
In the late 1990s, Jeb Bush, then, Governor of Florida organized a voucher program which gave schools an A-F grade based on student success. Schools with a higher rate of achievement would receive more funding from the state. This system also gave students who attended schools with a low achievement rate the “choice” to enroll in alternative schools. Along with providing schools funding this voucher system gave families the funding to enroll their students in other options of education such as private schools or charter schools. This became known as school choice. Today, school choice is evident in several states, including; Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia. School choice is one of the most controversial debates in education for reasons such as, defunding of public schools, not accommodating all students, lack of information needed for parents to make an informed decision about their child’s education, and poor performance. 

 School choice was brought up and made popular again this year when Betsy DeVos was selected as the Secretary of Education. Betsy DeVos was a controversial nominee for Secretary of Education because oh her support for school choice and voucher programs. She is a strong believer that a child should not be restricted to a school district solely based on their family’s income or zip code. When asked about the appointment and how DeVos will effect our schools, the popular answer is that it is to soon to tell. This is because of her lack of experience and scarce records. However, this is not the opinion of all, some believe she represents another conservative billionaire in control. Red flags have been raised because of her her role in the expansion of charter schools and the lack of results in Michigan, where the charter schools tests scores were worse than their traditional public-school. Rather it is helping or hurting, DeVos is taking action in the education world. She has been working to pass laws and generate programs that will require the use of public funds to pay for private school tuition for students who can not afford a high tuition price. Not all opinions about DeVos are negative, say she will do a great job because she cares about the students and their academic success. Lack of knowledge is a huge part of the debate surrounding school choice. Many individuals fighting against it, do not fully understand what it is. Some national authorities have it in their heads that embracing school choice is connected to forsaking public education. In his article, Embracing School Choice Doesn't Mean Abandoning Public Education, Andrew Campenella states, “supporters of school choice want strong public schools, because these schools provide essential options for many families.” (Campenella). DeVos’ support of school choice does not necessarily imply that she plans to cut funding for public education. Public schools provide options for families, which is why those who support school choice opt for solid public schools. The dispute surrounding School choice is disrupting our nation and our academic platforms. Fully understanding the idea of school choice is important for those fighting it and for those who are considering it for their family.

School choice is a quickly growing option for many school districts. It is also a widely debated topic that has both positive and negative views. It has been considered a great choice because it gives parents of students the power to make a choice on the best educational options for their child rather it be charter school, private school, home school, or magnet school. In theory school choice sounds like a great thing however, the idea is incredibly controversial. While many believe school choice is a great opportunity, others see it as something that will hurt the public school system. It has been argued again and again that school choice programs, hurt students who are enrolled in public schools. This argument is based off the idea that more and more students, especially high-achieving students, will enroll in educational options such as private schools, leaving public schools with less students and therefore less taxpayer dollars to fund the schools. However, Scafidi argues this claim in his article, The Fiscal Effects of School Choice Programs on School Districts, saying that public schools can only gain from school choice. He includes two reasons why a loss of students due to school choice could improve the performance of public schools. First he claims, different teachers have different levels of effectiveness on students. The decrease of student enrollment could allow schools to dismiss less effective teachers and the remaining students would benefit from being reassigned to more effective teachers. Secondly, Scafidi claims that school choice gives education leaders more incentive to create a stronger learning environment. Another strong argument against the belief that school choice harms the public education is that school choice causes public schools to work hard to compete against other education options. The competition causes public education to improve in anyway they can, thus improving their education curriculum. The purpose of school choice is not to hurt the public school system, but to help the students who are not in the best learning environment. In regards to the argument about the defunding of public schools, DeVos has said, “Let the education dollars follow each child, instead of forcing the child to follow the dollars. This is pretty straightforward. And it’s how you go from a closed system to an open system that encourages innovation. People deserve choices and options” (DeVos). Rather school choice defunds public schools or not, it is ultimately incredibly beneficial for the students.

