Parents across the country were given a front-row seat to the schooling of their children when the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to close and move to virtual learning in 2021. The response was one many blue state governors and President Joe Biden bureaucrats surely underestimated: Parents were enraged.
Students’ Zoom classes offered a peek behind the curtain of politicized curricula and a closer look at some of the toxic ideologies being taught to their children, including critical race theory and gender ideology. This, paired with the lower standards of excellence in traditional education subjects such as math, science, and reading, has created a new generation of inspired parents who are ready to take on the education monopoly.
They’re just getting started.
First came the school board takeovers. Parents across the country started to become active in their local school board meetings, voicing their concerns and complaints to the people who were supposed to represent their students’ best interests. And when those elected school board members failed to take their concerns seriously, parents worked together to remove them from office. Even in San Francisco, a city dominated by liberal voters, parents grew so tired of their unresponsive and woke school board that they booted three of its members.
But this parental rights movement hasn’t come without pushback. Teachers unions, politicians, and even law enforcement officials have tried to shut down parents’ efforts to take back control of their children’s education. The Justice Department even partnered with union advocates to label concerned parents as “domestic terrorists.”
That’s why parents need to start thinking long-term. Taking back school boards is important, but it’s just the first step of many to take down the leviathan of the education establishment. Permanently breaking up the education cartel requires allowing families to opt out of the current system altogether. Parents need school choice, and state and federal lawmakers must work with them to return power to families forcefully.
The first policy state lawmakers should consider is creating and expanding Education Savings Accounts, or ESAs. ESAs give families of all income levels and demographic backgrounds a publicly funded education account that they can use on anything related to education, whether that’s homeschooling materials or private school tuition. This policy gives students access to a variety of educational options, and parents would have the power to choose which option — public, charter, or private — fits their children best without worrying about whether they’ll be able to afford it.
State lawmakers should look to Arizona, now the gold standard of school choice policy. In July, the Arizona Legislature created the most expansive ESA program for K-12 students in the country. Every student is now eligible for 90% of the state portion of Arizona’s per-pupil funding, meaning the typical award in Arizona is around $6,600 per student. There are currently more than 10,000 students benefiting from this policy in Arizona.
There has even been some success on the school choice front in purple states like Wisconsin and blue cities like Washington, D.C. Perhaps that’s because school choice is an overwhelmingly popular policy on both sides of the political aisle. In fact, a recent poll found that 70% of Democrats and 80% of independent voters support school choice initiatives.
But education reform shouldn’t stop at the state level. Federal lawmakers have the ability to bolster school choice as well. First, Congress can roll back burdensome federal regulations and make education funds portable. Federal funds should flow to students, not failing school systems.
Second, Congress should pass the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success, or A-PLUS, proposal, which would allow states to opt out of federal programs. This means that states could control their education dollars and use them for programs and policies that actually help students. States should have more fiscal autonomy over the education dollars they receive from the federal government so they can use them to implement policies and programs like ESAs.
Third, federal lawmakers must strengthen D.C. opportunity scholarships. This federally funded school voucher program helps families earning 185% or less of the federal poverty line make choices about their education through scholarships that are worth up to $13,287.
And finally, both state and federal lawmakers can establish or expand tax credits for donations to charitable scholarship-granting organizations. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) recently introduced the Educational Choice for Children Act to do just that at the federal level. Similarly, Georgia this year expanded its existing scholarship tax credit program.
Unless we fight back against the education monopoly, the future of our public education system is grim. Despite spending $2 trillion on K-12 education over the last 55 years, proficiency has lagged behind and fallen significantly in some areas. However, the exceptions to this trend are the states that have embraced school choice, such as Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, which actually saw improvements in subjects like mathematics.
For parents, this is our moment. It has never been more important or possible to strike back against big education. It is time to advocate these policies and encourage our state and federal legislators to do the same.
There is too much at stake for any parent, state, or federal lawmaker to fail to act on education reform and school choice.
Jessica Anderson is the executive director of Heritage Action for America.
