CV NEWS FEED // In a recent op-ed, school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis and coauthor Jason Bedrick explained how the school choice movement benefits private schools and homeschooling families.
While Democratic politicians and teachers unions have been the “loudest and most influential” critics of the movement, the authors pointed out, “others have voiced the opposite concern—that school choice could increase government regulation of private education.”
“With government shekels come government shackles,” goes the saying. The concern is “understandable, but misplaced,” according to DeAngelis and Bedrick. “Shackles can be imposed even without subsidies, and states that have education choice policies tend to respect homeschooling autonomy more than those that don’t.”
DeAnglis and Bedrick went on to compare and contrast how private schools and homeschoolers are fairing in states that have embraced school choice and states that have rejected it.
“States without school choice policies—including Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island—are among the worst states when it comes to burdensome regulations for homeschool families,” the authors pointed out. They cited the Home School Legal Defense Association.
“Meanwhile, states such as Iowa, Indiana and Oklahoma respect the autonomy of homeschool families and have universal or nearly universal education choice policies,” the authors explained.
“States with more school choice generally have more freedom to homeschool,” they continued. “In fact, last year, Ohio lawmakers passed both universal school choice and a reduction in homeschool regulation.”
“Education choice policies shift the locus of control over education from politicians and bureaucrats to families,” they wrote. “When a government-run school fails to meet a child’s individual learning needs or is pushing values that run contrary to her family’s values, choice policies give that family an immediate escape hatch.”
More importantly for those concerned about school choice leading to government interference in their children’s education: “Empowering families with education choice also reduces the likelihood of harmful government regulation,” DeAngelis and Bedrick pointed out. “As more families benefit from private and home education, the coalition willing to fight for the autonomy of private education will also grow.”
“The school choice coalition has been careful to support legislation that includes language preserving the autonomy of private education providers,” the authors further noted:
School choice is always voluntary. No school choice policy has ever forced a family or a school to participate. All families and schools can weigh the costs and benefits and make their own decisions.
“Let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the good,” DeAngelis and Bedrick concluded:
As economist Thomas Sowell often reminded us, “there are no solutions, only trade-offs.” School choice isn’t a perfect solution, but it’s the most viable option we have today.
America’s education system would be much better off if every family had access to the learning environments that worked best for their children.
Readers can find the full essay on how the school choice movement is beneficial to homeschoolers here.
