Press Release Source: Hoover Institution


As State Legislature Debates School Funding, Koret Task Force Releases New Book Presenting Education Policy Recommendations for Texas
Wednesday April 28, 3:42 pm ET

STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 28, 2004--As the Texas legislature meets in special session to tackle the state's school funding crisis, the Hoover Institution's Koret Task Force on K-12 Education announces the release of Reforming Education in Texas: Recommendations from the Koret Task Force, February 2004.
At the invitation of Governor Rick Perry and the cochairs of the Texas legislature's Joint Select Committee on Public School Finance, the task force developed the policy options in Reforming Education in Texas to assist lawmakers in shaping effective, equitable, and efficient primary and secondary schooling for the state's children. The memoranda address all key elements of Texas education policy -- including school finance, school choice, rewards, teachers, principals, standards, tests, textbooks, and school boards.

The ten memoranda were submitted in February to the House Select Committee on Public School Finance by three of the eleven members of the Task Force -- Hoover Institution senior fellow Eric A. Hanushek and Harvard University professors Caroline M. Hoxby and Paul E. Peterson, distinguished visiting fellows at Hoover. In testimony before the committee, the three members discussed the task force's policy suggestions.

"Our goal has been to listen to Texans' ideas for their elementary and secondary schools then apply research-based expertise and sound policy principles to generate guidelines and concrete proposals that represent a consensus of ideas and expertise," said Hoxby, who serves on the Joint Select Committee on Public School Finance.

The Koret Task Force on K-12 Education is the centerpiece of the Hoover Institution's Initiative on American Public Education. Supported by the Koret Foundation, the eleven members of the task force are nationally recognized experts in education and education policy.

The Koret Task Force members are Hoover distinguished visiting fellow John E. Chubb, Edison Schools; Hoover research fellow Williamson M. Evers; Hoover senior fellow and Koret Task Force chairman Chester E. Finn Jr., Thomas B. Fordham Foundation; Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow Eric A. Hanushek, Hoover Institution; Hoover distinguished visiting fellow Paul T. Hill, University of Washington; Hoover distinguished visiting fellow E. D. Hirsch, University of Virginia; Hoover distinguished visiting fellow Caroline M. Hoxby, Harvard University; Hoover senior fellow Terry M. Moe, William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science at Stanford University; Hoover senior fellow Paul E. Peterson, Harvard University; Hoover distinguished visiting fellow Diane Ravitch, New York University; and Hoover distinguished visiting fellow Herbert J. Walberg, University of Illinois at Chicago.

More information about the Koret Task Force is available online at http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/koret/default.htm

The Hoover Institution, founded at Stanford University in 1919, is an interdisciplinary research center for advanced study on domestic public policy and international affairs, with an internationally renowned archives. For more information on the Hoover Institution, visit www.hoover.org

Working Press: Copies of the book are available to working press through Hoover Public Affairs, 650-723-0603.



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