President Obama has laid the groundwork for an unprecedented centralization of education policy under the guise of promoting educational innovation, accountability, and improved student achievement. In reality, Obama’s new national standards, curricula, and testing—in addition to huge spending commitments by the federal government—shift the policymaking power from individuals and communities to the federal bureaucracy.

Expanding school choice and competition is the most important action we can take to improve America’s schools. Although school choice faces strong opposition from powerful teachers unions and their entrenched political allies, expanding choice through vouchers, charters, and tax credits has repeatedly been shown to improve student achievement, reduce segregation, promote civic values, and facilitate [...]

For most people, the word “orphanage” conjures up images of poor little Oliver Twist pleading for more gruel. Many are convinced that the history of orphanages is a social welfare record of total devastation to the lives of the children who grew up in them. Indeed, many of the scholars who contributed to Home Away [...]