School choice is a no-brainer. There’s reasons why it has worked out in a lot of parts of the world. From Chile, South Korea, and many parts of Europe including Sweden and the Netherlands have school choice via a school voucher system. There are many variations or different structures for each country in terms of school choice.
Some countries such as Belgium have it as a Constitutional right to have School Choice. No matter where parents choose to send their children to school the funds follow the student. One example is the Netherlands as stated in this article:
“The Dutch Constitution secures equal funding for all schools, presuming they adhere to statutory regulations. This funding amounts to approximately $6,465 per primary student and $8,321 per secondary student.“
To add to that the majority (70 percent) of their schools are private in the Netherlands and yet this is one of many places where school choice has worked.
Another example is Sweden where the article also states:
“Since 1992, every child in Sweden, regardless of socio-economic status or geographic location, can receive a voucher to attend any school—public, private or parochial.“
Other places outside of Europe and the rest of the world like Chile has successfully achieved School Choice as well here:
“Today, almost half of all Chilean students attend school on a voucher. In Chile, like in Netherlands and Sweden, public and private schools receive the same amount of funding per student…”
Still questions remain among opponents. Is it Constitutional? What are some other concerns the critics of school choice have and how did other countries or other places solve them?
Yes regardless of what type of school it is, here in the USA it’s constitutional legal as it should be. Other concerns many critics have is opposing school choice for having an issue to have tax dollars going to religious schools. While I understand where their concerns comes from I do believe school choice should apply as universally as possible.
To me their argument makes it even more of a reason to make a point of school choice. School choice IS having to choose schools whether religious or not. Parents, not the state can get to choose where their kids can attend.
As this article explains:
“In 2002, the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Ohio’s Cleveland Scholarship Program in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris. The ruling held that the voucher program did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, even if vouchers were used for religious schools“
School vouchers rulings has had its recent success in the courts as of 2022:
…”in a 2022 religious discrimination case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that tuition assistance programs, or school vouchers, must include religious schools”.
We can conclude that the legality of these vouchers programs make school choice a thing for the future as it is inevitably here to stay.
What are other concerns?
Other concerns of school choice is the question of whether the quality of education is up to par for what the student receives. The question of quality varies depending on how each state handles its own existing school voucher system. Although it is a valid concern this is where implementation of a standards or a similar structure can remedy and accompany the issue.
An example to tackle on the issue of quality would be to adopt or emulate similar measures such as the DC model of school choice where overall graduation rates increased as stated here:
“The DC voucher program, the only federally-funded school voucher program in the country, increased students’ graduation rates by 21% overall…”
Followed up by parents seeing the benefits of these results as shown here:
“Parents of DC voucher recipients reported high levels of satisfaction, felt the school was safer than their public school option, and were more likely to give the school an A or B grade.”
Having school choice is beneficial for the students while parents have a say and can give favorable outcomes to public schools if implemented properly as evidenced here:
EdChoice, an education nonprofit, stated, “The empirical evidence shows that choice improves academic outcomes for participants and public schools… and strengthens the shared civic values and practices essential to American democracy.”
Although DC is a federal district there are states that have expanded and/or maintained school choice such as Florida. An example because it works. It's the design and how school choice is implemented throughout each individual state that matters most. Another method we can consider here in my state of Texas would be the use of Education Savings Account (ESA). As explained here:
“…ESA participation in particular is on the rise—perhaps a promising sign of the increasing accessibility of school choice.”
ESAs is funded by the government but administered or managed by 3rd parties or parents for the sole purpose of providing educational needs of their child. In this sense these ESAs can be used in either public or private schools like in Florida as an example.
Florida’s way expanded the use of ESAs as stated here:
“Florida’s Empowerment Scholarship (FES-EO) ESA Program is now the most expansive education savings account (ESA) program in the United States, with nearly 3 million students funded eligible for a flexible education, chosen by their parents”
It later goes on to say ESAs can be used for both public or private schools here:
“Families can use the funds to pay for a variety of educational services, including private school tuition and fees, tutoring, online education, home education, curriculum, unbundled courses and services at a public school, tuition and fees for a choice navigator, therapy, postsecondary educational institutions in Florida and other defined educational services.“
Texas can implement something similar here to help with school choice along with certain basic standards to mitigate concerns about the quality of education coming from non-public school options as it is done.
There are of course other options as well that can be considered and implemented successfully for Texas by itself or in combination with the other previous measures as mentioned of school choice. Florida also has this existing with ESAs as part of school choice.
Try Illinois as an example, although its tax credit system for education hasn’t updated to fit more modern day educational expenses it’s still a working option for school choice. As stated here:
“Illinois allows individuals to claim a credit for educational expenses for dependent students attending a public, private or home school.”
This is an option to avoid burdening regulations while at the same time making school choice accessible to most students.
“The Illinois individual tax credit program deserves credit for being accessible to most students statewide and avoiding any unnecessary regulations on private schools.“
School choice is common sense and can work if implemented properly to each state accordingly. Texas has struggled to pass its own school choice legislation before but I don’t think we explored what versions of school choice are out there as a state.
Exploring what has worked in different countries around the world and in other parts of our home front is the next thing to do.
Texas can have several options which can best accommodate to its population. From Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs), variations of a Tax Credit system, a sort of structured voucher system, or a combination of any of these options can be considered and provided as ideas to our lawmakers.
Therefore we can adopt and derive the best of the existing concepts out there to make it work, accommodate, and be flexible to the population of our state. Having school choice the “ Texas way” to best fit our educational needs is inevitable because we have options and several ideas to make it happen. If other places around the world made it work why not the Lone Star State of Texas?
We are creative enough to make it work. Texas education can only go up from here. Let’s not do it for us but for our future generations to come.