School Choice Movement Booms in 2021 – Opinion

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Marc Ang

“Parents,” the new special interest group, tipped the recent Virginia election, surprising pundits. After mandates and shutdowns, school choice has gained significant momentum. Parents can also observe the degraded state of public education via Zoom sessions, which allows them to see it through their own eyes. RealClear’s opinion research polls showed that 64 percent of Americans support school choice as of April 2020. That number will increase to 74 percent in June 2021. Democrats saw the largest jumps in support.

I spoke with Corey DeAngelis who is the National Director for Research for American Federation for Children. He documented this remarkable year for school choices. He notes, “[Democrats] who had not previously thought much about educational options, or who didn’t feel all that positive before, realized, ‘Maybe it’s not a good idea to fund closed failing buildings, when we can fund the student directly instead.’”

As a community organizer and one of the official proponents of California’s “Educational Freedom Act”, I saw this on the ground as new grassroots leaders emerged due to Critical Race Theory and vaccine mandates. In 2020, a far-left candidate in Fullerton won the local conservative school district. This shocked me at first.

DeAngelis says in 2021, “19 states have enacted or expanded programs to fund students as opposed to systems. 15 states have pulled their funding, membership, or participation from the National School Board Association for labeling parents as ‘domestic terrorists.’ The number of states with education savings accounts programs doubled from five to 10. This is the gold standard of school choice and the purest form of funding the family directly.” California seeks to be #11.

Corey believes this has a better shot of passing than the failed gubernatorial recall, “The program benefits parents from all backgrounds. Parents can choose to send their children to the school that is best for them, whether it’s public, private or charter. I’m optimistic because even in California, there’s this new power dynamic unfolding. Parents are paying more attention and fighting harder than ever before.”

After the pandemic, homeschooling grew from 5 percent to 11% of the population. These numbers have not changed. “[People thought] families would return to the government schools, but we’ve seen a mass exodus of 1.5 million students, according to the latest federal data. [Meanwhile,] there’s a 7.1 percent increase in charter school enrollment, classified as public schools, but they’re not government-run. Virginia’s homeschooling rates have increased 40 percent over pre-pandemic. Parents like what they’re getting when formally home-educating their kids.”

A fifth of Arizona’s public school population are in public charter schools, compared to six percent nationwide. DeAngelis laments, “Arizona would’ve gotten further this year, if not for three House Republicans that blocked the largest proposed [school choice] expansion in Arizona history. It would’ve taken their existing Education Savings Account Program and tripled the amount of eligible students.”

West Virginia, which didn’t have any charter schools or private school choice programs in 2019, has now enacted the most expansive education savings account program in the country. In addition to funding following every child regardless of their income, money can “be used for special needs services and therapies, private tutoring, textbooks or other instructional materials. West Virginia essentially went from zero to 100.”

Similar progress has been made in other states. New Hampshire’s House Education Committee passed a bill to expand their education freedom account program. Florida has already implemented the largest ever statewide expansion in school choice. But their Senate Education Committee increased eligibility and the use of their Hope Scholarship Program. Kentucky and Missouri created new programs for private school selection in the form education savings plans.

Marc Ang[email protected]) is a community organizer in Southern California and the founder of Asian Industry B2B. Marc’s book “Minority Retort” will be released in early 2022.