Another Choice Advocate Gathering

The Interational School Choice and Reform Conference has been a thing since 2010. Here's the goal:

The goal is connect scholars who engage in rigorous research about school choice in ways that illuminate current policy debates.

The conference is historically held in Fort Lauderdale over the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend (though last year it was in Madrid). It claims to be "academically sound" with a "rigorous peer-review process." This year they're at the Sonesta Fort Lauderdale Beach hotel. 

This year's list of sponsors isn't up yet, but it doesn't seem to change much from year to year, so we're looking at last year's list. It tells us what kind of operation we're talking about.

Top two Platinum sponsors are EdChoice (previously the Friedman Foundation, the grand mac daddies of school choice policy) and Stand Together, part of the Koch web of philanthroactivism. Those are $30,000 spots.

At $20K Gold level, we had The Heritage Foundation. For Silver ($10K) The Hoover Institute, National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, the Walton-funded and choice-pushing University of Arkansas College of Education, and Stride, the 800-pound cyber-guerilla of the virtual charter biz. In the cheap seats, CREDO (the "research" outfit that studies choice), the Education Freedom Institute (the outfit run by Corey DeAngelis), Kennesaw University (in Georgia), VELA education fund (a joint Koch-Walton that funnels money to choice), and the American Federation for Children. 

The planning committee is folks from universities, plus Drew Catt, the executive director of EdChoice; also Jay Greene, formerly at University of Arkansas and now with Heritage Foundation. The ISCRC "partners" with the Journal of School Choice, which is edited by Robert Maranto at the University of Arkansas. The editorial board includes Neal McClusky (Cato), Rick Hess (AEI), Robin Lake (CRPE), and Mike McShane (AEI). 

To attend, you register as a senior scholar, junior scholar, grad student or as guest of a regular attendee. So clearly we're heavy on the academics at this thin, even as it clearly has advocacy aims-- fostering what Josh Cowen quotes voucher advocates as calling "soldier-scholars" or "counter intelligentsia."

If that doesn't provide enough of a hint of where this is headed, we can look at the schedule. It lists topics and not speakers

The History of the School Choice Movement (Part 1)
Breaking Through Lines: The Impact of School Choice Assignment and Zoning on Education Opportunity 

School System Reform: Cross-Country Insights on Drivers of Student Achievement 

Identities, Ethics, and Rights 

Rural and High School Charters 

Success and Quality in Virtual Schools 

Teachers and School Choice 

Imagining a Free Market in Education: Concepts, Accountability, and Barriers 

Charter School Authorization and Access 

Education Freedom Tax Credits

Regulating Private Education Choice

School Choice Victories: Woo-Hoos and Whoopsies

That's just Day One. I'd come back on Saturday for a couple of topics that invoke the culture war, market research on choice, implementing and measuring school choice, charter school accountability and ROI, and "ESA's: Strengthening This Ever-Growing Option."

The nature of many topics lead me to suspect that some sponsors are also presenting some of their own stuff.

It looks like a fun time. The website pitches it as not too large and therefor great for networking. And it's one more thing to watch for whatever the next reformster pitch is going to be, to see what sort of germs of school choice advocacy will be grown in this particular petri dish. Note: It's not too late to register, if you've got the academic credentials.