Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Our driving principle

Reaction to the NCES study has been understandably triumphant from the anti-school-choice side of the aisle, especially from the likes of the AFTies, UFTies and likeminded folks. 

But amidst all the discussion–indeed, among most edudebate these days–one party in particular is mysteriously removed from the discussion. 

Parents.  More specifically, low-income minority parents. 

The school choice opposition has done a very good job of making the V-word toxic by equating vouchers with private school subsidies.  But when people are told what the word actually means–giving parents the liberty to decide where they want to send their children to school–opposition to school choice tends to evaporate pretty quickly.  And the groups that consistently show the greatest approval of school choice are low-income minorities. 

It’s quite obvious why.  When faced with a decaying school, they have the fewest options, and in some cases none at all.  They can’t exercise the main school choice option available these days, which is moving to a higher-income area for a chance at access to better schools.  And if education is the fast track to escaping poverty, those parents and their children by far have the most to lose. 

But one thing that strikes me as both tragic and infuriating is that parents–low-income minority parents in particular–are never really asked what they want for their children, what they wish to see done differently.  Indeed, many teachers can’t seem to decide just what they really want: on one hand, they complain that lack of parental involvement just ruins any attempt at all to teach, and on the other hand those parents who are involved seem to be denigrated, to the point they have earned a new nickname: helicopter parents. 

Education reformers claim to have all the right answers: smaller class sizes, increased spending, universal preschool, increased spending, teacher certification, increased spending.  (Well, let’s face it–it’s really mostly just increased spending, because aside from the fact that we are now spending more per pupil in K-12 than many students spend attending college, our schools are just flat broke.   But I digress.)

But what if not all parents want smaller classes?  What if some parents merely want their kid in front of that really awesome teacher, even if it means being in a bigger class?  What if some moms and dads really do want their kid in preschool, but others don’t?  

The subtext that seems to exist with many reformers is that they know better than parents what their children need–that because of intensive exposure to the best teaching techniques in our fine education schools (snicker), our experts should simply be left alone to tell the unwashed masses what needs fixing.  "Trust us," they implore. 

Well, we disagree.  We believe in the ability of individual parents to make decisions on behalf of their children.  They may not choose the way we wish they would.  And sometimes they’ll just flat screw it up.  But more often than not they will choose far better than the anointed wise men, and when they do choose poorly, they’ll remedy their errors much faster than the system ever would or could.  Contrast that with how the public school system seems to treat parents: as nonissues, minor annoyances, or worse.  Never forget that it was the American Federation of Teachers that thought parents "inconsequential conduits" in connection with school choice.