NEED TO KNOW
THE A-B-C’S OF SCHOOL CHOICE
WHAT IS SCHOOL CHOICE?
School choice allows parents to decide where their children go to school,
rather than the government assigning students to schools based largely on
the parent’s zip code or inability to afford private tuition. Even the best
school is not the right school for all students. School choice allows education
dollars to follow the child to the school the parents choose – public or
private.

WHAT ARE THE EDUCATION OPTIONS?
Parents deserve to have a myriad of options so they can select the
educational environment that best serves their children.
Those options include traditional public schools, magnet schools, and
charter schools, but parents should also be able to direct their child’s
education funding to a private school of their choice, or to pay for online
education as well as to hire tutors, or a combination of any of the above.

QUICK FACTS
According to the American
Federation for Children, an
estimated 1.2 million students
failed to graduate in 2015.
That represents 7,000
dropouts a day or one every
26 seconds (1).

NOTABLE & QUOTABLE
In a 1955 essay, Nobel Prize
Winning economist Milton
Fried- man argued that there
is no need for government to
run schools. Instead, families
could be provided with
publicly financed vouchers for
use at the K-12 educational
institutions of their choice.

Parents should also be able to use their tax dollars to support
homeschooling as that is an option a growing number of parents are
choosing.
Magnet schools are public schools that specialize in a particular area like science or the arts. Magnet schools are
funded with taxpayer dollars and ow through the education funding system that includes a combination of local,
state and federal funds.
Charter schools are public schools and are funded with taxpayer dollars which would otherwise be going to
tradition- al public school. ese schools are open enrollment, meaning parents do not need to live within the
geographic confines of a school district. However, charters have unique flexibility and room for innovation.
Open enrollment public schools exist in most states, where parents may choose a public school outside their zip
code. Parents are often required to provide transportation for open enrollment public schools, but some states
provide transportation.

WHAT FORMS OF SCHOOL CHOICE EXIST?
Education Savings Accounts (ESA's) are emerging as the most viable and flexible vehicle for providing parents
with the educational options they need to direct their children's education. Rather than providing public funding
to educational institutions, the ESA allows parents to have their children's public education funding sent to a
savings account to pay for qualified education expenses. ESA's exist in five states – Arizona, Florida, Mississippi,
Nevada, and Tennessee. Nevada enacted the nation's first universal ESA program in 2015 and it launches in January
2016.
Private school vouchers provide funding from either private or public education funds for parents to use to pay
tuition and fees in private schools.

 Tax Credit Scholarships provide a mechanism in some states for the parents to get a credit from their
taxes that can be used to pay private school tuition and fees. Some tax credit scholarship programs also
allow for tax deductibility for businesses that contribute to organizations that provide tuition
scholarships.

WHY SCHOOL CHOICE?
Parents with the financial ability to pay private school tuition, to homeschool or to move to the public
school district of their choice already exercise school choice. Students whose parents cannot afford to
do so or do not have those options are assigned - by the government - to a public school that may not
meet their needs. Disproportionately, poorer and minority-heavy communities stand to bene t from
school choice.
We believe that all parents should be able to direct their children’s education funding to the school or
educational environment where they believe their children have the greatest opportunity to learn,
succeed and thrive.
School choice provides parents with the opportunity to exercise education freedom and for parents to
take control their child’s education. Even the best public schools aren’t the right fit for every student.

MORE MONEY IS NOT THE ANSWER.
Some believe that more money will result in better student performance, but that has proven wrong. As
we have continued to pour more funding into public schools, test scores have remained relatively flat.
Actually, more spending has resulted in bigger bureaucracies, and no appreciable improvement in
student scores.
From 1970-2010, funding increased 75% - from an average of $5,500 per pupil to around $13,000 – and
reading, math nor science scores measurably improved. From 1950-2009, student enrollment grew
nationally 96%, and teacher ranks grew 252%, while administrator and other staff ranks grew an
astounding 702%.

DISPELLING ARGUMENTS AGAINST SCHOOL CHOICE.
While Americans are accustomed to exercising choice in most areas of our life, school choice has some
skeptics.
Though even public programs like food stamps and housing vouchers allow recipients to choose where
they shop and live, there are public schools-only proponents, and many of them are public school
employees.
The most common argument is that school choice diverts money from the public schools. at assumes
that public schools exist for a purpose other than to educate students. Public funds will continue to ow
to the public schools unless parents choose another option. e argument to deny parents that option
reveals that school choice - opponents are fearful parents, if given an option, will not select the public
schools. School choice opponents have little confidence parental satisfaction in the education the
public schools are providing.

Endnotes:
1.
Drop out rates https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates

Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s “Need to Know” informational series explores current events
and recent scholarship on public policy isues from a free-market economics perspective. A full list of
“Need to Know” briefings is available at www.AmericansForProsperityFoundation.org/NeetToKnow.
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