^{The Bottom Line} Private School Choice Is Laying the Groundwork for the Transformation of Public Education

Last week, Wyoming enacted universal school choice, which brings the total to 15 states with universal school choice in America. These state leaders recognize that parents are the primary educators of their children and must be empowered to decide where and how their children are educated.

Because of these recent legislative events, millions of parents have regained control of their children’s education. This is a giant step forward in forcing public schools to improve. Competition fuels innovation, and public education needs all the innovation it can get.

Accountability is fostered by granting parents a portion of their child’s education funding to allocate toward the education avenue they select. When students are restricted to an assigned government school, on the other hand, accountability suffers. 

Specifically, government K-12 schools are not accountable for academic achievement, nor are they accountable for the effective use of taxpayer funds. As witnessed for decades, the K-12 education monopoly in America is failing — student learning results are getting worse despite the increased funding each year.

For example, public school spending per student has risen from $7,576 in 1970 to $19,999 by 2021 in inflation-adjusted dollars. That’s a 164% increase in spending with virtually no improvement in student learning.

While spending soared, the performance of the public education system tanked. The National Assessment of Education Progress exam scores released in January reveal that among public school students, 69% of fourth-graders and 70% of eighth-graders can’t read at grade level.

Clearly, this represents a lack of accountability. Where else in society do we put up with someone charging us top dollar for inferior goods? What best drives accountability for a school is its customer’s ability to leave and find a better option. Not only does school choice allow parents to find better education values for their investment, but it also incentivizes the schools that families are exiting to produce better results. When parents have choices, public schools are forced to respond with positive change, or their student enrollment numbers will continue to decline, resulting in less funding.

Without this incentive, public schools won’t improve academic quality or fiscal responsibility. Alas, one major obstacle to public school reform that will have to be addressed is how to loosen the power of the teacher unions, who notoriously resist all efforts to improve the teacher profession, whether through tying pay to performance or granting schools the ability to dismiss poorly performing teachers or administrators.

In addition to the element of competition, some of the other key reforms needed in public education regard leadership, teaching, structure, and the school calendar.

Leadership

We need to change the way we select and train leaders. Today, education is devoid of “change agent” leaders. We turn out managers for the schools we have, not leaders for the schools we need. Schools will not materially improve unless and until we improve leadership.

Teaching

We need to change the way we select and train teachers. Countries with high-performing K-12 students allow only the best and brightest of their citizens to enter the teaching profession. In the United States, anyone with a high school diploma and money for tuition can become a teacher. Excellent teaching is the driver of effective learning. If we want our children educated, we need the best teachers in the classroom.

Structure

We need to eliminate our education system’s “one size fits all” structure. We categorize children based on age rather than their level of learning readiness. Children who enter school behind in their learning will need more time and attention to achieve proficiency. Our present system prevents that from occurring.

School Calendar

The United States has the shortest academic year in the developed world. If we are serious about competing in the global marketplace, we need to give our children at least a comparable opportunity to succeed. Other developed, high-income Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries average 195 days/year, and Asian countries average 205 days.

Private school choice is foundational in the process of transforming our public education system and is paving the way for the necessary accountability in public education. It empowers parents to select the best learning option for their unique children and is also the catalyst needed to begin breaking down the failing public education system.