Nathan Hoffman is the Senior Director of State Policy and Advocacy for ExcelinEd.
This year’s National School Choice Week comes on the heels of a year that observers dubbed “The Year of School Choice,” as 18 states passed school choice legislation that either improved an existing policy or created a wholly new one. Yet parents in all 50 states saw dramatic changes in their child’s educational experience and could benefit from lawmakers who embrace school options and innovative approaches to education policy.
It is no coincidence that school choice champions have garnered success on the heels of unprecedented disruption in the public education system. Families in Chicago have been held hostage to the demands of teachers unions during COVID-19, while families in Virginia struggled with public schools leaders unwilling to reopen schools on reasonable timelines. All over this country, families have been waking up to the reality that the public school system, as it currently exists, is broken, even in wealthy communities. Now that parents are awake and alert, what’s next? Clearly, the status quo of education is no longer acceptable.
Sadly, in some of the places where families could benefit most from choice, policies have gone unpassed and the public school systems unchanged. States like Michigan, Illinois and Rhode Island—whose politics and leadership look vastly different than that of Arizona, Florida, Indiana and West Virginia—have struggled to pass and maintain choice policies that could benefit students languishing in schools that just don’t work.
These students and their families deserve our focus and commitment. The school choice coalition once boasted a broad cross section of advocates who may have differed on every other policy but stood together to fight for more opportunities for families who couldn’t afford a mortgage in a nicer neighborhood, tuition at a private school or a place on some political clout list, bypassing the regular admissions process.
As we look to extend 2021’s Year of School Choice to today and beyond, let’s use this National School Choice Week to focus on policies that will empower families everywhere, not just in states where it’s easy to do so, but in the states where there currently exists very little, if any, choice. That means we should be “all about choice” in the broadest sense and not just when it’s convenient or when it can be used as a proxy for other issues. It should also mean that we engage with families interested in accessing choice on their terms and in their communities. It may also mean exploring additional policies that make it easier for families to access choice once it’s been made available. This may mean rethinking traditional school transportation as Arizona has done to ensure more families are not only able to choose the school that’s going to work best for their child but also make sure there’s reliable transportation to get there.
We have every reason to be proud of the progress the school choice movement has made in the last year. To continue this momentum, we need to bring more states into the fold. It’s been said that in order to achieve something that has never been achieved, one must do something that’s never been done. Let’s use this National School Choice Week to build inroads in communities that have never tasted the benefits of school choice policies. We must welcome them into the movement, showcase the benefits of choice policies and encourage their participation in the movement to empower more communities with choice.
