The year 2023 has now been dubbed the “Year of Educational Choice.” 20 states We launched new private school choice programs or significantly expanded existing ones. 2011 and 2021 were called “years of school choice” because of similar expansions in access to private schools, but that was then and this is now.
Policymakers are increasingly moving away from voucher programs that fund private school tuition and fees solely, and instead implementing Education Savings Account (ESA) programs that allow parents to direct education funds across a variety of education products, services, and providers to fully customize their children’s education. Many states are offering private school choice eligibility to all K-12 students, opting to indirectly fund these programs through tax credits to individuals and businesses instead of direct government funding.
Currently, 33 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico 78 private school choice programs or policiesAs a result, parents in 17 states (by my calculations) can no longer receive financial assistance to send their children to private school. These 17 states are private school choice deserts, including three of the four largest states by population: California, New York, and Texas. The lack of private school choice is especially frustrating for parents of students with disabilities and those from historically disadvantaged communities, whose children suffered the greatest learning losses when schools closed during the pandemic.
Federal Children’s Educational Choice Act (ECCA)) is a potential solution for parents who can’t choose private schools. Introduced as S.120 by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), ECCA would provide a federal income tax deduction to individuals and businesses who donate to nonprofit organizations called scholarship granting organizations (SGOs). SGOs would turn the donated money into grants to parents to cover their children’s private school tuition, tutoring, educational therapy, educational technology, and curriculum. Grants would be awarded up to $5,000, and could help 2 million students annually.
ECCA is an evidence-based educational intervention. A meta-analysis of 21 rigorous experimental evaluations of similar private school scholarship opportunities around the world, but primarily in the United States, found that: Students’ grades improve when they use these initiatives.A study of all forms of school choice in the United States found that states with higher levels of “educational freedom” There has been a significant increase in student achievement in the National Education Assessment Programme (NAEP) tests from 2000 to 2016.
Private schools Associated with better civic outcomes For students and parents, when faced with competition from private school choice systems, District-run public schools perform bettergenerate “A rising tide lifts all boats. “
Currently, parents rely on state policymakers to institute private school choice programs. The United States has no national school choice policy. Some argue that state-to-state variations are a healthy product of federalism, which is at the heart of our constitutional republic. Federalism, however, is supposed to create a democratic laboratory that shapes national and state policy. But when it comes to private school choice, the evidence is there: choice works.
Federalism also holds that states should have the freedom to set policies that greatly affect their communities, such as K-12 education. ECCA would enhance existing school choice initiatives rather than replace them, and it would preserve local autonomy, as states without school choice would be free to decide whether to accept or reject scholarship opportunities without conditions.
School choice is also politically popular, with more than 70 percent of respondents nationwide sayingThey approve the ESA program.That’s what ECCA envisions. National scholarship opportunities would bring meaningful school choice to 17 states that are school choice deserts. No one would be forced to participate. ECCA would be another way to advance educational freedom in America. When parents have choices, children’s futures are brighter.
Patrick J. Wolf is a distinguished professor at the University of Arkansas. The opinions expressed here are his own..
