MEANWHILE HOMESCHOOLING GROWS BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS: The Rapid Growth of Educational Freedom Is Unprecedented.
“According to the latest ABCs of School Choice – EdChoice’s comprehensive report about all matters pertaining to education freedom – policymakers in 40 states have debated 111 educational choice bills in 2023, 79 percent of which related to education savings accounts. (ESAs allow parents to receive a deposit of public funds into a government-authorized savings account with restricted, but multiple uses. Those funds can cover private school tuition and fees, online learning programs, private tutoring, community college costs, higher education expenses, and other approved customized learning services and materials).
The report continues, “As the months ticked by, a total of seven states enacted new choice programs and ten expanded ones already in operation. As of this writing, eight states have joined Arizona and West Virginia in offering all students choice, making 2023 the Year of Universal Choice.”
Overall, 32 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have some form of private school choice programs, with 80 programs impacting about 800,000 students nationwide.
The teachers’ unions and their fellow travelers are fuming over the turn of events. One of the grinches’ ongoing claims is that any privatization measure hurts traditional public schools. However, when researcher Greg Forster looked at 34 studies on the effects of school choice on government-run schools, he found that in 32, school choice improves academic outcomes in public schools affected by the program, while one saw no visible difference, and just one found a negative impact.
Yes, competition works.”