Wolf to Co-chair International Conference on School Choice

Patrick J. Wolf, University of Arkansas professor of education reform, will co-chair an international conference Jan. 18-21 drawing more than 100 professors, researchers and policy advocates to discuss school choice.

Wolf will also present papers on special education in school choice and the effect of constitutional restrictions, called Blaine Amendments, on private school choice programs across the United States. Wolf, who holds the Twenty-First Century Endowed Chair in School Choice, will chair a plenary session on “The Politics of School Choice.”

“I am thrilled to have helped bring together this outstanding collection of international researchers,” Wolf said. “The breadth and depth of the scholarly research on school choice represented at the conference is truly impressive.”

Robert Maranto, also a professor of education reform who holds the Twenty-First Century Endowed Chair in Leadership, will present papers on the educational industrial complex and the accountability of public charter schools compared to traditional public schools. He will participate in a roundtable discussion of education reform in the Obama administration.

One of the professors’ students in the department of education reform, Michael McShane, co-authored the paper on Blaine Amendments with Wolf and will participate in the Obama roundtable with Maranto. McShane, a Distinguished Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Education Reform and a Policy Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, co-authored President Obama and Education Reform: The Personal and the Political with Maranto.

The 2^nd Annual International School Choice and Academic Reform Conference takes place at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. More information is available on the conference website.