Vicki Murray: Federal school choice already exists: Why the Educational Choice for Children Act isn’t radical

By Vicki Murray

It’s the end of the world! Or so that’s what some opponents want us to believe about the Educational Choice for Children Act being considered in Congress. Rest assured, their claims are more fearmongering than fact. I should know. Opponents have been making the same old “sky-is-falling” predictions since my home state of Arizona became the first to enact such a program nearly 30 years ago.

One of opponents’ leading concerns is that federal ECCA “vouchers” would flow to private schools over the next four years, and that’s “dangerous.” Why? Because, as opponents insist, private schools “drain” money from public schools and are “unaccountable.”

First, the ECCA improves accountability, especially compared to the status quo, because it would empower parents to control the educational dollars assigned to their child. That dynamic makes schools directly accountable to each parent. If the school fails the child, the child – and the dollars attached to that child – can leave. The current system has nothing like that level of accountability. In fact, public schools identified as failing may undergo years of improvement plans without success while class after class of children is passed along underprepared.

When it comes to the “drain” claim, there might be a lot less fear and trembling if opponents considered just how much federal funding students and families already use for private educational options.

Right now, around 4.5 million participants are using “vouchers” worth approximately $26 billion combined for private preschool through postsecondary education programs–including an estimated 77,000 Washington participants.

• Parents of more than 1.3 million children use Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) vouchers totaling nearly $9.5 billion for child care and preschool services, including 49,000 Washington parents.

• 121,000 K-12 students use an estimated $304 million in federal Individuals with Disabilities Education (IDEA) Act vouchers to attend private schools because their public schools cannot provide needed services, including over 700 Washington students.

• Almost 2 million students use $9 billion in Pell Grants to attend private colleges and universities, including nearly 11,000 Washington students.

• More than 900,000 beneficiaries, including almost 16,000 Washingtonians, receive G.I. Bill funding and nearly two-thirds of it goes to private schools – $2.7 billion out of the $4.4 billion total.

There has been no public education apocalypse from federal school choice – nor from the dozens of educational choice programs operating in cities and states since before the 1990s.

About 1.2 million students are participating in 81 educational choice programs in 35 states (plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico).

Contrary to opponents’ assertions, most educational choice programs save money, generating between $2 to $3 on average for every dollar spent. Also, which school is more likely to be accountable: One that competes to keep students and their education dollars; or one with a captive audience that receives funding regardless of academic performance?

The overwhelming majority of scientific studies also finds that students participating in educational choice programs improve their standardized test scores, their chances of graduating from high school, and the likelihood that they will attend and persist in college. This improvement doesn’t hurt their public school peers. In fact, competition from choice programs creates pressure for public schools to improve, which nine out of 10 studies confirm.

Studies also show private school choice programs positively affect students’ civic values, including their civics knowledge, voter participation, volunteerism and patriotism.

The sky isn’t falling – it never was. We have decades of evidence proving private educational choice works without destroying public education.

The Educational Choice for Children Act builds on programs that already serve millions of families successfully.

Vicki Murray is the director of the Center for Education & Paul W. Locke Research Fellow for Education at the Washington Policy Center. Her research was used as part of the successful legal defense in the U.S. Supreme Court of the country’s first scholarship tax-credit program enacted in Arizona in 1997. She is based in Seattle.