School choice

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Template:Short description School choice is a term for education options that allow students and families to select alternatives to traditional public schools.

School choice options include scholarship tax credit programs, open enrollment laws (which allow students to attend public schools other than their neighborhood school), charter schools, magnet schools, virtual schools, homeschooling, education savings accounts (ESAs), and individual education tax credits or deductions. Template:Toclimit

Forms

Scholarship tax credits

Template:Main Scholarship tax credit programs grant individuals and businesses a full or partial credit toward their taxes for donations made to scholarship granting organizations (SGOs; also called school tuition organizations). SGOs use the donations to create scholarships that allow students to attend private schools or out-of-district public schools. These programs currently exist in fourteen states: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.<ref name="School Choice Programs">Template:Cite web</ref>

Vouchers

Template:Main Vouchers help pay for private school tuition, whether secular or religious, and depending on jurisdiction for charter schools, home schooling, or public schools.<ref name=":32">Template:Cite news</ref>

Charter schools

Template:Main Charter schools are independent public schools that are exempt from many of the regulations governing public schools. These exemptions grant charter schools some autonomy and flexibility with decision-making, such as teacher contracts, hiring, and curriculum. In return, charter schools are subject to stricter accountability on spending and academic performance. Most states and the national capital of Washington, D.C. have charter school laws, though they vary in how charter schools are approved.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite news</ref>

Magnet schools

Template:Main Magnet schools are public schools that specialize in science, technology, art or other specific areas. Magnet schools are not open to all children; some require a competitive examination. Magnet schools are an example of open enrollment programs, which refer to that allow families to choose public schools other than the ones they are assigned.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Homeschooling

Template:Main Home education or homeschooling is education provided at home, provided primarily by a parent or under direct parental control. Informal home education predates public schools, and formal instruction in the home has at times been popular. As public education grew during the 1900s, homeschooling dropped. Since 2000, the number of children educated at home has increased, particularly in the US. Laws relevant to home education differ: in some states, the parent needs to notify the state that the child is to be educated at home, while in others, at least one parent must be a certified teacher and annual progress reports are reviewed by the state.<ref name="nces.ed.gov">Template:Cite web</ref>

Inter-district enrollment

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts allows the school committees of public school districts to have open enrollment policies. Towns in Massachusetts represented by the "School Choice Receiving District Status" (open enrollment status) of their public high school district for the 2016–2017 academic year. Towns represented in blue have school districts with an open enrollment policy for kindergarten through high school. Towns represented in purple have school districts with open enrollment only for specific grades. Towns represented in red have school districts with a closed enrollment policy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Intra-district open enrollment programs allow school choice within a district, while inter-district open enrollment allows families to choose schools outside the district.<ref name=":1" />

To participate in California's District of Choice program, district governing boards declare themselves a District of Choice and set a quota for how many students to accept. School districts cannot discriminate among students, but can limit the number through a lottery system.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

Education savings accounts

Template:Main ESAs allow parents to receive public funds in a government-authorized savings account. These funds are often distributed in the form of a debit card that can be used to pay for various services, such as private school tuition and fees, online programs, private tutoring, community college costs, higher education services, and other approved learning materials and services. ESAs can pay for a combination of public school courses and private services.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Tax credit/deduction

Some states allow parents to claim a tax credit or deduction to help fund certain educational expenses. These can include private school tuition, textbooks, school supplies and equipment, tutoring, and transportation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Some other jurisdictions reduce the income tax for parents, so educational expenses can be more economical, which include private school tuition, supplies, computers, books, tutors, and transportation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Online learning

Online learning allows students to work with teachers and their courses over the internet.<ref name=":32"/>

Composites

Course choice programs, public school courses, and special education therapies can be integrated into a student's curriculum, potentially with hybrid funding.<ref name=":32"/>

By country

Belgium

Template:Main The Flemish community of Belgium has a high-performing education system as measured by PISA scores. Most private schools are subject to government targets and inspections. Schools are not allowed to select students via admissions tests, performance, religious background, or gender. The Flemish education system allows choice between teaching styles and competition, while suffering from relatively high socio-economic segregation.<ref>Template:Cite tech report</ref>

