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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California Needs Better Schools, Not Expensive Ones
Parents should have a chance to vote with their feet by implementing school choice programs that allow students and parents to choose the public schools they believe are best for them.
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Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, June 2016
“So, while the research continues to focus on aggregated finance databases, the answer to the problem of why funds are poorly linked to student outcomes lies more in how funds are realized at the school level.”
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Making Sure Parents Can Hold Schools Accountable
How to best track the progress of California’s public schools and hold them accountable for educating students continues to spur debate.
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Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, March 2016
"We believe instructional needs should drive funding and budget decisions, not the other way around."
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Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, January and February 2016
“So where the public hears about efforts to close achievement gaps between minorities and white students or between higher-performing and lower-performing students, in truth different parts of the finance system are directly at odds with those stated obje
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School Districts Shortchange Disadvantaged Students
Without transparent funding and school-level financial data available, it is impossible for parents and the public to account for taxpayer dollars going to education.
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Student-Based Budgeting Newsletter, December 2015
“Great leaders need to be making those decisions about their schools. They have the local context. They know their students. We want to have the ability to make decisions about how to support them.”
