Is school choice good policy?

Elliot (No)

School choice is not good policy as it encourages parents and students to abandon schools with real potential, but doing this is not a solution. We must implement policies that address problems like gang violence and low student performance instead of allowing them to simply leave. Failing to solve these issues sends a message that there are no consequences for allowing violence, poor academic performance, and gang activity to continue. There is no incentive to change when students abandon their schools in droves. 

Additionally, parents (and students) are not really qualified to make comprehensive educational decisions. They might choose wrongly if they move students from one school to another. For example, a parent might choose a school with a reputation for excellent mathematics teachers. But what if their child doesn't want to study math? What if they would benefit more from a school with better art teachers? Teachers are in the best position to know what the student's needs are, having observed their individual characteristics and watching them daily to understand how they learn. They would seem to know if recommending a transfer to another school is best for them, not parents.

If parents are allowed to choose, they will all flock to one particular school with perhaps a better reputation, which will completely overwhelm the school. 

There are only so many top-class teachers; it doesn't make sense to have students abandon schools because there is a slightly better school in another area. We live in a very connected society. If large portions of the population suffer from inadequate education, it affects the entire society as a whole. That is why school investment, rather than offering the choice to leave, is better for everyone. 

Luke (Yes)

School choice is common sense policy, allowing a parent's tax dollars to follow the student, not the system. Parents can choose where their education taxes go, putting the power of their tax dollars back into their hands. This is better than leaving important life decisions to distant lawmakers who have little sense of what American families face. 

School choice frees low-income families, who may live in an educationally deficient district, as they can move their children out of a failing public education system while possibly receiving additional vouchers to go toward private education. School choice also offers those with religious views and those ardently opposed to religion to support institutions that align with their worldview, allowing their children to be educated according to these beliefs and parents to better exercise their right to freedom of religion. School choice likewise produces a high level of competition between educational institutions which results in lower prices and higher quality overall. In this way, school choice benefits public schools, incentivizing low-performing public schools (through free-market competition) to improve or risk losing students due to parents exercising their choice. 

When public schools are more concerned with improving, with students being of top priority, this will inevitably improve the entire educational landscape. When states like Florida and Indiana implemented school choice policies in 2003, public education vastly improved by 2019, allowing parents to keep their children enrolled. As school choice allows the funds to follow the child, schools will be less likely to cut special programs that feature the sciences and arts. 

Because parents, not the government, should choose where their children attend school, and since competition produces excellence, improving the entire education system in the long run, school choice is the popular and proven policy every state should pursue.