"School Choice Works!"

Earlier this week the Arizona Supreme Court heard argument in a major school choice case that IJ is litigating. A couple of years ago, the legislature passed two voucher programs to provide scholarships for children to use at the school of their (or their parents') choice. Only particular children are eligible for the scholarships: children who have been in foster care and children with federally recognized disabilities. In other words, two of the most vulnerable classes of children now have hope in Arizona for the education they desperately need.

Here is one child's story:



Naturally, the opportunity for parents to opt out of public schools that have failed their children in horrifying and shameful measure causes the teachers and school boards to go to court in order to take that opportunity away.

The People for the American Way (the ultimate oxymoron), the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, and the Arizona Education Association (our teachers' union), teamed up to challenge these scholarship programs with the noble goal of forcing these children back into the system that has already failed them. Really admirable.

They did so because Arizona's Constitution explicitly prohibits aid from the state directly to private schools (there are actually a few arguments, but this is the crux of the appeal). These fine folks who seek to dash the hopes of folks like Andrea Weck claim that by giving scholarships to parents that they can use at private schools, the state is directly aiding private schools.

So here's the fun part. Under federal law (the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act), public school districts can actually choose to send children with disabilities to private school. If a public school decides that it does not have the ability to provide a service that a child needs (a decision that usually only takes multiple years while the child remains unserved), the bureaucrats can choose to pay a private school to provide that service.

In other words, currently government bureaucrats are free to pay private schools directly to educate these children, but their greatest fear appears to be allowing parents the opportunity to make that same choice.

This is just shameful.

We always hear from the teachers' unions in particular that the big fear is any program that diverts money from the public schools risks damaging the public school system. That is not by any means the goal, but I guess my question is: if the public schools are so bad that every parent with the option would choose something, anything else, is that a system worth risking our children's future over?

Public school funding has been increasing MASSIVELY year by year for decades. By every possible measure, however, students in America have flatlined or decreased in knowledge and achievement. Certainly money is not the problem.

We all know something must be done, the question is whether or not we will have the courage to take bold steps and big risks to try new things. Will we allow generation after generation of children to langish in schools that have failed them hoping that perhaps by contuing to throw money at the problem one day in the distant future it will be solved?

I hope not. For the sake of children like Lexie, especially, I hope not.

More than 200 parents, children, and supporters rallied in front of the Arizona Supreme Court in support of these programs this week. Shouting over and over again, "School choice works!" Right they are.

That is the sort of thing that gives me hope for the education of our next generations.