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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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.
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Data shows financial incentives matter for K-12 open enrollment policies
If school districts do not receive sufficient funding for transfer students, they’re not going to be as willing to participate in an open enrollment program.
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Open enrollment policies don’t have to affect student athletics
There are a variety of ways states can handle student athletic eligibility questions that can arise when implementing open enrollment policies.
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California needs school choice
There are also policy options outside of the typical school choice agenda that could provide more education options to California’s families.
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Public school vouchers could increase education competition
Eliminating residential assignments and putting parents in charge of funding would give all families more agency over their students' education.
