The Thomas B. Fordham Institute

A Crowded Table: State-by-State Rankings of Teacher Union Strength in 2026

Wed, 05/27/2026 - 00:00

Foreword By Amber M. Northern and Michael J. Petrilli In 2012, we released a landmark study, How Strong Are U.S. Teacher Unions? A State-By-State Comparison, that was the first to measure teacher union strength comprehensively across multiple dimensions and all 50 states. Since then, numerous scholars have used our measure in their research on unions’ effects. Yet, even as our understanding of unions improved, the landscape of education politics has evolved in directions that complicate old… Read More

The laudable intentions of HB 715 are offset by two misguided provisions

Fri, 05/15/2026 - 11:05

Earlier this year, state lawmakers introduced House Bill 715, legislation aimed at expanding available data on chartered nonpublic (private) schools that accept scholarships provided by Ohio’s five private school choice programs. In a press release announcing the bill, one of its sponsors, Representative Gayle Manning, emphasized its focus on transparency. “Every public dollar,” she said, “whether for public schools or school choice programs, should be fully accountable, carefully tracked, and… Read More

Ohio Charter News Weekly – 5.15.26

Fri, 05/15/2026 - 10:08

Stories featured in Ohio Charter News Weekly may require a paid subscription to read in full. Ohio charter schools in the news It’s National Charter Schools Week and we start our news roundup with two great stories about Ohio schools. First up is a celebration of Ohio Virtual Academy’s in-person meet up, held Monday at the Toledo Zoo. Hundreds of students, staff, and family members spent a great day together learning about animals and socializing with each other as the school year comes to a… Read More

Gadfly Bites 5/15/26—Exemption

Fri, 05/15/2026 - 10:04

News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. You have been warned. Nothing much in the news today, so we’ll make this quick. Ohio Senate Bill 19 was heard in the House Education Committee this week. While it is nominally an effort to improve math achievement, it’s an amendment to do with literacy that’s now making news. To wit: The current version of the bill would exempt a small group of classical charter schools from the requirement to use high-… Read More

What do we know about the value of CTE credentials?

Thu, 05/14/2026 - 00:04

A new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, authored by Jay Plasman from The Ohio State University, estimates the value of earning industry-recognized credentials and certificates as part of high school CTE pathways. The top-line takeaway is that some of these credentials seem to offer a pretty hefty payoff in the workforce, even after accounting for the benefit of the CTE course-taking (and other variables) themselves. This study from Ohio is some of the best (and only) evidence to date… Read More

Trump’s education tax credit is poorly designed, but blue states should opt into it anyway

Thu, 05/14/2026 - 00:03

Last week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul made big news by announcing her intention to opt her state into the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC)—though her office later hedged a bit. In a statement to the press, her staff said they “await information from the federal government on the program and will thoroughly review the details of the policy for poison pills that could harm New York’s education system.” They will have to wait another few months for said “information”—i.e., the… Read More

Five policies for school boards to improve discipline

Thu, 05/14/2026 - 00:02

One year, I decided to write down bullet-pointed notes on all the chaos, violence, and disorder that occurred in my school: Two students held a peer against a wall while a third pummeled them in the face and stomach; another student beat up a special needs child on the bus; a girl brought a hammer to school but it was confiscated before she could use it. In the end, I stopped my note-taking exercise after two months because such occurrences became too quotidian. Too many other tasks demanded… Read More

Findings from the new phone ban study may not be so bleak after all

Thu, 05/14/2026 - 00:01

Over the six years I taught high school, I tried every response to student cellphone use that was available to me: one warning, three warnings, no warnings; reacting to the mere sight of a phone, looking the other way if the use wasn’t conspicuous; calling the front office, calling the counselor, revisiting “classroom norms,” emailing parents, buying one of those class cellphone organizers that looks like it’s for shoes. None of these efforts worked particularly well, and they were all draining… Read More

The small federal charter school program that helped grow public school choice

Wed, 05/13/2026 - 10:12

National Charter Schools Week (May 10 to 16) rightly focuses our attention on the millions of students attending public charter schools. Less attention goes to the federal program that helped make much of that growth possible. Today, charter schools are often treated as a partisan education fight. But the federal Charter Schools Program, or CSP, has a more practical, bipartisan story. Congress created it in 1994 as part of the Improving America’s Schools Act, the Clinton-era reauthorization of… Read More

Gadfly Bites 5/13/26—Case for the defense

Wed, 05/13/2026 - 10:11

News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. You have been warned. The voucher lawsuit appeal hearing happened yesterday. You can check out remarkably-similar coverage from the Plain Dealer folks… (Cleveland.com, 5/12/26) …the Dispatch team… (Columbus Dispatch, 5/12/26) …or the DDN. (Dayton Daily News, 5/12/26) The similarity of which I speak in the preceding clip is a district-centric focus to the stories (as in, “the appeal of vouchers’… Read More

