The Wall Street Journal declared 2011 the “Year of School Choice,” highlighting the 13 states that enacted new school choice legislation and the 28 states that attempted to tackle the issue. Forward-looking governors such as Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Mitch Daniels in Indiana championed legislation to expand educational opportunity for hundreds of thousands of children across the county.
A decade later, states appear poised to break that record. More than 30 states are considering legislation to create or expand educational choice programs. So far this year, school choice bills have cleared at least one committee in 16 states and passed at least one legislative chamber in 12 states. Two states, West Virginia and Kentucky, have already enacted new educational choice laws.
But it’s not just the quantity of bills that’s impressive, it’s also the quality. At least 23 states are considering K-12 education savings accounts, which are an improvement over school vouchers and tax-credit scholarships because they give families much greater freedom and flexibility to customize their child’s education. In addition to tuition, ESAs can be used for tutoring, textbooks, curricular materials, online courses, special education therapy, and more. Unused funds can even be rolled over to save for future educational expenses.
Legislators are also going bigger and bolder than ever before. Whereas most existing educational choice policies are limited to relatively few students, more than a dozen bills this year would make at least half the students in the state eligible for an ESA. West Virginia is leading the way with a new ESA policy that makes all students who are switching out of public school or entering kindergarten eligible for an ESA. West Virginia’s ESA policy, which Gov. Jim Justice signed into law over the weekend, is the most expansive private educational choice policy in the nation. After the Kentucky Legislature overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto on Monday, Kentucky’s ESA became the second-most expansive in the nation.
The explosion in legislative activity follows a spike in support for educational choice. Five years ago, only 52% of the general public supported education savings accounts, but today the EdChoice monthly tracking poll shows that 68% support ESAs. Support is even higher among parents of K-12 students (80%), particularly black parents (81%) and Hispanic parents (83%).
Why is this year different from every other year?
When the pandemic broke, parents quickly realized that no one system could meet all their different needs. Some families believed in-person learning to be safe and wanted their children back in the classroom, but their district decided to go remote. Other families were more concerned about the potential dangers of in-person learning, but were offered either in-person instruction or a clearly inferior remote option. Still, other families were whipsawed back and forth by indecisive district leaders, not knowing week to week where their children would be attending classes.
The discussions and debates around school reopening have shown parents just how little power they have in their child’s school. As unions have flexed their muscles and school boards and district administrators have rolled over to meet their demands, parents have learned that they do not have the same sway. Not even close.
Private schools, which are directly accountable to the families who choose them, were a different story. According to an EdChoice survey, private school parents were twice as likely to say that their children were progressing “very well” with respect to academic learning, emotional development, and social development. It shouldn’t surprise us that it is easier to help students’ development socially when they are in school in person. In an Education Next survey in the fall of 2020, 60% of private school parents said that their children were attending school in person while only 24% of public school children were. Private school parents were also more than twice as likely as public school parents to be “very satisfied” with their school’s performance during the pandemic (55% to 25%).
Finally, we also shouldn’t underestimate just how much months of home-based instruction have alerted parents to what is going on in their child’s classroom. Some parents are seeing low-quality instruction previously kept behind closed doors. Stories about some teachers misunderstanding the Electoral College and not knowing the number of countries in North America have gone viral. Other families are seeing a politicized curriculum that they have deep reservations about. With bitter battles raging about how to teach American history and civics, these tensions are only going to grow.
The pandemic awoke millions of families across the country to the need for more educational choice. Their legislators are listening. If 2011 was the Year of School Choice, 2021 may soon be the Year of Educational Choice.
Michael Q. McShane is the director of national research and Jason Bedrick is the director of policy at EdChoice.
