Web Resources

Alan B. Krueger
Alan Krueger is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University who has done research on class sizes. His Web site includes some of his papers, including his look at the Tennessee STAR study on class sizes.

American Federation of Teachers
The AFT is one of the nation's largest teacher unions with more than 1 million members but it also represents health care and public sector employees. The AFT is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization of several labor unions. The AFT opposes school voucher programs and compares the impact of Vouchers Vs. Small Class Size on its Web site.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Advocacy group that opposes government involvement with religion -- in particular, this group strongly opposes school vouchers that might go to religious schools.

A Back To School Report on the Baby Boom Echo
A study on the "Baby Boom Echo," the rise in the birth rate from the late '70s until the early '90s that is now leading to rising student populations. Part of the Department of Education's school construction and design initiative.

Center for Education Reform
The Center for Education Reform is a pro-voucher, pro-charter school advocacy organization formed in 1993 and based in Washington, D.C. The site offers a host of information about vouchers, charter schools and other forms of school choice across the nation. It includes a host of resources, including extensive information about charter school programs in 36 states. The Center's "Parent Power" newsletter argues that smaller class size is not a panacea for failing schools.

CEO America
CEO America advertises itself as "the national clearinghouse of information on privately funded voucher programs -- providing support services ranging from administrative training to programmatic consulting to technical support." The pro-voucher foundation's goal is to help create and develop private voucher programs all over the country and to sway public opinion in favor of school choice.

ECS Online
The Education Commission of the States, a non-profit organization that coordinates between state governments on education issues. ECS's information clearinghouse includes an extensive background on dozens of issues, and summaries of state actions and the view from both sides of controversial questions.

Education Policy Institute
This site is pro-voucher and offers this statement on its Web site: "EPI strives to promote greater parental choice in education, a competitive education industry and other policies that address the problems of both public and private schools." EPI's chairman is Dr. Myron Lieberman, who has written multiple books on the teacher unions and education employee relations. A majority of the site offers a critical look at teacher unions and it assists efforts to establish teacher unions that can compete with existing teacher unions.

Education Week
A magazine for teachers by the non-profit Editorial Projects in Education Inc., publishers of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Health and Education Research Operative Services Inc.
Health and Education Research Operative Services, or HEROS, is a Tennessee-based non-profit agency that conducted the research in the Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) study on class sizes, considered to be the foundation of the recent movement toward reducing class sizes.

Impact of facilities on learning
A compilation of online and print resources from the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities.

Institute for Justice
Libertarian legal advocacy group that favors and files legal briefs on behalf of voucher programs. Includes updates on court cases in Arizona, Maine, Ohio, Illinois, Vermont, Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Milton and Rose Friedman foundation
Founded by two economists, one a Nobel laureate, who have championed the cause of "school choice" since the 1950s.

National Education Association
The National Education Association is America's oldest and largest teachers union, with 2.5 million members who work at every level of public school education, from pre-school to university graduate programs. Staunchly opposed to school vouchers, the NEA has affiliates in every state and in 13,000 local communities across the United States. On its Web site, the NEA has a voucher resource center and pages on reducing class size and school modernization.

People For The American Way
People For the American Way is a liberal lobbying organization that argues for the separation of church and state. Part of its efforts include opposing school voucher programs. It formed the Partners for Public Education with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to promote support for public schools.

Phi Delta Kappa
An international association of professional teachers, claiming more than 100,000 members, PDK describes itself as an advocate of public schools. It sponsors an extensive annual Gallup poll of public attitudes toward public schools.

Program on Education Policy and Governance
This site is located at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and includes a variety of research papers examining school voucher programs across the country. According to its Web site, the program was formed to bring together scholars from diverse backgrounds to examine issues of education policy and governance in light of the rising debate over education reform.

Rethinking Schools online
Founded in 1986 by a group of Milwaukee teachers, Rethinking Schools describes itself as a "an activist publication, with articles written by and for teachers, parents and students."

School Design and Planning Laboratory, University of Georgia
Part of the University of Georgia's College of Education, the SDPL has links to research abstracts, opinion articles and a small photo gallery of "bad schools." The laboratory concludes that students perform better in smaller schools with natural light, green spaces and attractive environments. On the site, SDPL professor C. Kenneth Tanner calls modern windowless schools "chicken houses" and decries the "slum architecture" of temporary classroom trailers.

State by state modernization facts
A state-by-state breakdown of school age and condition. Compiled by the National Education Association from statistics collected by the General Accounting Office. The statistics were collected in 1995, so they are somewhat out of date, especially on the availability of computers.

U.S. Charter Schools
An overview of charter schools from the educational laboratory WestEd and the U.S. Department of Education. Includes rundowns of charter school laws by state, school lists and profiles, resources for starting and running a charter school, and online message boards.

U.S. Department of Education Class Size Reduction Program
The class size reduction program is part of the Clinton Administration's program aimed at providing funding to hire 100,000 teachers over the next seven years - approximately $7.3 billion over five years ($12 billion over seven years) within the context of a balanced budget. The 2000 fiscal year budget includes $1.4 billion for the class-size reduction initiative. The site includes guidance on the program as well as how schools can apply for federal grants.

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