Revolution in Education
by Matthew Ladner

As students are returning to school it is an opportune time to take note of the expanding revolution in American education: the ability of parents to choose the best school for their children. Parents have a growing opportunity to pick the education setting most closely aligned with the individual needs of their child, and public schools face a growing level of competition for students. Nearly a fourth of K-12 students nationwide are not attending their neighborhood public schools, opting instead for an array of public and private options.

State legislatures established seven school voucher programs and six education tax credit programs since 1990. State governments created two of these programs this year and expanded five existing programs. These programs increase the access for parents to choose private schooling for their children. Interestingly, six of the seven of these new/expanded programs occurred in states that had passed a school choice program in the past, demonstrating the success and popularity of choice programs once tried.

In addition, unknown multitudes of children attend public schools of choice - through inter-district and intra-district choice and/or magnet schools. By the mid 1990s, 1.2 million children were attending these schools. Today, approximately 1 million children now attend charter schools, and as many as 2 million students are home schooling.

Compared to the normally glacial pace of substantive education reform, this constitutes a revolution. What do we know about the impact of school choice programs on public school districts? Supporters of education choice claim that competition between schools will pressure schools to focus their resources on teaching, while opponents of choice worry that competition will drain money and resources from struggling public schools. Does evidence exist to settle this dispute? Fortunately, yes- both scholarly and anecdotal evidence reveals that competition does in fact improve public schools.

Will public schools collapse under the pressure of competing for students? Consider the public schools in Dearborn, Michigan. In the early 1990s, Dearborn struggled with a variety of problems, and by the end of the decade, four charter schools operated in the district, with additional charters in the adjoining districts. Instead of entering into a downward spiral, former Dearborn Superintendent Jeremy Hughes established a Theme School Program allowing Dearborn schools convert into open enrollment magnet programs. The idea was to give parents what they wanted for their children within the district so that they would not want to leave.

Themes include everything from engineering to fine arts to character education- and people can’t get enough of them. “The problem is that our schools are so overcrowded and there are so few openings at specific theme schools,” Hughes told the Detroit News. Hughes openly admits that the district reformed in response to charter school competition: “We welcome competition. The reforms we've enacted would not have happened, at least not as fast, without competition,” Dr. Hughes stated.

Florida has been a leading state in expanding school choice options. Through the creation of three statewide choice programs - A+ Scholarships for children in failing schools (800 students); McKay Scholarships for children with disabilities (18,000 students); and tax credit scholarships for low-income children (15,000 students), Florida has lead the way in the creation of school choice. Just weeks ago, the Miami-Dade public school system announced their intention to expand public school choice and to create new magnet school options as a response to the competition. “We cannot be ostriches anymore with our heads in the sand,” a district official told the Miami Herald. “They either get on board with the changing landscape of public education or they're going to be left behind with no students and no teachers,” a Miami teacher union official stated.

Harvard, Stanford and University of Wisconsin scholars have established that children using choice programs score higher on achievement tests. The evidence concerning children remaining in their public schools is even more compelling. Harvard economist Caroline Minter Hoxby has conducted a number of studies comparing the public school achievement scores of students in public schools facing competition from charter schools and vouchers to public schools in less competitive environments. Hoxby’s results show that public schools face higher levels of competition demonstrate significantly higher test scores at lower average cost. Hoxby’s research also demonstrates that public school teachers earn more in competitive educational environments, a welcome and predictable consequence of greater competition for the services of talented teachers.

The problem is inner-city areas where options mostly do not exist. Upper income people fled these districts years ago by exercising the most common form of school choice-- buying a home in the suburbs. Giving the children of low-income families a similar chance to have their parents choose a school that serves as a good fit for them creates equality of opportunity, one of the few things upon which all Americans genuinely agree. Why not give all American children a choice in education?

Matthew Ladner is Director of State Projects for The Alliance for School Choice.

Email the Editor