IN-DEPTH: School Choice Movement to Shape Presidential, Federal Races in 2024

Are you concerned about the quality of education your child is receiving? You’re not alone. In response to plunging test scores that have been made worse by the pandemic, states across the country have been implementing school choice reforms that are making public funding of schools portable.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, test scores nationwide have plunged to the lowest levels in the last 30 years in reading, while recording the biggest drop ever in math since the assessments began in 1990. That’s why some states are implementing reforms by creating education scholarship accounts, or ESAs. These accounts allow students to take public dollars out of failing school systems and use them for tuition and other education expenses via private schools, homeschooling, and tutoring.

ESAs are primarily targeted at lower-income students in households that cannot afford tutors or that need tuition assistance in order to afford private schools. But universal ESAs that are available to students regardless of household income are becoming an increasingly popular option for some states.

As of March, there are 11 states with some type of ESA program, EducationWeek reported. And the school choice nonprofit EdChoice is calling 2023 “the year of universal school choice,” as 31 state legislatures are considering bills to either expand or start school choice programs, many of which include ESA options.

“Parents aren’t asking for school choice, they’re demanding it. Many states and schools will get left behind if they’re not receptive to the school choice movement, because it’s not stopping anytime soon,” says Darrell Jones, president of the Stanley M. Herzog Charitable Foundation—which concentrates on Christian education.

Lawmakers in states as diverse as West Virginia, Arizona, Iowa, Utah, Arkansas, and Florida are listening to parents, said one expert. “When you see a state like West Virginia adopt an education savings account that is available to nearly every child in the state, … lawmakers and families in Arizona say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, we have the nation’s first education savings account program. There’s no reason that these options should not be available to the low-income children outside of Tucson,’” says Jonathan Butcher, a senior research fellow in education policy at The Heritage Foundation.

The general result has been a land rush business in ESAs, he said, with Florida, Iowa, Utah, and Arkansas following West Virginia. “I think what we can kind of take from this is that policymakers who believe that conservative solutions are the best answer to the assigned school system are looking to school choice as an indicator of their commitment to conservative answers,” added Butcher.

Impact on Upcoming Elections

Experts who spoke with The Epoch Times said that these reforms will have a large impact on federal races, including the 2024 presidential race, regardless of whether the candidates believe in conservative solutions.

“First of all, I’ll especially guarantee that this will be a major issue in the 2024 presidential race,” says former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. “Second, when they reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, you will see a big move towards really opening up the system everywhere,” he added.

Gingrich said that one of the driving forces behind the school choice movement is the renewed emphasis on parental rights in education, which he says he believes carries about an 84 percent approval rating. One national pollster agrees with that general assessment, but would not cite specific numbers.

“The pandemic really opened up eyes for what happens in classrooms for parents all across the country. As a parent myself, it was concerning,” says Trevor Smith, chief research officer for WPA Intelligence. “The pandemic was the catalyst to the change.”

Smith said that candidates across the country are busy crafting their positions on school choice no matter what level of government that they seek to represent.

School Choice a Wedge Issue for Women

The issue has the potential to drive a wedge in an important voting block for Democrats, one expert said. Today, women are evenly divided between the abortion issue and school choice, politic