Education is a hot topic. There is still much debate about the quality and content of what public schools present to their students. The subject is likely to be more prominent in national politics during the next election season.
Talks about education have led us to a greater focus on school choice. A movement that gained more support during the COVID-19 crisis. When students were forced to learn from home due to lockdowns, parents became more privy to what their children were being taught – and they were none too happy about it.
A Gallup poll found that public school confidence fell from 41% to 32% between 2020 and 2021. A major point of contention concerns the inclusion in the curriculum of far-leftist ideas about sexuality, gender identity and race. Many parents were furious when their children discovered that school districts wanted to remove them from the curriculum. The issue grew even more pronounced when people realized that several school districts instituted policies allowing teachers and school staff to help children who believe they are transgender to transition to the opposite sex without their parent’s knowledge or consent.
However, this is not all. The quality of their children’s education is also a concern for parents. Parents were able see their children’s progress and learn more about their education by watching their Zoom lessons.
This and many other factors has led to a drastic decrease in enrollment at public schools. Since 2020, these schools have seen a drop in enrollment of at least 1.2 millions students. Much of the decline can be attributed to the pandemic, but most of these schools have not returned to their previous numbers – which were also dropping before the coronavirus was in full swing.
The enrollment in charter schools and private schools has increased significantly over the last few years. In addition, homeschooling is becoming more popular. According to a Cato Institute study, private schools saw a 52.6% rise in enrollment for the 2020-2021 school years. Data from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools showed a 7 percent increase in charter school enrollments during that same period. According to the Associated Press, homeschooling rates increased 46% in between 2021-2022 and 2020-2021 school years.
The numbers don’t lie: More parents are exercising alternative educational options for their children.
Support for school choice continues to grow. According to polling, 72% of respondents support funding for students and not government agencies. Even Democrats support school choice at 68%.
Hard left tends to be opposed to school choice. Some conservatives, however, are concerned about parents being offered more options. Lisa Logan, a parent and advocate who headed an effort to suspend a far-leftist curriculum in her children’s school argued that if school choice legislation allocates government funding for children attending private schools, it could open the door for the state to control the curriculum that is being taught. I was told by her that this could enable the government to force private schools to cover the same controversial material as public schools.
“What the government funds, it runs. Private education has largely been able to avoid being influenced by progressive ideology simply because it doesn’t use public money and therefore does not fall under the purview of the state like public schools do, which are required to adopt state standards that are accountable to federal regulations,” she explained. “Legislation that allows public funding to ‘follow the student’ into private education would change that, giving government minions full access to all avenues of education and all children to push their programming.”
Logan also added:
“In time, private and homeschools will be required (just like public schools ) to teach Transformative Social Emotional Learning, Climate Change, Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Gender Fluidity in order to pass the assessments written into these bills which are tied to taking the public money.”
However, school choice advocates insist that, while it is possible for the government to direct curriculum in private educational institutions, parents should support legislation that funds students, not the systems. I talked with Corey DeAngelis from the America Federation for Children, a senior fellow who is a strong advocate for school choice and addressed concerns about government control over private schools.
“Those making this argument are missing the forest for the trees,” DeAngelis said. “We shouldn’t make perfect the enemy of the good. We should take the incremental wins even if they don’t automatically give us a utopia. Opposing giving families a choice to accept the funding or not only cements the government school monopoly.”
DeAngelis argued that the state, even without school choice legislation can assert its power over private schools by passing measures to allow it. “The government can already regulate private and home education without school choice. It’s more likely that this will happen in the future if millions of kids who are stuck in socialist indoctrination centers without exit options today turn out to vote to regulate private education in the future,” he said.
DeAngelis stressed that “[w]e should all be vigilant in watching out for regulations, and fight against them together as any possible regulations are introduced” and “be sure to read the bills and call for amendments if onerous regulations are included.”
It is well-founded to be concerned about the government’s infiltration of private education. There are plenty of progressive types who would support such an endeavor to ensure their ideas are still creeping into the minds of America’s children.
The anti-school option crowd will only be successful if parents are not informed. They are going to push for government control of private education regardless of the existence of school choice legislation – there does not seem to be a reason to cede this ground to them. Our children should be educated and not taught. School choice is still the best hope for America’s students.
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