• Overall test scores for black voucher recipients who attended a private school for at least one of the three years were, on average, 7.6 percentile points higher than those of black students who had never attended a private school.

• Parental satisfaction with their child's school was higher among parents of students who attended a school of choice. When asked to assign a grade to their children's school, 42 percent of voucher parents gave their school an "A," while only 10 percent of the parents of the control group public school students did likewise.

The benefits of school choice can be observed in other parts of the world, too. A chapter in the 2006 Index of Economic Freedom highlights how many poor parents in Lagos, Nigeria, make every sacrifice possible to send their children to private schools because of the public schools there are so deplorable. And it pays off: “In Lagos State, the mean math score advantage over government schools was about 15 and 19 percentage points, respectively, more in private registered and unregistered schools, while in English it was 23 and 30 percentage points more,” the Index notes.

And how does choosing to home school your children affect their education? Study after study (available on the website of the Home School Legal Defense Association) proves that home schooled students, as a whole, are better educated than their peers in public schools. Take math and reading: One comprehensive study revealed that while K-12 public-school students were scoring, on average, in the 50th percentile for both subjects, home schoolers were in the 82nd percentile for math and the 87th percentile for reading. Yet, the education “establishment” still strong arms our government into sending the cash their way instead of providing tax relief, vouchers or any real financial incentives to help make home schooling a reality for more families. It’s a disgrace that in 2006, our education system neither rewards nor even recognizes obvious success.

Children deserve the best education possible, and the way to make that happen is to empower parents to choose how their children will be educated. It’s essential to the future of our children and our country that we make school choice the centerpiece of a renewed No Child Left Behind Act.