National School Choice Week 2019 is celebrated from January 20-26 and, once again, marks the first event of the year for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation!

Join the Foundation on Tuesday, January 22 in the Empire Room, 20th Floor of the Sloppy Floyd Building in Atlanta for "National School Choice Week: A Capitol Choice," a Policy Briefing Luncheon beginning at noon. (Registration, networking begin at 11:30 a.m.)

The speakers for this event are Dr. Ashley Berner, deputy director at the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Education Policy, and Georgia Public Policy Foundation Senior Fellow Dr. Ben Scafidi. Registration is $35; Early Bird Registration is $25 through December 31, 2018.

About the speakers:

Ashley Berner is Deputy Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and Assistant Professor of Education. She served previously as the Deputy Director of the CUNY Institute for Education Policy and the Director of the Education Program at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, UVa. Dr. Berner has published articles and book chapters on the relationship between educational structure and state funding in democratic nations, religious education and citizenship formation, and teacher preparation in different national contexts. Palgrave MacMillan published "Pluralism and American Public Education: No One Way to School" in 2017. She consults regularly on projects that examine the academic and civic outcomes of different school sectors. Her teaching experience took place in a Jewish pre-school, an Episcopal secondary school, and an open university in Louisiana. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University Law School. She holds degrees from Davidson College (Honors A.B.) and from Oxford University (M.Litt. and D.Phil. in Modern History).

Ben Scafidi is a professor of economics and director of the Education Economics Center at Kennesaw State University. He is also a Friedman fellow with EdChoice and a Senior Fellow with the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. His research has focused on education and urban policy. He is author of the study, “Georgia 2020: Educational Opportunity for All K-12 Students in Georgia,” published in 2018.

Previously, he served as chair of the state of Georgia’s Charter Schools Commission, the education policy advisor to Gov. Sonny Perdue, on the staff of both of Gov. Roy Barnes’ Education Reform Study Commissions, and as an expert witness for the state of Georgia in school funding litigation. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia and his B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame.

About the Georgia Public Policy Foundation: The Foundation, established in 1991, is a nonprofit, independent, state-focused think tank that proposes market-oriented approaches to public policy to improve the lives of Georgians. The Think Tanks and Civil Society Program has ranked the Foundation as one of the “Best Independent Think Tanks” in its 2017 Global Go-To Think Tank Index, released in February 2018. Regular events include Leadership Breakfasts and Policy Briefing Luncheons. Weekly publications are the Friday Facts and Friday Idea commentaries.