Will School Choice Options Spread Across the United States?

            Families, communities, and nations are stronger when parents are involved in the schooling of their children. Teachers Unions have held children across the nation as hostages as they have refused to allow the teachers to return to the classroom for fear of COVID-19. According to Lindsey M. Burke at The Daily Signal, parents have experienced “uncertainty, inconsistency, and, in some cases, ineptitude from public schools.” After a year of many children being locked out of the classroom, parents may be changing their minds about public schools. 

The events of the last year have demonstrated to many families that public schools are not always the reliable institutions many thought they were. It also opened their eyes to just how powerful the teachers unions are, and revealed what many already suspected: that their modus operandi is not to support teachers who want to teach but to score political wins.

            Multiple state legislatures took notice about what was happening in the school districts of their state. Burke exposed one of the results from such observation is “one of the biggest expansions of school choice in history.” She noted that the following states are beginning or expanding their school choice options: West Virginia, Kentucky, South Dakota, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Indiana.

            Burke gave details about the actions taken by the state legislatures in these nine states. In addition, “dozens of others are considering measures to expand education freedom and opportunity to students.” She added that an “unprecedented 29 states have already introduced similar measures this year that will create or expand vouchers, tax credit scholarships, and education savings accounts….” Further, “more than 20 of those states have introduced education savings account options specifically. For families, these proposals represent lifelines to opportunities previously unavailable to them in their public school.”

            In addition to states adding and/or expanding school choice options, many parents learned that they enjoyed home schooling their children and decided not to send their children back to public schools. Teachers unions not only stood in the way of education choice for decades, but many of them stood in the way of access to education during the pandemic. The unions have been unfair to teachers, parents, and children. Hopefully, they will recognize that they are being rebuked and change their ways. Access to good educational options for children can strengthen families, communities, and nations.