Education freedom growing in advance of National School Choice Week, with 32 states now offering some form of support for school choice.
By Eileen Griffin
Over 20 states adopted or expanded school choice last year and the trend is continuing as we begin the new year of 2024.
National School Choice Week begins on January 21 and concludes on January 27, Yahoo Finance reports. This year’s events will incorporate far more people and schools with heightened interest in the topic of school choice.
Millions of parents are expected to participate in information sessions and activities to inform them about the range of options available to their children.
“National School Choice Week is not just a positive, inclusive celebration; it is a once-a-year opportunity for families to easily unpack their education options and explore them, in person,” Shelby Doyle, Vice President of public awareness at the National School Choice Awareness Foundation told the outlet.
The interested groups include public schools, private schools, charter schools, magnet schools, online schools and homeschools. There are 9.3 million students expected to participate.
The support for school choice is strong in Republican led states, but not in blue states. Most states that successfully pass school choice do so with strong Republican leadership.
Arizona initiated the universal school choice in 2022. To date, nine states now offer universal school choice, Fox News Digital reports.
Arkansas launched universal school choice when newly elected Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed the LEARNS Act, calling the movement “a conservative education revolution.”
In Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee (R) signed the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarship Act of 2024 expanding voucher eligibility to all students in the state. This will allow parents to select any private school they think is best for their child.
Other states continue to seek the best way to make it possible for education freedom to flourish.
“Parents all across this country want options for their education,” says Andrew Campanella, President of National School Choice Week in a video. “They are looking for new and different learning environments to meet their children’s needs, talents, challenges, and interests.”
Corey DeAngelis, senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, told Fox News Digital that what we are experiencing in this country is “a school choice revolution.”
“A school choice revolution has unfolded because the teacher unions overplayed their hand and awakened the sleeping giant: parents who want more of a say in their kids’ education,” DeAngelis said.
School choice is difficult to pass in blue states, DeAngelis says, because those states are typically controlled by the teacher’s union.
“You look at Randi Weingarten, [president of] the American Federation of Teachers, in 2022, according to Open Secrets, 99.97 percent of the contributions from Randi’s AFT went to Democrats as opposed to independents or Republicans,” DeAngelis said.
“It’s basically an elaborate money laundering scheme where the Democrats funnel the money to the government schools and then the teacher’s unions take that money and they give it back to the Democratic Party. It’s a nonstop wash, rinse, repeat money laundering scheme where the teacher’s unions are basically an arm of the Democratic Party at this point.”
Private schools and home school programs have continued to grow. In 2019, 500,000 students attended private schools. Today 20 million students, approximately 36 percent of all students, have access to some type of support allowing for school choice, the Washington Policy Center reports.
School choice demands intensified as parents became more frustrated with extended school closures during the COVID 2019 pandemic. The failure of government-run schools to listen to parents may have been the tipping point.
“In response to this frustration lawmakers increased the number of school choice programs and expanded their eligibility,” writes Liv Finne, director of the Center for Education at the Washington Policy Center. “Today 32 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico offer families public dollars either in an Education Savings Account, a voucher, a tax credit scholarship, or by providing individual tax credits and deductions.”
After the Arkansas Supreme Court confirmed that the Arkansas LEARNS Act was passed, Huckabee-Sanders said in a statement, “Today’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of the LEARNS Act is a historic victory for Arkansas parents, teachers, and students, and a crushing defeat for the partisan extremists who tried to undermine our kids’ futures.”
“My administration will continue to implement our transformational reforms which empower parents to choose the best school for their family, prohibit indoctrination, raise teacher pay from one of the lowest to one of the best in the nation, and invest in pre-k, early literacy, and career and technical education so every Arkansan can find a good job in their community.”
For more great content from School Reform News.
