Aaron Garth Smith
Director of Education Reform, Reason Foundation
Aaron Garth Smith is the director of education reform at Reason Foundation.
Smith works extensively on education finance policy and his writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including National Review, The Hill, and Education Week.
Smith graduated from the University of Maine with a bachelor's degree in business administration and earned a Master of Business Administration from Texas A&M University.
He is based in Phoenix, Arizona.
-
California Chooses Feel Good Metrics Over Meaningful Education Measures
Parents and taxpayers deserve to know how education dollars are spent at the classroom level across grade levels and subject areas in per-pupil terms.
-
Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, November 2016
"Many superintendents don’t have access to the financial data they need to make critical budgetary decisions.”
-
How Student-Based Budgeting Can Help El Paso’s Schools
Clint Independent School District’s budgeting practices and the funding disparities between the district’s schools have become a key issue.
-
The Fight Over English-Only Education Highlights the Need For School Choice
With a robust system of school choice, voters wouldn’t be forced to choose between educator autonomy and parental empowerment.
-
-
Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, September 2016
“When districts pay for teachers using average salaries, it creates a loophole that allows for vast differences in dollars spent per student at the school level."
-
Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, August 2016
“Education finance is one of the big civil rights issues of our time."
-
School Choice, Funding Portability, and Trends In Educational Privatization
Education Chapter of Annual Privatization Report 2016
-
Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, July 2016
“If you expect us to do something different you have to give us the opportunity to craft something.”
-
California Needs Better Schools, Not Expensive Ones
Parents should have a chance to vote with their feet by implementing school choice programs that allow students and parents to choose the public schools they believe are best for them.
-
Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, June 2016
“So, while the research continues to focus on aggregated finance databases, the answer to the problem of why funds are poorly linked to student outcomes lies more in how funds are realized at the school level.”
-
Making Sure Parents Can Hold Schools Accountable
How to best track the progress of California’s public schools and hold them accountable for educating students continues to spur debate.
-
Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, March 2016
"We believe instructional needs should drive funding and budget decisions, not the other way around."
-
Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, January and February 2016
“So where the public hears about efforts to close achievement gaps between minorities and white students or between higher-performing and lower-performing students, in truth different parts of the finance system are directly at odds with those stated obje
-
-
School Districts Shortchange Disadvantaged Students
Without transparent funding and school-level financial data available, it is impossible for parents and the public to account for taxpayer dollars going to education.
-
-
Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, December 2015
“Great leaders need to be making those decisions about their schools. They have the local context. They know their students. We want to have the ability to make decisions about how to support them.”
