher Survey
In March 2020, schools across the country suddenly shut their doors in response to the rapidly developing COVID-19 pandemic. One year later, COVID-19 safety measures have been crafted and revised, vaccine distribution has accelerated, and the number of schools reopened or looking to reopen soon keeps growing.
PUBLIC OPINION TRACKER DEEP DIVE: TEEN PERSPECTIVES
The process toward reopening schools appears to be reaching a turning point. The Department of Education’s National Safe School Reopening Summit, broadcast March 24, discussed strategies and updated CDC recommendations for schools to reopen safely. With the Institute for Education Sciences’ (IES) first monthly school survey released in March, we have much greater clarity about how public elementary schools are operating at this point in the school year.
Public Opinion Tracker Deep Dive: Perspectives of Black K-12 Parents
There is no question Black students and families in America are collectively experiencing learning disruptions differently than other groups. Journalists have reported on particular mental and emotional challenges Black students face in K–12 education. Trust appears to be eroding between school officials, teachers, and Black families, and Black parents appear to be less trusting of school officials’ decisions around school re-openings.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways February 2021
With most schools now more than halfway through this admittedly bizarre school year, it’s time for us to check in with another update of our monthly poll tracking poll. You can browse the full reports as well as our national and state dashboards, which illustrate public opinion on various educational issues at the beginning of the new year, at the EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways January 2021
With another successful National School Choice Week in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to check in on our latest monthly tracking poll results. You can browse the full reports as well as our national and state dashboards, which illustrate public opinion on various educational issues at the beginning of the new year, at the EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker.
Can a Video Game Show Us the Way?
What “The Last of Us: Part II” can teach a divided nation The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Part II. After the tremendous success of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us in 2013, work began almost immediately on a sequel. The follow-up to one of the most decorated story-driven video games spent six years in development, so when it finally hit the shelves last summer, the gaming world could not play it fast enough.
EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker: Top Takeaways November 2020
This week, we’ve posted reports based on our most recent survey results that are now posted on EdChoice’s Public Opinion Tracker. Below are eight key findings from our most recent monthly tracking poll, which is conducted by Morning Consult. Our survey was based on a nationally representative sample of adults 18 years and older in the field November 12–18. In a nutshell: Our tracking poll illustrates snapshots and trends in public opinion.
Canceling Student Debt Is Not Progressive
With the White House flipping blue this winter, calls for student loan cancelation are resurging. Fielding questions after an address in Delaware on November 16, the president-elect stated that canceling some student loan debt was part of his economic policy agenda. Biden referenced proposed COVID-19 relief legislation from House Democrats that would cancel up to $10,000 per person.
Canceling Student Debt Is Not Progressive
With the White House flipping blue this winter, calls for student loan cancelation are resurging. Fielding questions after an address in Delaware on November 16, the president-elect stated that canceling some student loan debt was part of his economic policy agenda. Biden referenced proposed COVID-19 relief legislation from House Democrats that would cancel up to $10,000 per person.
Vaping Bans Are Bad for Public Health
Months after numerous states reactively banned or overly regulated e-cigarettes, researchers at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy conducted a study and concluded that vaping offers significant health advantages over smokable tobacco, and that bans are an inappropriate response to a limited problem at the expense of society at large.
Sorry AOC, COVID-19 is Not an Excuse for Economic Revolution
Progressives want is budget-busting structural change, but the stimulus is a temporary measure to keep the economy afloat. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) addresses supporters during a campaign rally for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on March 8, 2020 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The Coronavirus Shows How Americans Would Suffer Under Real Centralized Planning
With confirmed COVID-19 cases rising exponentially and the economy in a bear market for the foreseeable future, scores of voices from both the left and the right have called for extensive government intervention to protect America’s health and finances.
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