Why the School Choice Revolution Should Give Americans Reason for Optimism

Americans are in a sour, pessimistic mood. A recent Gallup poll shows that about eight out of ten adults believe rough economic times are ahead. By overwhelming numbers, Americans foresee rising crime rates, more political conflict in Washington, D.C., and China’s rise at the expense of the U.S.-led world order. 

As the saying goes, when you hit rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up. The turmoil of the 1970s preceded the growth decades of the Reagan–Clinton era. Similarly, many Americans in the late 19th century were pessimistic amid class warfare and a Long Depression that lasted decades. But, like green shoots under winter ice, new technologies – electrification, refrigeration, the internal combustion engine, the telephone – were emerging that would soon propel the American standard of living beyond that of European nobles of the past. Today, technological advances in medicine and computing are emerging that could similarly bring undreamt-of benefits to our future. 

Perhaps the greenest shoot of all, however, is not a technology but a better approach to developing America’s human capital, a transformation that can help Americans thrive for generations to come. These benefits can come from the growing success of the school-choice movement, which promises a reversal in the mediocrity of U.S. students’ educational achievement. The only question is whether politicians, Republicans as well as Democrats, will permit school choice to bring this success to every state.

The parents and educators behind the school-choice movement, after enjoying incremental victories in recent decades, have emerged as a political juggernaut. Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah this year have joined Arizona and West Virginia in offering families universal school choice. The Texas legislature is working on a program to bring school choice to the nation’s second-most populous state. 

But school choice is not just a red-state phenomenon. In Illinois, Democratic governor J.B. Pritzker revised his stance during his bid for reelection to support the Invest in Kids tax-credit scholarship program. In Pennsylvania, another Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, said that school choice was “not an either-or.” He added: “I think this is a both-and. We can invest in public education and empower parents to put their kids in the best opportunity for them to succeed, and I don’t think we have to harm public schools in the process.”

Shapiro is right. Twenty-one randomized controlled trials of students from motivated families found “moderate evidence of positive impacts of private school vouchers.” With poor rankings for American school achievement – and some school districts graduating generations of innumerate and illiterate youth – moderate improvement would be highly welcome.

Critics argue that school choice drains money away from public schools, hurting the performance of the children who remain. But the evidence points the other way. Twenty-five of 28 studies that explored the link between school choice and public school outcomes “found that school choice improves educational attainment in traditional school systems,” writes Alexander William Salter, economics professor at Texas Tech University. “In terms of social-scientific validity, that’s a slam dunk. 

Consider: when Florida embraced school choice in 2002, it was ranked 33rd among the states for educating low-income students. By 2019, Florida was in first place. In 2002, Indiana was ranked 22nd for serving low-income students when it adopted school choice. It rose over the same time span to third place. School choice is a demonstrated path to equality.

Resistance to school choice comes from both sides of the political divide. In Texas, rural Republicans object that school choice could stretch their already-strained school district budgets. In California, statewide school-choice movements have faltered because parents in affluent districts worry that change could disrupt their high-performing schools. These forces – on the right, parents in wealthy districts wanting to protect their well-funded and successful public schools, and on the left, public school teachers’ unions wanting to protect jobs – have joined together to oppose school choice.

Certainly, as Texas works out a statewide school-choice program, the concerns of rural legislators will need to be addressed. Quality teachers need assurance that their jobs are not on the chopping block. All should know that school competition brings out the best in teachers, in students, and ultimately, in society. School choice also protects parents who want to exercise their First Amendment rights of conscience to send their children to schools consistent with their faith tradition. 

In overwhelming numbers, parents want choice: a 2022 RealClear Opinion Research poll found that 72 percent of Americans support school choice, including 82 percent of Republicans and 68 percent of Democrats; that figure is up almost ten points from 2020. The school-choice juggernaut is gaining steam because it is a cause that both Democrats and Republicans support.