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EWA​, the professional organization dedicated to ​strengthening the community of education ​writers and improving the ​quality of education coverage ​to better inform the public, hosts ​a weekly podcast featuring lively interviews with journalists.

Mar 20, 2018

School choice is one of the most contentious issues in K-12  education today. But it’s hardly an American invention. Sarah Butrymowiz of The Hechinger Report recently traveled to New Zealand, Sweden, and France to look at how school choice plays out, and whether there are lessons for the U.S. system. Why is New Zealand considered a “school choice utopia,” and how is its open enrollment policy driving programming and competition among local campuses? Sweden’s “free schools” are similar to what U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has said she envisions in a voucher program -- but is that contributing to the Scandinavian country’s steady slide on international assessments? And in France, a longstanding reliance on funneling public dollars to private schools offers insights into the challenge of providing equitable education to less-affluent families. Butrymowiz, an EWA Reporting Fellow, discusses the research on school choice programs abroad, as well as tips and questions for covering the issue stateside.