When Parents Choose, Children Win

School choice creates a system of healthy competition between schools.  Choice gives all schools incentives to innovate and ensure students are learning because school leaders know that unless they succeed, parents will choose a different school for their child.  Respected researchers have shown that school choice leads to improved academic achievement for participating students and for students remaining in the public schools.

Opponents of school choice often argue that children who remain in public schools will be harmed when other children change schools, but there is no evidence of such an effect.  In fact, research has demonstrated that public school children actually benefit from school choice.  Studies by economists Caroline Hoxby and Rajashri Chakrabarti have revealed academic improvements in Milwaukee Public Schools as a result of the city’s voucher program. 

The current Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent, Bill Andrekopoulos observed that the “competitive nature [of the voucher program] has raised the bar for educators in Milwaukee to provide a good product or they know that parents will walk.” 

Additionally, a recent study of Florida’s McKay Scholarship program for students with special needs revealed that students with special needs who were exposed to more nearby options because of the McKay program posted higher math and reading scores than their peers.  In other words, school choice makes schools respond directly to parents and their children, rather than to often-overloaded bureaucracies. 

Greater school choice is needed throughout America to make schools feel increased pressure to improve.  It is difficult to comprehend that the notions of meaningful choice, free markets, and viable options—bedrocks of our democratic republic that work in almost every facet of our lives—simply will not work when it comes to education.  In fact, instructional reform, teacher quality reform, and other necessary changes to the public education system will be enhanced and expedited by the competitive pressures of meaningful choice.