K-12 Without Borders: Public School Students, Families, and Teachers Shut in by Education Boundaries

Join us on Wednesday, April 26, from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CT as EdChoice’s Marty Lueken, Director of Fiscal Research & Education Center, and Mike McShane, Director of National Research, join Show-Me Institute’s Director of Education Research, Susan Pendergrass, to discuss their recently published reports K-12 Without Borders: Public School Students, Families, and Teachers Shut in by Education Boundaries, which examines what a K-12 education system with fewer school district borders would mean for students, teachers, and taxpayers, and Breaking Down Public School District Lines: Policies, Perceptions, and Implications of Inter-District Open Enrollment.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to ask questions via a Q&A session following the discussion.

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About the Speakers

Martin Lueken is director of EdChoice’s Fiscal Research and Education Center (FREC), where he focuses on research and analysis of issues that pertain to school choice bills, current programs, and school funding. His work includes providing expert support and advice for policy makers in helping understand the fiscal impact of current school choice programs and potential fiscal effects of programs introduced in state legislatures. He also conducts data analysis and research on school choice.

His research work and interests include education finance in general and teacher pensions. He has provided expert testimony and advice about fiscal issues for numerous states that have introduced education choice legislation. His work has been mentioned in various media and education-specific outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Education Next, Education Week, and The 74. He previously studied in the Department of Education Reform and received his doctorate in Education Policy from the University of Arkansas.

Michael Q. McShane is the director of national research at EdChoice. Mike is the editor of New and Better Schools, the author of Education and Opportunity and coeditor of Educational Entrepreneurship Today, Teacher Quality 2.0 and Common Core Meets Education Reform. His analyses and commentary have been published widely in the media, including in the Huffington Post, National Affairs, USA Today and The Washington Post. He has also been featured in education-specific outlets such as Teachers College Commentary, Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan and Education Next. In addition to authoring numerous white papers, McShane has had academic work published in Education Finance and Policy and the Journal of School Choice. A former high school teacher, he earned a Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Arkansas, an M.Ed. from the University of Notre Dame and a B.A. in English from St. Louis University.

Susan Pendergrass is the director of education policy at the Show-Me Institute. Before joining the Show-Me Institute, Susan Pendergrass was Vice President of Research and Evaluation for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, where she oversaw data collection and analysis and carried out a rigorous research program. Susan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business, with a concentration in Finance, at the University of Colorado in 1983. She earned her Masters in Business Administration at George Washington University, with a concentration in Finance (1992) and a doctorate in public policy from George Mason University, with a concentration in social policy (2002). Susan began researching charter schools with her dissertation on the competitive effects of Massachusetts charter schools. Since then, she has conducted numerous studies on the fiscal impact of school choice legislation. Susan has also taught quantitative methods courses at the Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies, at Johns Hopkins University, and at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University. Prior to coming to the National Alliance, Susan was a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education during the Bush administration and a senior research scientist at the National Center for Education Statistics during the Obama administration.