In the @FT today, I explain how President Trump, the Treasury Department, and @SenJoniErnst are working to save tens of billions by strengthening the Do Not Pay system, which President Obama created in 2010. This reform should have bipartisan support. @SenatorDurbin @RonWyden @SenGaryPeters sponsored similar reforms last year.

It’s been exciting to see many governors and state financial officers signing onto @VP’s anti-fraud pledge. As @DanLips wrote for @CityJournal this summer, partnering with @USTreasury to use Do Not Pay would be a great first step for states to take. city-journal.org/article/do-…

100%. IDEA solved a real injustice: kids with disabilities shut out of school. To reauthorize IDEA, Congress should examine over-identification, which strains services for the kids who need them most.

The last time Congress reauthorized IDEA, the hottest phone was a Motorola RAZR. A lot has changed since 2004, including the rise of education choice for students with disabilities. My new paper proposes a grand bargain to reform special education.

Thanks, Ginny! A first step toward IDEA reform is congressional oversight. Last year, Ginny brought powerful parent advocates to the Hill to highlight unfairness in special education. Congress should hold hearings and invite experts like her.

FAI's @DanLips in @thehill: "Which senator would be willing to publicly object to bipartisan reforms that simply strengthen the government's tools for preventing billions of taxpayer dollars from being stolen by fraudsters?" thehill.com/opinion/congress…

Another day, another #SchoolChoice report release! This one is the annual accountability report on the Arkansas universal ESA program, called Education Freedom Accounts. Kudos to my @ua_edreform colleagues @mistygallo2 & @jbmcgee for leading on it. Highlights: 44,254 students participated in the 1st year of universal eligibility, representing 8.7% of government-supported K-12 students in Arkansas. Participation was widespread statewide, but highest in our major metropolitan areas in central and northwest Arkansas and in a few high-poverty rural areas. 35% of participants met one or more priority categories for service, including 16.3% with disabilities, comparable to the 16% rate for all Arkansas students. 60% used their accounts to attend private schools and 40% used them for microschools (3%) or homeschools (37%). All K-10 students were required to take a standardized test chosen by their education provider to align with the content they received. EFA students scored at the 62nd national percentile in math and the 66th in reading. Private school students spent most but not quite all of their EFA funds on tuition and fees. Homeschoolers spent their funds on a variety of educational products and services necessary to operate a school in the home. The program re-enrollment rate from spring 2026 to fall 2026 for K-11 students was a phenomenal 96%. Details here: bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/wordpr…

REPORT ALERT: My co-authors & I report that, nationally, more than a quarter of a million students with disabilities (SWDs) participate in a private #SchoolChoice program, representing 15.5-17.2% of all choice students, a rate higher than the representation of SWDs in district-run public schools. aei.org/research-products/re…

The @DeptofWar is on a mission to develop America's top STEM talent pool. @DanLips has ideas: ✔️ Implement the best practices already identified by federally funded education R&D ✔️ Set up a STEM Young Scholars Program ✔️ Offer a STEM Enrichment Account program

Our experience too. It takes about 30 hours altogether to get through the lessons. And it works.

So excited for this based on the trailer. Hopeful that parents will start asking questions about Direct Instruction like they did about the science of reading after the first season.

Great post by @AlliAldis on the popularity of Education Savings Accounts, even among registered Democrats. There are almost 2 students using an ESA for every voucher student in the U.S. informedchoice1996.substack.…

Reagan > Nixon. nationalreview.com/magazine/…

I spent over an hour on the phone with @JenBerryHawes explaining that IDEA only gives access to a SWD's zoned district school (no open enrollment), that for decades families of SWD had often pulled a mistreated child out of their zoned public school to home-school them with zero assistance whatsoever out of pure desperation. Oh and that the ESA program in AZ enrolls a higher percentage of SWD than the AZ public schools-19% vs. 14%. Also I think I explained that AZ public schools shamelessly discriminate against students with disabilities in open enrollment. Oh also that ESAs give families options outside of attending private schools-that we have families in AZ for instance teaming up to hire their own teachers, that if they do do multivendor education that they would at least have resources to help them do it. ESAs are more than vouchers. I mentioned that if what she wanted to do was to write a story of families complaining about not finding a spot in a private school, she could write that story, but it would be a huge oversimplification of a complex reality- ESAs are an incredibly useful innovation for many families of students with disabilities, but do not alone dry every tear or cure the world's pain. They also don't harm anyone- districts have complained about not getting enough SPED $ for decades- so if a kid leaves with their share they can either spend more on the remaining kids, or do less of an xfer from gen ed to sped ed. Districts win either way, so long as the $ story they have been telling for 50 years is true. Sometimes journalists seem to struggle with fitting a complex "this makes the world better but not perfect" narrative into a superhero versus supervillain comic book framework. I may have missed it, but none of the above information seemed to make it into the story, which instead went with the standard "GRRRRRR school choice STRONG BAD!!!!" predetermined narrative. JBH did not ask me about the "toe hold" strategy also included in her story, but if she had, I would have noted that whether or not legislatures take any further action on choice is entirely up to the normal democratic process. Mississippi for instance passed an ESA for SWD about a decade ago but to date has taken no further action on private choice in the state. Others may choose to do the same in the future. That's democracy for you, imo. ESAs for SWD stand on their own merits regardless. propublica.org/article/schoo… @HeritageOnEd @JasonBedrick @RobertEnlow @RonMatus1 @ClarkRimsza @jandrewclark @AdamPeshek @propublica @KathyVisser1 @LevesquePat @alexanderrusso @JebBush @rickhess99 @MrDanielBuck

This is the Republican nominee for statewide office. Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized. This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.