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The $30 Billion Question: Why Doesn't the Education Market Reward What Works?

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Bibliographic Details
Title: The $30 Billion Question: Why Doesn't the Education Market Reward What Works?
Language: English
Authors: Auditi Chakravarty, Mark Schneider, American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
Source: American Enterprise Institute. 2026.
Availability: American Enterprise Institute. 1150 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-862-5800; Fax: 202-862-7177; Web site: http://www.aei.org
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 7
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Reports - Descriptive
Descriptors: Educational Technology, Free Enterprise System, Technology Uses in Education, Research and Development, Educational Research, Educational Finance, Theory Practice Relationship, Federal Government, Private Financial Support
Abstract: US spending on K-12 education technology reached $30 billion in 2024; some estimates predict this number will double by 2033. Online learning platforms and devices are sold as tools that could pull students out of their decade-long, COVID-exacerbated learning slump. Yet student test scores continue to stagnate, fueling a growing backlash against education technology, which often comes in the form of cell phone bans and restrictions on screen time in school. The problem is not that effective programs don't exist. The problem is America lacks a reliable bridge between research and scale--one that moves proven tools to millions of students and keeps unproven ones out of schools. Too many products reach schools because they are well marketed, easy to buy, or offered by familiar vendors, not because they have been shown to improve learning. Meanwhile, too many evidence-backed ideas remain stuck in universities, labs, pilot programs, or philanthropy-funded demonstrations without a viable path to the students who need them. America needs a research and development (R&D) ecosystem that can identify innovations that work, help them improve, and guide their adoption by their evidence of impact. Technology and private enterprise are already part of American education. The challenge is to build an evidence system that helps schools, funders, and policymakers distinguish what works from what sells.
Abstractor: ERIC
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: ED681624
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:US spending on K-12 education technology reached $30 billion in 2024; some estimates predict this number will double by 2033. Online learning platforms and devices are sold as tools that could pull students out of their decade-long, COVID-exacerbated learning slump. Yet student test scores continue to stagnate, fueling a growing backlash against education technology, which often comes in the form of cell phone bans and restrictions on screen time in school. The problem is not that effective programs don't exist. The problem is America lacks a reliable bridge between research and scale--one that moves proven tools to millions of students and keeps unproven ones out of schools. Too many products reach schools because they are well marketed, easy to buy, or offered by familiar vendors, not because they have been shown to improve learning. Meanwhile, too many evidence-backed ideas remain stuck in universities, labs, pilot programs, or philanthropy-funded demonstrations without a viable path to the students who need them. America needs a research and development (R&D) ecosystem that can identify innovations that work, help them improve, and guide their adoption by their evidence of impact. Technology and private enterprise are already part of American education. The challenge is to build an evidence system that helps schools, funders, and policymakers distinguish what works from what sells.