Proponent testimony on Ohio Substitute Senate Bill 272

Tue, 05/12/2026 - 13:07

NOTE: Today, the Ohio Senate’s Education Committee heard testimony on Substitute Senate Bill 272. This legislation would, among other things, require students to pass a civics assessment as a condition for graduation. Fordham’s Vice President for Ohio Policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute provided the following proponent testimony before the committee. Substitute Senate Bill 272 takes an important and meaningful step to strengthen civic knowledge by requiring students, beginning in 2027-28… Read More

Interested Party testimony on Ohio Substitute Senate Bill 19

Tue, 05/12/2026 - 13:02

NOTE: Today, the Ohio House Education Committee heard testimony on Substitute Senate Bill 19. The legislation proposes a wide-ranging overhaul of math education in the state—from requiring math improvement plans for students at risk of failure to making sure that future math teachers pass content exams before starting in the classroom—in order to address an ongoing achievement crisis. Fordham’s Vice President for Ohio Policy provided the following Interested Party testimony. I testified on key… Read More

Cleveland should consider a unified enrollment system

Tue, 05/12/2026 - 08:00

In December, the school board for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) unanimously approved a building consolidation plan as part of its Building Brighter Futures initiative, which aims to take “bold action to right-size, stabilize, and secure a brighter future for CMSD scholars.” The plan will close 18 buildings, end five leases, and merge dozens of existing schools. Beginning with the 2026–27 school year, the district will operate 29 fewer schools. Closing and consolidating… Read More

How Ohio should value industry recognized credentials

Tue, 05/12/2026 - 07:58

NOTE: This piece originally appeared at The 74, under a different title. Delivering high-quality career-technical education has quickly moved up the policy agenda across the country, with many states turning to industry credentials to help build students’ professional skill sets and signal to employers that they are ready for a job. These credentials range from basic job-safety certificates (e.g., the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s 10-hour training) to occupational licenses (e… Read More

Looking for academic impacts of neighborhood revitalization efforts

Tue, 05/12/2026 - 07:55

Urban revitalization efforts touch many aspects of daily life for residents, with the ultimate goal of making the community a better place to live for all. While schools are not typically impacted directly by neighborhood renewal work, a group of researchers look at the student-level impacts of a federal program that does specifically cite school improvement as part of its revitalization model. Their new report finds only a weak connection between the program’s stated education-related goals… Read More

Proponent testimony on Senate Bill 127

Tue, 05/12/2026 - 02:02

NOTE: Today, the Ohio Senate’s Education Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 127. The legislation would, if enacted, make changes to the way the state identifies charter schools for closure going forward. Fordham’s Vice President for Ohio Policy provided the following proponent testimony. I appreciate the opportunity to return and testify on the amended version of Senate Bill 127. In my prior testimony, I expressed support for the bill’s goals but recommended several changes to strengthen… Read More

Proponent testimony on Senate Bill 311

Tue, 05/12/2026 - 01:01

NOTE: Today, the Ohio Senate’s Education Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 311. The legislation, if enacted, would make changes to the state’s laws regarding unused school facilities. Fordham’s Vice President for Ohio Policy provided the following proponent testimony. I want to focus my testimony on one part of this bill that is both overdue and absolutely necessary: the provisions strengthening Ohio’s unused school facilities law. Let’s be clear about the problem. Ohio already has a… Read More

Gadfly Bites 5/11/26—The high cost of desperation

Mon, 05/11/2026 - 11:41

News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. You have been warned. Not much to talk about yet again, but we’ll start with this quick first coverage of the Center for Christian Virtue’s recent announcement that it would be starting a nationwide scholarship granting organization (SGO) to take advantage of the new federal tax credit program. The coverage comes from Cleveland.com so you can guess that it leans toward the negative as an initial response,… Read More

Ohio Charter News Weekly – 5.8.26

Fri, 05/08/2026 - 11:48

Stories featured in Ohio Charter News Weekly may require a paid subscription to read in full. Glimpses of the future? The new K-12 education paradigm in Indianapolis—intended to be student-centered and helping the charter, district, and private school sectors work together—is only a few weeks old, but we’ve already got a couple of glimpses of what its future may hold. First up is The 74’s Patrick O’Donnell, whose coverage lays out a number of potential landmines that the city’s new Public… Read More

Unraveling the case for credentials in high school

Fri, 05/08/2026 - 11:10

Students can earn more than 1.8 million credentials in the United States today. We know education pays—particularly for those with a bachelor’s degree. But the rapid expansion of credentials offered outside traditional education institutions—through businesses, industry groups, or a state certifying entity—has introduced new dimensions of complexity. These non-degree credentials hold promise for reskilling and upskilling. But they are largely unregulated, making it difficult to know which will… Read More