Should a child be stuck in a failing school just because they can’t afford to move? Should parents be forced to fund their child being taught things with which they adamantly disagree? Does the government know what’s best for children, or do parents?
If you answered “no, no, and parents” to those questions, you would probably like the concept of school choice. And you wouldn’t be alone in that.
A growing number of parents have risen up in recent years to demand their state legislatures pass these policies. When structured correctly, these bills allow families to choose the school that they want their tax dollars to go to for their children’s education. This is really just common sense. We don’t tell people on welfare which stores they can buy groceries from; why do we allow the government to dictate something as important as children’s education based on arbitrary factors such as their zip code?
Twenty states voted to expand their school choice options in 2023. Seven of them — Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Utah — made their programs universal (meaning all residents can utilize them), joining Arizona and West Virginia in the club. But notably, some very red state legislatures, such as Tennessee and Georgia, have yet to do the same.
That could (and should) change in 2024. But parents must be diligent in their advocacy because people who benefit financially from the current situation will be working hard against them.
Parents are one of the strongest grassroots armies in existence and probably the only one with enough political power to beat the very well-funded teachers unions and their Democratic puppets.
After the Left used COVID-19 to shut down schools and force children into masks and online classrooms and used the FBI to target parents who merely sought to influence the curriculum being taught in schools at their local school board meetings, parents had the fuel they needed to ignite a movement for change.
Republicans have long complained about the federal government’s role in local education, the amount of money that gets wasted in the system, and the indoctrination in the classroom, not to mention ever-decreasing academic outcomes for people. School choice is a policy that solves those problems, and it does so by actually adhering to principles the GOP likes to claim, such as limiting the government and upholding individual liberty.
So it’s no surprise that in many states, Republican lawmakers have rushed to champion this cause for parents. And in states where they haven’t, parents need to be asking why.
Last year in Georgia, 16 Republican lawmakers voted against school choice. State Rep. Don Parsons was among them. He represents a very red district where support for educational freedom is quite high. So why would he work to stop it? Many have been trying to wrap their heads around that ever since.
And in Tennessee, Republicans have managed to pass more limited school choice bills but have found their efforts stunted in the courts by Democrats determined to stop their progress. Ironically, they’ve been able to do so because the bills weren’t universal (equally applied).
While teachers unions work hand in hand with the Democratic Party and its lawmakers, they by no means only donate to Democrats. In fact, they’ve been spending big on Republican lawmakers in southern states recently in an effort to stop school choice.
And that’s because unions are one of many adult constituencies that continue to benefit financially from the public school system, even as children get worse and worse experiences and results. As long as the money comes in, they get some off the top, and therefore so do politicians who are in their good graces.
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We spend $15,000 per child per year in the public school system. The average private school tuition in the United States is $12,350. So the people claiming we just need to fund the public schools more are grifters and liars.
What we need is accountability, competition, and to put parents back in charge of their children’s education. In states such as Tennessee and Georgia, parents need to pay attention to who is actually with us.
Hannah Cox is a consultant for Americans for Prosperity and the co-founder of BASEDPolitics.