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.
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How K-12 education is funded
Funding for K-12 public education is a shared responsibility between federal, state, and local governments.
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Pennsylvania public schools need funding reform, not more money
Data show Pennsylvania schools are well funded. But how this funding gets to students is a problem.
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How state education funding formulas work
Funding formulas collect and distribute education dollars to schools.
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Public education funding without boundaries: How to get K-12 dollars to follow open enrollment students
How to ensure state and local education funds flow seamlessly across district boundaries.
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Why teacher salaries are flat as school spending soars
Benefit costs, staffing trends and class sizes may explain why teacher salaries have remained flat while K-12 education spending has grown.
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Improving K-12 open enrollment transparency is low-hanging fruit for state policymakers
Parents and policymakers need transparent data about public school transfers.
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Has Texas defunded public schools?
Between 2002 and 2020, inflation-adjusted education spending in Texas increased by 16%, going from $11,473 per student to $13,346 per student.
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How Texas can improve the state’s student transfer law
State policymakers can remove barriers for families by pursuing three policy reforms that would modernize the student-transfer law.
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The NCAA should embrace the free market when it comes to player compensation
The NCAA is hell-bent on capping how much players can earn from name, image and likeness deals.
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K-12 Education Spending Spotlight: An in-depth look at school finance data and trends
Reason Foundation’s new K-12 Education Spending Spotlight provides critical insight into key school finance trends across the country.
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Frequently asked questions on student-centered funding
Student-centered funding puts student needs as the focus of education funding decisions.
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Wisconsin’s open enrollment policy success is a model for states looking to increase educational opportunities
Wisconsin's public school open enrollment program has grown from serving less than 3,000 students in the 1998-99 school year to 70,428 students in the 2020-21 school year.
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What will public schools do when federal pandemic relief funding runs out?
Pre-pandemic trends offer clues of how this might play out across state capitals.
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Arizona K-12 Funding Reform Model
Arizona’s K-12 funding system is broken, but gaping differences in funding levels aren’t the only problem—it wasn’t designed to support an education ecosystem with robust school choice for families.
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Data shows financial incentives matter for K-12 open enrollment policies
If school districts do not receive sufficient funding for transfer students, they’re not going to be as willing to participate in an open enrollment program.
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Open enrollment policies don’t have to affect student athletics
There are a variety of ways states can handle student athletic eligibility questions that can arise when implementing open enrollment policies.
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California needs school choice
There are also policy options outside of the typical school choice agenda that could provide more education options to California’s families.
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Public school vouchers could increase education competition
Eliminating residential assignments and putting parents in charge of funding would give all families more agency over their students' education.
