While all eyes will understandably be on the presidential race over the next ten weeks, parents and others concerned with the well-being of our nation’s youngest should also be keeping their eyes on state-house politics. That is where control of the nation’s school systems resides—and it’s also the home to a growing movement to give parents ultimate control over their children’s education.
In the last two years, eight states have adopted universal school-choice programs, in the form of Educational Savings Accounts. Under these programs, public money for education is diverted to families who can use it to pay for tuition (or other legitimate educational expenses) at any school—public, charter, or private—including religious schools. These programs and the legal and economic underpinnings of this approach are described in my latest issue brief for the Manhattan Institute.
The sudden growth of these programs after decades of debate stems from discontent among parents, who observed widespread abandonment of in-person schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the wake of the simultaneous George Floyd era, many parents were also concerned about how school districts and state education departments were approaching complex issues of equity for racial and other minorities.
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Ray Domanico is a senior fellow and director of education policy at the Manhattan Institute. Based on a recent issue brief.
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