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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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.