The California education development receiving the most attention these days? That would be the state’s K–12 public schools closing down for the remainder of the 2019–20 academic year due to fears of spreading the COVID-19 virus—an early “summer vacation” for nearly 6.2 million teens and minors enrolled in more than 10,500 schools statewide (a student population roughly the size of Missouri, America’s 18th-largest state).

Governor Parson recently announced a coronavirus-induced freeze of over $170 million in planned spending by the state. His decision to target higher education as a major source of savings, while not surprising, is shortsighted.

During the past decade, most universities and colleges, large and small, have set forth vision statements for the future along with timetables for achieving their goals.

A senior research and policy associate at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, David Griffith, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss a new study that investigates whether student achievement increases as the market share of charter schools grows.