Choice in Education
Summary
Choice. It is a pleasant enough sounding word. In some contexts, "choice" conjures up notions of freedom and democracy, concepts and conditions Americans revere. In specific application to education, choice describes a set of systems or processes by which parents are able to choose the school their child attends. What could be controversial about that? Yet debate surrounding the issue of choice has sparked a war of rhetoric that has reached schools and local communities, corporate boardrooms, state legislative chambers, and even Congress and the White House.
Choice is not a new issue. It appears on the education policy agenda in various guises with almost cyclical regularity. But debate about choice has been reinvigorated by the now nearly decade-old school reform movement and continuing frustration with the insufficient academic achievement of American students.
The most heated debates ensue when the conversation turns to recommendations to include private schools in a system of choice—in other words, to appropriate public dollars to nonpublic institutions. Proponents assert that choice—allowing for the natural give and take of the free market system—will foster competition among schools and bring about much needed school improvement. Opponents contend, in equally strong language and strident tones, that a system of unfettered choice will squeeze the life out of the public school system and do irreparable harm to the American social fabric. This column will attempt to elucidate some of the questions surrounding the complex topic of choice.
This article was originally published in Children & Schools by the National Association of Social Workers and Oxford University Press.