Despite Internal Conflict, School Choice Movement Continues to Gain Steam

Education has become a scorching hot topic. The debate over the content and quality of the material public schools are presenting to students continues to rage. In fact, it would be reasonable to expect that the subject will feature even more prominently in national politics over the upcoming election seasons.

Discussions on education have led to an increased focus on the issue of school choice, a movement that has gained even more support amid the COVID-19 pandemic. When students were forced to learn from home due to lockdowns, parents became more privy to what their children were being taught – and they were none too happy about it.

Indeed, a recent Gallup poll showed that confidence in public schools plummeted from 41% in 2020 to 32% in 2021. One of the most significant points of contention is related to the teaching of far-leftist ideas on sexuality, gender identity, and race being infused into the curriculum. Even further, many parents became incensed when they realized school districts were attempting to cut them out of the process. The issue grew even more pronounced when people realized that several school districts instituted policies allowing teachers and school staff to help children who believe they are transgender to transition to the opposite sex without their parent’s knowledge or consent.

But this was not the only problem. Parents are also concerned about the quality of education their kids are receiving. When their kids were at home taking lessons over Zoom, adults got a closer view of how their children were performing and how they were being educated.

These and other factors have led to a severe decrease in public school enrollment. These schools have lost at least 1.2 million students since 2020. Much of the decline can be attributed to the pandemic, but most of these schools have not returned to their previous numbers – which were also dropping before the coronavirus was in full swing.

Meanwhile, private and charter school enrollment has seen a significant surge over the past couple of years, as have rates of families choosing to homeschool their children. A Cato Institute study showed that private schools experienced a 52.6% increase in the 2020-2021 school year. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released data showing a 7% increase in charter school enrollment during the same time period. The Associated Press conducted an analysis revealing that rates of homeschooling increased by 46% between the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years.

The numbers don’t lie: More parents are exercising alternative educational options for their children.

Even more, support for school choice is going strong. Polling shows that 72% support the idea that funding should follow students instead of government institutions. Even among Democrats, 68% favor school choice.

Opposition to school choice typically comes from the hard left. But some on the conservative side, who do not favor public schools, have expressed concerns about the push to offer more choices to parents. Lisa Logan, a parent and advocate who headed an effort to suspend a far-leftist curriculum in her children’s school argued that if school choice legislation allocates government funding for children attending private schools, it could open the door for the state to control the curriculum that is being taught. She told me that it could possibly allow the government to compel these institutions to teach the same problematic material found in many public schools.

“What the government funds, it runs. Private education has largely been able to avoid being influenced by progressive ideology simply because it doesn’t use public money and therefore does not fall under the purview of the state like public schools do, which are required to adopt state standards that are accountable to federal regulations,” she explained. “Legislation that allows public funding to ‘follow the student’ into private education would change that, giving government minions full access to all avenues of education and all children to push their programming.”

Logan added:

“In time, private and homeschools will be required (just like public schools ) to teach Transformative Social Emotional Learning, Climate Change, Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Gender Fluidity in order to pass the assessments written into these bills which are tied to taking the public money.”

On the other hand, proponents of school choice insist that while there could be an effort to empower the government to dictate curriculum in private learning institutions, it should not deter parents from supporting legislation that would fund students instead of systems. I spoke with Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the America Federation for Children and a vocal advocate for school choice, who responded to concerns over government control of private schools.

“Those making this argument are missing the forest for the trees,” DeAngelis said. “We shouldn’t make perfect the enemy of the good. We should take the incremental wins even if they don’t automatically give us a utopia. Opposing giving families a choice to accept the funding or not only cements the government school monopoly.”

DeAngelis continued, pointing out that even without school choice legislation, the state can still assert its authority over private schools if it enacts measures allowing it to do so. “The government can already regulate private and home education without school choice. It’s more likely that this will happen in the future if millions of kids who are stuck in socialist indoctrination centers without exit options today turn out to vote to regulate private education in the future,” he said.

DeAngelis stressed that “[w]e should all be vigilant in watching out for regulations, and fight against them together as any possible regulations are introduced” and “be sure to read the bills and call for amendments if onerous regulations are included.”

The concerns over government bogarting its way into private education are well-founded. There are plenty of progressive types who would support such an endeavor to ensure their ideas are still creeping into the minds of America’s children.

However, the anti-school choice crowd can only succeed in this if parents fail to remain informed. They are going to push for government control of private education regardless of the existence of school choice legislation – there does not seem to be a reason to cede this ground to them. In the end, our children deserve to be educated, not indoctrinated. School choice is still the best hope for America’s students.

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