Chile

Template:Main In Chile, researchers reported that when controlling for student background (parental income and education), the difference in performance between public and private sectors is not significant.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Variation within each sector is greater than that between the two systems.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Sweden

Template:Main Sweden's system of school choice is one of the world's freest, providing public funds for student choice of publicly or privately run school, including religious and for-profit schools.<ref name="The Economist">Template:Cite news</ref> Fifteen years after the 1993 reform, private school enrollment had increased from 1% to 10% of the student population.<ref name="The Economist"/>

United States

Template:Main School choice is the subject of fierce debate in various state legislatures across the United States. The most common type of school choice in the United States, measured both by the number of programs and by the number of participating students, are scholarship tax credit programs. These allow individuals or corporations to receive tax credits toward their state taxes in exchange for donations made to non-profit organizations that grant private school scholarships.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A similar subsidy may be provided by a state through a school voucher program.

Debate

Arguments in favor

  • Parental influence: School choice gives parents more influence over what students learn (e.g., academics vs trades) and the learning environment (e.g., discipline, uniforms, extra-curriculars).<ref name="Davies">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Gulosino">Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • Student achievement: Caroline Hoxby suggested that competition among schools increases student achievement.<ref name="Hoxby">Template:Cite journal</ref> Supporters say this would level the playing field by broadening opportunities for low-income students—particularly minorities—to attend high-quality schools that would otherwise be accessible only to higher-income families.<ref name="Davies" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Competition: Voucher supporters argue that choice creates competition between schools, and that failing schools can lose students and close. Competition encourages schools to create innovative programs, become more responsive to parental demands, and increase student achievement.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Competition can help parents influence their child's education. Parents can also punish ineffective schools by transferring their children elsewhere.<ref>Lessard, Claude and Andre Brassard. "Education Governance in Canada, 1990–2003: Trends and Significance" Canadian Perspectives on the Sociology of Education. Ed. Cynthia Levine-Rasky. Don Wells: Oxford University Press, 2009. 255–274.</ref> Traditional public schools also have to compete, although even the least effective are rarely closed.<ref name="Bosetti">Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • Mental health: One study reported that states that adopted charter school laws experienced a decline in adolescent suicides, and that private schooling reduces the likelihood of adults reporting mental health issues.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> School choice supporters claim that it can reduce bullying since families could choose to send their kids to a different school if they are experiencing bullying.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the United States, support for school choice has been paired with parental rights. For example, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin asserted that he won his 2021 race by emphasizing that parents have the right to make decisions about their children’s education<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and supported school choice.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

  • Housing prices: One study reported that school choice programs in Seoul, South Korea, reduced housing prices in high-performing districts more than in low-performing districts.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Arguments against

  • Profiteering: School choice measures are criticized as encouraging profiteering.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Charter authorization organizations have non-profit status; and contract with related for-profit entities.<ref name="alternet.org">Template:Cite web</ref> Charters have been accused of creating units that charge them high rent,<ref name="alternet.org" /><ref name="wtsp.com">Template:Cite web</ref> and that while the facilities are used as schools, they pay no property taxes.<ref name="wtsp.com" />

Even with vouchers and other financial assistance to parents, opponents of school choice believe that K–12 education should not be a cost item in the for-profit sector. As public school advocate Diane Ravitch wrote, "Free public education—open to all and democratically controlled—is one of the pillars of our democracy."<ref name=Ravitch_DSA>Template:Cite news</ref>

  • Destruction of the public system: School choice has been criticized for aiming to privatize public education,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and in the process, weaken teachers' unions. When defending those unions, Diane Ravitch wrote, "The great appeal of charter schools to entrepreneurs and Wall Street is that more than 90% of them are non-union."<ref name=Ravitch_DSA />
  • Racism: School choice policies have been accused of racism, as they came into prominence shortly after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision required desegregation of public schools.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A consequence of the landmark decision was "a frantic search among white elected officials in the South to find, or create, a legal mechanism through which to protect racial segregation."<ref name=Ravitch_NYRB>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In Milton Friedman's 1955 essay about school choice, "Southern governors and legislators found the rationale and language they sought" for allowing white parents to not be compelled to send their child to the neighborhood school.<ref name=Ravitch_NYRB />

See also

References

Template:Reflist Template:Education

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