The Education Index analyzes K-12 and higher education bills based on our values of accountability and transparency, educational choice, decentralized decision making and permissionless innovation, among others (+/- 1 point for each instance). These analyses equip lawmakers, policymakers and parents to understand our state’s education system and ground their discussions in ideas that best serve the families and students who utilize it.
K-12 Metrics
1. Does the bill expand the existing government monopoly on education and shrink family and student choice or agency?
Conversely, does the bill expand the ability for families and students to choose the educational options that best meet their needs free of government intervention or coercion?
2. Does the bill finance education based on the student rather than the institution?
Conversely, does the bill finance education based on an institution or system?
3. Does the bill allow schools to be more flexible, improve feedback mechanisms, and decentralize decisions to the family or individual level?
Conversely, does the bill add to the existing education bureaucracy?
4. Does the bill decrease barriers to entry for teachers and other education professionals or services, thus incentivizing entrepreneurship and increasing the supply of options for education services in the marketplace?
Conversely, does the bill create barriers to entry into the education marketplace?
5. Does the bill create more transparency or accountability in public education institutions?
Conversely, does the bill reduce transparency and accountability in such institutions?
6. Does the bill reinforce the idea of equal treatment under the law, merit, individual responsibility, personal agency, and expectations of academic excellence?
Conversely, does the bill allow for any type of discrimination against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group for any purpose on the basis of race, sex, color, economic class, ethnicity, national origin, geographic area, legacy status, or other identity group?
7. Does the bill protect freedom of speech in teaching or learning?
Conversely, does the bill restrict freedom of speech in teaching or learning?
Higher Education Metrics
1. Does the bill reduce or eliminate layers of bureaucracy, allowing universities to be more flexible, improve feedback mechanisms, and decentralize decisions to the individual level?
Conversely, does the bill create or increase layers of bureaucracy?
2. Does the bill protect free speech and academic freedom in research, teaching, and learning for the purpose of the advancement of truth and the pursuit of knowledge?
Conversely, does the bill restrict free speech or academic freedom?
3. Does the bill increase transparency or accountability in public education institutions?
Conversely, does the bill decrease transparency and accountability in public education institutions?
4. Does the bill reinforce the idea of equal treatment under the law, merit, individual responsibility, personal agency, and expectations of academic excellence?
Conversely, does the bill allow for any type of discrimination against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group for any purpose on the basis of race, sex, color, economic class, ethnicity, national origin, geographic area, legacy status, or other identity group?
5. Does the bill remove barriers to entry, thus incentivizing entrepreneurship and increasing the supply side of education services in the marketplace?
Conversely, does the bill create or increase barriers to entry?
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