Why Public Schools Should Want School Choice

According to a 2022 Real Clear Politics Poll, 72% of Americans support school choice—the ability of parents to choose the school that best fits their children’s needs.

82% of Republicans…

68% of Democrats…

And 67% of Independents.

Given how divided Americans are over almost everything, that’s about as bipartisan as it gets. And given that politicians read polls, school choice should be a slam dunk, right?

Well, let’s take a look at Texas.

You can’t get much more conservative than the Lone Star state. So, you’d think it would have a very robust school choice program.

But you’d be wrong.

In Texas, public education doesn’t look all that different from progressive California or New York.

And it shares equally embarrassing educational test results.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 75% of Texas eighth graders are not proficient in reading and math. The state’s own assessments are just as grim; 60% of students cannot do math at grade level, and nearly 50% cannot read at grade level. 

This is a Texas-sized problem.

And it needs a Texas-sized solution. 

That solution is school choice. 

So, what’s the problem? Why isn’t it a slam dunk? Why is a state that has led on such cutting-edge initiatives as medical liability and tort reform fallen behind on a critical issue like education? 

Here’s what those who oppose school choice will tell you: if you offer parents choice, the public schools will lose funding; money needed for public schools which must accept all students will be siphoned off to competing charter schools or private schools or someplace else. 

But this concern is misplaced. 

In states where school choice already has a long history, most parents do not leave their local school for another school.  

Why aren’t they heading for exits? 

Here’s where it gets interesting and instructive. In states where parents have choice, public schools improve. 

When Florida first implemented their school choice program in 2002, they were ranked #33 in the nation for educating low-income students. By 2019 they had risen to #1 in the nation. 

Indiana similarly went from #22 in the nation to #3 with low-income students in the same period of time after implementing choice. 

All this improvement happened without parents abandoning their local schools. 

Look at it this way: what parent doesn’t want their local school to be a good school? Answer: zero. 

School choice does not destroy public schools, it makes them better. And, of course, if a public school is already a good one with good outcomes, then students and parents won’t want to use their choice option. Nothing will change. 

But if the school is failing and its test scores are poor and they don’t make improvements, then parents will have an option to go elsewhere. 

Just that consequence, just giving that power to the parents will push the failing schools to do better. That’s what the data tells us. And if a school still can’t cut the mustard, then—and only then—do parents look for an alternative.  

In short, the argument that school choice will drain money away from public schools has been proven false. 

People are starting to get it. 

In 2022, in a truly landmark piece of legislation, Arizona passed a school choice bill that gives parents an education scholarship account of anywhere from $7,000 per student, to more than $30,000 for students with special needs. The money follows the student, not the school. This simple change changes everything. 

Successes like these have accelerated the wave of new choice programs across the country; Iowa, Utah, and Arkansas have hopped on the school choice bandwagon in 2023. More states are poised to come on board.

Texas has a great chance to be one of them. 

If Texas passes a robust school choice law, it would very likely see the same results Florida and Indiana have seen. 

Everybody wins. 

The school choice movement would be unstoppable.

And what, after all, is this movement really about? Freedom.

Freedom for parents to choose the best educational option for their children.

School choice is the way. It makes everybody—students and teachers—better.

This isn’t politics. It’s just common sense.

As Nebraska state senator Justin Wayne, a Democrat, put it, “[this is] about [parents] and [students] wanting something better, wanting to access the American dream…”

Isn’t that what we all want?

I’m Mandy Drogin of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, for Prager University.