Christopher Jencks, the scholar of economic inequality and intellectual pioneer of school choice, passed away last week at 88.
He authored a federally funded report that led to an early experiment with school vouchers in Alum Rock, a small school district near San Jose, California.
Re-reading a 1975 New York Times account, it’s striking how little the terms of debate have changed in 50 years.
Various models have been proposed, but the basic theory is that if each family were given a public voucher worth the local cost of educating a child in the public schools, parents would be able to seek school services in a competitive free market system, much the way they buy automobiles or groceries. The result, it was said, would be schools that were more diverse, and more responsive to pupil needs, particularly for the offspring of the poor.
In an odd convergence of interest, the idea drew support from both the political left and right, although for different reasons. Left‐leaning scholars, like the sociologist Christopher Jencks, argued that vouchers would give the poor the range of choice and personal control that the wealthy have long enjoyed in purchasing schooling, and would vary the monotonous and often ineffectually bland educational diet offered by the public schools.
More conservative thinkers, like the economist Milton Friedman, saw vouchers as a means of reducing government involvement in education and subjecting it to the presumed benefits of the competitive free market system, in which only the best survive.
And Roman Catholic parents and educators saw vouchers as a means of saving the faltering parochial schools, although legal experts are doubtful that public voucher money can constitutionally be redeemed by such schools.
Opponents of vouchers mainly, organized teacher groups like the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers‐have said that they would serve mainly to foster racial and economic segregation, lead to unseemly hucksterism, and decimate the Americana public schools, which, they argued, would become “schools of last resort.”
The Alum Rock experiment eventually fizzled. It was abandoned as the school district ran into a trio of financial headwinds that ring familiar in 2025: expiring federal funding, declining enrollment, and high inflation.
The Rand Corporation evaluation of the program’s third year found it failed to live up to its potential for multiple reasons, including:
- California did not have supportive policies. For one thing, the state did not allow the effort to include private schools.
- The Alum Rock school district did not have systems in place to support real school autonomy or help parents make informed choices.
- Parents did not “shop around” for different schools as much as supporters of the initiative had hoped.
Half a century later, constitutional law, state policies, school system capabilities, and parent expectations are finally catching up to ideas that were ahead of their time.
Parent choice tax credits in Idaho
Idaho lawmakers have sent Gov. Brad Little legislation that would make their state the 20th to allow parents to direct public education funding to learning options of their choice.
The $50 million program would allow parents to apply for refundable tax credits of up to $5,000 per student, or $7,500 per student with disabilities, to pay for school tuition and other eligible expenses. Like a similar program in Oklahoma, it’s intended to offer families benefits akin to education savings accounts with less administrative overhead.
Families could apply for a one-time advance payment. Those with incomes below 300% of the federal poverty level would receive priority.
In brief
Oklahoma’s education tax credit program drew more than 31,000 applications the day it opened for the 2025-26 school year. The state is attempting to claw back nearly $5 million in funding from families who claimed the tax credit but did not keep their kids enrolled in qualifying schools for the entire year.
School districts across the country continue to add staff while losing students. If this continues, there could be fiscal pain ahead. Florida is among the few places where districts are bucking this trend, according to a new analysis published by The 74.
Federal pandemic relief for schools produced small returns on $190 billion invested, rekindling an old debate about whether and how funding increases can improve education outcomes. Experts tend to agree that without the money, student achievement would likely have fallen further, and that if supporting student learning was the goal, the federal relief program was poorly designed.
South Carolina lawmakers are hashing out a plan to revive an education savings account program that was struck down by the state Supreme Court. Supporters are hopeful the high court will approve the program after some administrative tweaks. Crucially, the court has new membership.
Illinois lawmakers have proposed a regulatory crackdown on homeschooling. If passed, the restrictions would represent another first-in-the-nation step backward for education freedom in the Land of Lincoln.
The Heritage Foundation has released the Phoenix Declaration, a new statement of conservative education principles with high-powered signatories, including some notable Floridians.
A novel measure of a school’s quality: The GPAs of students after they leave.
Emily Hanford’s renowned “Sold a Story” podcast is back. The newest episode looks at an aging Ohio steel town with off-the-charts reading results. Among the reasons for Steubenville’s success: Schools creatively deploy staff (including gym teachers) to ensure every student gets reading instruction, on their level, in a small group. The school district also mobilizes a small army of staff, community volunteers, and local high schoolers to ensure every student who’s behind in reading has a well-trained tutor.
The evidence is clear: systematically helping students develop a rich foundation of background knowledge is crucial to their future success.
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