Vicki E. Alger, Ph.D
Senior Fellow
Vicki E. (Murray) Alger is Senior Fellow and Director of the Women for School Choice Project at the Independent Women’s Forum. She is currently working on a book examining the 30-year history of the U.S. Department of Education.
Dr. Alger’s research focuses on education reform measures to improve academic accountability at all levels, promote a competitive education climate, and increase parents’ control over their children’s education. She has advised the U.S. Department of Education on public school choice and higher education reform. She has also advised education policymakers in more than 30 states, provided expert testimony before state legislative education committees, served on two national accountability task forces, and her research was used as part of the successful legal defense of Arizona’s flagship tax-credit scholarship program in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 (Winn v. Garriott).
Dr. Alger has held education directorships at the Pacific Research Institute in Sacramento, California, and the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Her research helped inspire numerous pieces of K-12 parental choice legislation in those states, including programs for students from low-income families, attending failing schools, with special needs, and children in the foster-care system. Dr. Alger’s research also informed a statewide higher education voucher program.
Dr. Alger’s research and writings on market education policy have been widely published and cited in state and national media and research outlets, as well as outlets in Canada, Great Britain, Mexico, and New Zealand. Prior to her career in education policy, Dr. Alger taught college-level courses in American politics, English composition and rhetoric, and early British literature. She has lectured at universities nationwide, including the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. Dr. Alger received her Ph.D. in political philosophy from the Institute of Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas, where she was an Earhart Foundation Fellow.
Recent Articles:
April 1 2011
Florida Shows California that Demography is Still Not Destiny
December 9 2010
Helping Give Foster Children a Better Tomorrow Begins with Better Education Options Today
August 3 2010
Why Pass National Standards that Flunk?
July 23 2010
Eyebrow-Raising Education Rankings in California
July 23 2010
Improving Plunging High School Graduation Rates in California
July 23 2010
July 23 2010
US Senate to Consider Special-Needs Scholarships for Military Dependents
July 23 2010
Sooner State Needs More of the Sunshine State's Successful Education Reforms
July 22 2010
LAUSD's Parking Garages and Pizza Kitchens Aren't Improving Performance
July 20 2010
California Flunks College Preparation
July 20 2010
Can Race to the Top Buy Off Buy-In? Don't Bet on It.
May 17 2010
New Jersey Students Trapped in Failing Schools...Reporter Focuses on Governor's "Tone"
May 17 2010
New Jersey Senate Passes Tax-Credit Scholarship Bill: Supporters Cheer, Union Bosses in Fear
May 17 2010
May 17 2010
Guessing Where School Bailout II Money Will Go
May 17 2010
Federal Bailout Bust: Hundreds of Thousands of Teachers' Jobs Still at Risk
May 17 2010
Confederacy of Dunces--International Edition
May 10 2010
A Six-Step Program for Shrinking Government
May 10 2010
Why Hinge Race to the Top "Reforms" on Opponents' Imprimatur?
April 1 2010
President Obama's Home State Embracing Vouchers
April 1 2010
Death of D.C. Voucher Exposes Obama Administration's Ed Cred Deficit
April 1 2010
To Have Freer Schools There Must Be Choice
April 1 2010
Hypocrisy in High Places...Again
April 1 2010
Rational Education Policy Working in Cleveland
March 17 2010
The Hypocrisy and Revisionist History of D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton
March 16 2010
Washington Post Takes on Unions, DC Politicians Over Vouchers
March 16 2010
Government-Run Student-Loan Scheme a Higher Edu-bacle
March 12 2010
Big ED Takes Aim at Waste...With 27 New Shotguns
March 12 2010
A Race or a Scramble to the "Top"? First-Round Finalists for Federal Cash Baffling
March 11 2010
More Blame for Unions that Block Reform
March 11 2010
Sticker Shock: New Study Shows the Real Price Tag for Government Schooling
March 11 2010
California Teachers Union Tops Big-Political-Spenders List
March 11 2010
School Choice Under Siege in DC; Surges in States
March 10 2010
Politics, Not Procedure, Killed D.C. Voucher Vote in the Senate
March 10 2010
Common Core or National Curriculum? New Standards Ignite Debate
March 10 2010
Right Ends, Wrong Means: The Problem with the All Students Achieving through Reform Act
March 2 2010
School Choice Facts at Your Fingertips
March 2 2010
Give Turnaround Grants to Students, Not States, Schools
March 1 2010
Time Magazine Says We're Failing Our Schools because of Unions
March 1 2010
Early Hope Scholarship Would Benefit Foster and Military Children in Georgia
March 1 2010
"Spirit of Central Falls" Trumps Special Interests
February 27 2010
February 27 2010
The Sunshine State Just Keeps Getting Sunnier and Sunnier
February 26 2010
Early Graduation is a Student-Centered Option
February 26 2010
Utah May Let Colleges Charter Schools
February 26 2010
States Should Look, Not Leap When it Comes to National Standards
February 25 2010
Keeping Children Safe at School Requires Empowered Parents
February 25 2010
February 24 2010
"Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss" in La La Land
February 24 2010
Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum: Federal Take Over of Education
April 24 2010
IWF in the News: Biting the Hand that Bites Unions Back
March 12 2010
IWF in the News: California Teacher Union Rallies Around Bad Ideas
March 11 2010
The Dana Show: Students Protest Cuts to Schools, Colleges
March 10 2010
The Andy Caldwell Show: Angry Students Protest Cuts to Schools, Colleges
March 9 2010
The Amy Oliver Show: Education Reform and School Choice
October 13 2009
The Amy Oliver Show: Education Reform and School Choice
October 6 2009
IWF in the News: Obama and Education - Less Talk, More Action
September 9 2009
The Martha Zoller Show: Government-run Health Care is the Antithesis of Real Feminism
August 19 2009
Onenewsnow: Freedom - The Key to Education Reform
August 13 2009
Eagle Forum with Phyllis Schafly: Discussion on School Choice
August 8 2009
The Andy Caldwell Show: Why Not Expand Successful G.I. Bill Concept to K-12?
June 24 2009
IWF in the News: 'G.I. Bill' for School Choice?
June 24 2009
Common Sense with Pete Kaliner: No Child Left Behind and School Choice Issues
June 22 2009
Denny Radio: Want Better Teachers? Empower Parents
June 18 2009
The Martha Zoller Show: School Choice Vouchers
June 15 2009
The Andy Caldwell Show: Peeking Behind the Blue Ribbon
December 17 2008
One News Now: Under-performing schools praised for educational quality
December 11 2008
April 1 2011
August 11 2010
IWF in the News: California Teacher Union Rallies Around Bad Ideas
March 11 2010
An Overlooked Lesson from the Off-Year Elections
February 1 2010
The Obama Administration and the DC Student Voucher Program
January 5 2010
Why Not Expand Successful G.I. Bill Concept to K-12?
June 18 2009
Florida Proves What Real Education Stimulus Is
June 1 2009
