Educational choice deserves our support

“Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”

This statement appears in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948. For the majority of American parents today, unless they have significant financial or social means to afford a private school or homeschooling, there is no real education “choice” for their children. Instead, parents are beholden to a failing public school system that enjoys a monopoly on tax dollars.

Most parents in the United States today can’t choose what kind of education their mandatory tax money funds. And if you live in an area like mine, education taxes go up every year. But to what end? Better test results? Better social outcomes? The data reveals the opposite. By most metrics, public education is failing. If this were any other product, its company would go out of business. Instead, we keep throwing money at the problem, keeping disadvantaged students in a doom loop of captive dependency with no way out. That’s how monopolies work: They eliminate incentives for improvement.

School choice efforts across the nation are an attempt to bust this sclerotic public school monopoly, giving parents genuine choice in their child’s education by directing taxes toward an education they choose, not the government.

As of writing, 29 states have some form of school choice program through Education Savings Accounts, vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, or tax-credit educational savings accounts. But many programs have limited eligibility. Only 16 states have universal school choice. A map of states with school choice is revealing: Red states support it, and blue states are opposed. Why? Could it be that the public school monopoly is aligned with progressive aims?

But many red states are oddly missing from the school choice map, including Kentucky, where I live. On Nov. 5, voters have a chance to amend our state constitution and do an end run around activists on the state Supreme Court who declared school choice legislation unconstitutional. But as in other states, this vote faces significant headwinds—even from some on the political right and some Christian groups.

I believe Christians should support school choice out of love for our neighbor and our neighbor’s children. School choice gives parents control over their child’s education, improves all schools, and breaks up the progressive educational cartel.

Simply put, without school choice, disadvantaged families are beholden to unhealthy public schools. They have no practical choice. Thankfully, some families have the means to choose an education for their children that doesn’t actively undermine their faith and values, but many more do not. Wouldn’t it be loving to expand access to this choice? Why would we want our neighbor’s children dependent on not only an inferior education but one influenced by a very progressive U.S. Department of Education that isn’t shy about indoctrinating children? School choice affirms the fundamental right of parents to choose an education that is best for their children.

School choice improves all schools. Competition is good because it encourages improvement. Public schools are failing because there is no incentive to improve. Public money is not tied to educational outcomes. Instead, taxes go up every year alongside public school funding. Studies show this increased funding does not improve education but instead subsidizes administrative glut.

Some Christians have expressed concern that school choice would lead to a mass exodus of students from public schools. Is that loving? First, this likely outcome should tell you all you need to know about how public schools are doing. In the short term, yes, public schools would likely see a drop in enrollment as parents choose an education best for their children. But then, public schools would have to ask the hard questions about why kids are flocking elsewhere and improve their product.

Universal school choice would benefit American education across the board: public, private, charter, co-ops, and homeschooling. While monopolies strangle improvement, true competition encourages it.

Unlike many anti–school choice activists who grew up attending private schools, I attended public schools in a small rural town. In many ways, it was idyllic. I am thankful for that experience. But, lamentably, that world is gone—even in my rural hometown. Thanks in part to an activist U.S. Department of Education and ideologically captured teachers colleges across the country, the primary agenda in public schools has changed from academic excellence to woke indoctrination. Why are local school libraries stocking pornographic books for elementary students? Why are administrators encouraging children toward gender “transition” and keeping parents in the dark? Why is “sex education” being delivered to younger and younger children, and why is it increasingly more explicit and queer? Why is harmful technology uncritically implemented? Why are standardized testing and math considered racist? Taxpayers are subsidizing this progressive propaganda machine because we have no choice. Enough is enough.

When we look across the country, we should be concerned about declining morality, mental health, academics, and social cohesion. The progressive John Dewey understood the cultural power of public schools, and in the 20th century, he introduced radical reforms to promote his agenda. In many ways, we are living in Dewey’s world, and taxpayers are writing the checks. It’s time to challenge the progressive stranglehold, improve education, and give parents a choice again. Love of neighbor and our neighbor’s children should motivate us.