Some have called 2021 the “Year of School Choice,” and a glance at the numbers shows why. Throughout the country, 38 school choice programs were created or expanded, giving thousands of families a new opportunity to build their children’s futures.
Leading the way was the usual line-up of think tanks and high-profile supporters, like EdChoice, the American Federation for Children, and former governor of Florida Jeb Bush, but these were joined by a new group of advocates: parents and activists who vehemently oppose the growing influence of critical race theory, gender theory, and progressive politics in public schools.
Together, this alliance is changing the educational landscape. But now new battle lines are emerging within its ranks. But as anti-woke advocates champion the rights of disgruntled parents on the right, they should be careful not to tread on the rights of those on the left.
Some anti-woke activists with large platforms, like New Discourse’s James Lindsay and Breitbart’s Emma-Jo Morris, have warned that expansions of school choice policies could lead to woke education continuing in private and charter schools. Lindsay has even gone as far as calling this phenomenon the “School Choice Trap.” Their followers are listening, too. Though public support for school choice is still strong, the numbers are starting to dip.
Objectively speaking, Lindsay and Morris are correct. School choice policies would leave room for wokeness in charter schools and especially in private schools. But this freedom is a crucial element of the school movement. School choice isn’t about owning the libs; it’s about empowering parents — all parents — to choose the educational model that best fits their family’s needs. That entails allowing more progressive parents who believe woke charter schools are the best fit for their kids to follow that path.
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After all, parental satisfaction with their child’s school is one of the strongest predictors of student success. Happy parents are involved parents, and students with involved parents are better behaved, have better time management skills, and develop healthier relationships with their teachers. A Rice University study found that students with satisfied parents scored an average of 169 points higher on the SAT than students with dissatisfied parents. And parents who participate in school choice programs are far more likely to be satisfied with their child’s education than parents whose children attend traditional public schools.
Granted, many of the reasons why parents are so dissatisfied with public schools are cultural issues. When parents send their children to school, they expect a curriculum centered around reading, writing, and math. They don’t expect a children’s book that says whiteness is “a pact with the devil,” or a graphic novel with sexual imagery involving children, or the tenets of gender theory invading an unrelated class. These are battles that can and should be fought, especially in the context of public schools.
That said, there will always be a handful of parents that want a woke education for their kids, and who are we to stop them?
When culture warriors see education reform as little more than a means of achieving political victory, they make the same mistake the current system does: They prioritize their ideological objectives over the rights of families, with the implication being that children belong to their community or society rather than their family. If we really want to stand up for parent’s rights, then we have to acknowledge that parents will sometimes make decisions we don’t like.
And so what if they do? Even then, the consequences wouldn’t be nearly as dire as the culture warriors claim. Lindsay and Morris worry school choice could lead to further proliferation of wokeness, but that’s not likely. The great thing about school choice is that other parents’ decisions about where to send their kid won’t affect the whole education system — it won’t keep anti-woke parents from choosing to send their kids to more conservative schools.
In this way, school choice policies, like educational savings accounts (ESAs) that allow parents to tailor their child’s education to their individual needs, are better than traditional school vouchers, which can only be used for tuition at private schools, where wokeness is sometimes present whether parents like it or not.
ESAs are also typically available to homeschoolers without curricular strings attached. Therefore, if a parent wants their child to receive a non-woke education, they can use an ESA to educate their child in that manner, whether it be at home or via a non-traditional school.
The temptation to purge wokeness from all education is understandable — perhaps even righteous. But emphasizing the rights and role of parents in a child’s education is of paramount importance. Those on the front lines of the culture war should remember that the ultimate objective is to empower parents to provide the best education possible for their children, not to fight a McCarthyist battle for ideological supremacy. That means if a parent wants to send their child to the Ibram X. Kendi School of Communist Nonsense, they should be able to do so.
Garion Frankel is a graduate student at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service with a concentration in education policy and management. He is a contributor to Young Voices, a guest blogger at reimaginED, and Chalkboard Review’s breaking news reporter.
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