Review of Helping Families Navigate the Changing Education Landscape

An NEPC Review funded by the Great Lakes Center

Key Takeaway: The report baselessly assumes that these consultants are beneficial for families.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI (September 10, 2024) - A recent Cato Institute report describes how Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), the newest form of private-school voucher, have the potential to transform education by giving families increased options for tailoring their child's education, especially with the guidance of special consultants along the way. A review of that report, however, determines that it fails to provide useful evidence to support its conclusions and its recommendation that the cost of these "choice navigators" should be included as an eligible expense.

In her review of Helping Families Navigate the Changing Education Landscape , Huriya Jabbar of the University of Southern California agrees with the report's assertion that the school choice environment is becoming increasingly complex, particularly with the advent and rapid growth of ESAs. She also does not contest the likelihood that families, particularly those from historically marginalized groups, may benefit from additional guidance, a documented challenge stemming from differential access to information and resources needed to successfully access and enroll in educational programs.

However, Professor Jabbar's review explains the report's lack of research and evidence, aside from a few handpicked testimonials, to support its claims about choice navigators as helpful in addressing these challenges. Accordingly, the report asks readers to simply accept the purported benefits of these consultants or choice navigators for families. Given the lack of new evidence or support from prior literature, the report's conclusions are not valid or useful to policymakers.

Find the review, by Huriya Jabbar, at:

https://www.greatlakescenter.org

Find Helping Families Navigate the Changing Education Landscape , written by Colleen Hroncich and Jamie Buckland and published by the Cato Institute, at: https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/helping-families-navigate-changing-education-landscape

NEPC Reviews ( https://nepc.colorado.edu/reviews ) provide the public, policymakers, and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected publications. NEPC Reviews are made possible in part by support provided by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice: https://www.greatlakescenter.org

The mission of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research & Practice is to support and disseminate high-quality research and reviews of research for the purpose of informing education policy and to develop research-based resources for use by those who advocate for education reform.

Visit the Great Lakes Center website at GreatLakesCenter.org

Contacts

Michelle Renee Valladares

Huriya Jabbar