JONATHAN BUTCHER
Contributing Scholar
Jonathan Butcher serves as Education Director for the Goldwater Institute. He has researched education policy and school choice programs around the U.S. His work has appeared in journals such as Education Next and the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, and he has appeared on local and national TV outlets, including C-SPAN and Fox News. He has also been a guest on many radio programs, and his commentary has appeared nationally in places such as RealClearPolicy.com, National Journal, and Townhall.com, along with newspapers around the country.
Jonathan is a member of the Arizona Department of Education’s Steering Committee for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, the nation’s first education savings account program. He is also a Senior Fellow with The Beacon Center of Tennessee, a nonpartisan research organization.
Prior to joining Goldwater, Jonathan was the Director of Accountability for the South Carolina Public Charter School District, South Carolina’s only statewide charter school authorizer. Jonathan previously studied education policy at the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and worked with the School Choice Demonstration Project, the research team that evaluated voucher programs in Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee, Wisc.
Jonathan studied education and family policy at The Heritage Foundation, a research institute in Washington, D.C. He holds a B.A. in English from Furman University and an M.A. in economics from the University of Arkansas.