Vicki E. Alger is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, California, with a forthcoming book on the history of the U.S. Department of Education. She holds  Senior Fellowships at the Fraser Institute, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the Independent Women’s Forum in Washington, D.C. Alger is also President and CEO of Vicki Murray & Associates LLC in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Alger’s research focuses on education reforms that promote a competitive education marketplace and increase parents’ control over their children’s education.  She is the author of more than 40 education policy studies, co-author of Lean Together: An Agenda for Smarter Government, Stronger Communities, and More Opportunities for Women, Short-Circuited: The Challenges Facing the Online Learning Revolution in California, and Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice, as well as Associate Producer of the documentary “Not as Good as You Think: Myth of the Middle Class School.”

Alger has advised the U.S. Department of Education on public school choice and higher education reform. She has also advised education policymakers in nearly forty states and England, provided expert testimony before state legislative education committees, and served on two national accountability task forces. Alger’s research helped advance four parental choice voucher and tax-credit scholarship programs in Arizona, as well as the state’s first higher education voucher, and she provided expert affidavits as part of the successful legal defense of educational choice programs for low-income, foster-care, and disabled children.