One popular argument against school choice is that it is not completely accommodating for all students. One roll of school choice is that it takes funds from Title 1 schools and redistributes a fixed dollar amount to qualifying children so that they may attend other educational agencies such as higher-achieving public schools, charter schools, private schools and magnet schools based on the schools' share of enrolled eligible students. According to Andrew McEachin in his article, Not Everyone Has a Choice, “The House's version of portability would come at a cost for those agencies with the largest shares of low-income students, in some cases reducing their Title I funding by 20 to 30 percent” (McEachin). Hollidaysburg Area teacher union president, Jim Murphy, claims that school choice harms students who can’t afford private school, don’t have the means to travel to schools further than their neighborhood schools, or students who are in special education programs in public schools. School choice policies assume that students have the means to get to their desired school. However, portability is not always the best option especially if parents or guardians do not have the flexibility to drive their student across the city, or if schools do not provide a bus system. In his article, Top 10 Reasons School Choice Is No Choice, Steven Singer, gives ten reasons why he believes school choice is corrupt. Some of his reasons include; voucher programs not giving students free tuition, charter schools kick out difficult students, gives parents less choices, charter schools perform worse than public schools, and charter schools increase segregation. This of course is completely untrue. It is a biased opinion of one individual that has no data or research to back up his claim. Many antagonists of school choice are opposed because they do not fully understand what it is. I think that is what is going with this article. I don’t think Singer is fully aware of the facts about school choice, because all of the reasons he gives are completely untrue, in fact school choice does just the opposite of what Singer suggests. 

Advocates of school choice believe that parents should have the right to make decisions for their children however, many opponents of school choice believe that parents do not have all the accurate information needed to make an informed decision. Challengers claim that school choice policies are based on the assumption that parents and guardians have enough information to make an informed decision about the best education options for their children. When making huge decisions and purchases such as buying a car, you typically do not make this decision in the spur of the moment, usually, you conduct a great deal of research about the car, look at other car options, and compare prices and benefits of buying that car. You do this because it is a massive purchase with long-term effects. Like buying a car, choosing the best education option for a child is a big deal that has lasting effects. Therefore, before a parent uproots a child’s life and moves them to a different school, they should do research about the different schools and options. If our nation is going to make sure families have education options, state education systems need to make sure families have the correct information needed to make this decision. A majority of school districts do not provide families with hearty school quality knowledge, one reason behind this is that school quality can often times be difficult to measure and describe clearly to parents. In order for school choice to be a good option for our nation, parents must have easy access to factual information about schools so that they can make an educated decision.

One argument made against school choice is that it results in poor academic performance among students and schools. This belief is from the idea that uprooting a student’s academic life and moving them away to a new school can have negative impacts on their studies. It has also been said that school choice weeds out high-achieving students taking them away from public schools and moving them to education options such as private schools, resulting in low academic performance of public schools. However, there has been sound research conducted that proves this argument wrong. One example of research is a 2014 study by David Figlio and Cassandra Hart of Northwestern University, where they studied the effects of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program on public schools. In their report they stated, “The fact that we observed generalized improvements in school performance in response to the competitive threats of school vouchers, even in a state with rapid population growth, suggests that voucher competition may have effects elsewhere” (Figlio, Hart). This research demonstrates that school choice improves public school academic performance. It has also been statistically proven that students who participate in school choice programs come out with better test scores and academic success. According to research conducted by Jad Khazem, “Charter schools and voucher programs are purported to not only empower students by granting them access to alternative learning institutions, but are also purported to empower traditional public schools by acting as forms of competition that motivate educational quality improvement efforts.” (Khazem 38.) This makes sense because school choice programs offer students more opportunities to attend schools with higher achievement and graduation levels as well as more access to academic resources. So, the idea that school choice results in poor academic performance is completely untrue and in fact, these policies improve it.

There is a lot of negativity being showed towards Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos because of her support of school choice. However, I believe that school choice is the right option for our country. While many of the articles I found on the matter shed a negative light on school choice, the reasons behind it were typically inaccurate and could be proven false by data. There are many beneficial factors of school choice that can enhance our education system. In her article, 5 Reasons Why School Choice Is Important Right Now, Nina Rees gives five reasons why school choice is relevant. The reasons she gives for caring about about school choice are parents want choices, choice leads to student success, choice empowers advocacy, choice births innovation, and choice strengthens communities. “More than 80 percent of parents surveyed support allowing parents to choose their child’s public school, and more than 70 percent favor having a charter school open in their neighborhood” (Rees). It has been said that parents are more involved in their student’s education when they have a say about where their students attend. Parental support has been proven to increase academic achievement. Why should students be constricted to only the schools they are zoned for? Families should be allowed to send their students to whichever school meets their needs no matter where it is located? If a low-achieving or low-end public school does fail because of school choice, maybe it is for the best. It is hard to argue with facts and data, and the facts are that school choice can only help our country’s education system. No parent wants to send their child to a struggling school. Everyone just wants the best opportunities for their students and school choice gives them that. 
