BRUTAL: Watch Scott Bessent Obliterate Janet Yellen After She Said This About the...
Watch This GOP Senator Cook the WSJ Over the Trump-Epstein Birthday Card Hoax
That Astronomer CEO's Coldplay Concert Fiasco Just Got Worse
Coca-Cola Issues Statement After Trump Says the Company 'Agreed' to Use Cane Sugar
The Terrible Cost of 'Hipster' Socialism
WSJ Reporters Behind Epstein Smear Have Deep Ties to Clinton-Backed Russia Hoax Machine
How the Obama Admin Betrayed the American People
Sen. Cotton Leads Charge to End Birthright Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants
Trump's America First Agenda Works: Native-Born Workers See 100% of Job Gains As...
PA Republican Crushes Democrat Field in Fundraising As America First Agenda Gains Momentum
A Teen Posted TikToks to Garner Support After Her Parents’ Murders. You Won’t...
At Least 30 Injured After Driver Rams Car Into Crowd of People in...
'Onward': Heritage Foundation Founder Ed Feulner Dies, Leaves Legacy of Freedom and Faith
Is Ilhan Omar the New Standard-Bearer for Democrats?
What We Should Takeaway From DNI Gabbard’s Declassified Russia Hoax Documents
OPINION

New Evidence Supporting School Choice

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
A groundbreaking new study from the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas provides state of the art data showing the benefits of school choice.
Advertisement

The bottom line: When parents have choice where to send their child to school, their children perform better in reading and math tests.

Patrick J. Wolf, one of the authors, summarizes the results:

According to their "meta-analysis of 19 'gold standard' experimental evaluations of the test-score effects of private school choice programs around the world. The sum of reliable evidence indicates that, on average, private school choice increases the reading scores of choice users by about 0.27 standard deviations and their math scores by 0.17 standard deviations. These are highly significant, educationally meaningful achievement gains of several months of additional learning from school choice."

The idea of school choice and school vouchers was pioneered in the 1950s by Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman. However, it has not been until recent years that the idea started picking up steam.

According to Wolf, "there are now 50 private school choice programs in 26 states plus the District of Columbia. Well over half have been enacted in the past five years."

About 1.3 million students are in these programs, compared to 50 million students enrolled in our public schools.

There are various approaches to providing school choice: vouchers, education savings accounts, tax-credit scholarships and individual tax credits and deductions.

Advertisement

There has been much back and forth over recent years, with various studies claiming to show no benefits from school choice and even negative effects. Other studies have shown positive results and are supportive. The authors of this latest research report their results with great conviction and feel they have produced the most comprehensive, thorough, and unbiased work on this subject to date.

But no matter. Those opposed will most likely stay opposed because, like in many, maybe all, areas of public policy, it's really about interests and ideology and not about science. Those who want to keep things the way they are will ignore studies and research or find ways to rationalize why the results are not conclusive.

However, a black mother, whose child is trapped in a failing urban public school, doesn't need research to inform her that it is a good idea to give her control to pull that child out of that school and send him or her to a different one. It's obvious.

Capitalism works so well because failure is punished and success is rewarded. Why should one of the most crucial institutions of our society -- our education system -- be shielded from the competitive forces that produce excellence? Why should failure be allowed to go on forever just because unions have power and parents don't?

Furthermore, when we measure education we look at test scores in reading and math. But education is about more than reading and math. It is about transmitting principles and values. Where are the tests that measure whether children are learning the right values?

Advertisement

The progression of court decisions over the years extracting any trace of religion from public schools correlate with changes in attitudes among our youth about sex and family. Back in 1962, when prayer was banished from public schools, less then 10 percent of our babies were born to unwed mothers. Today, it is 43 percent.

Over the same period, the percentage of black families headed by a single parent jumped from 20 percent to 70 percent. In these troubled communities, the option to send a child to a Christian school, to learn and digest Christian values, can be a lifeline to the future. Why in our free country should this be prevented?

Now we have powerful research showing that competition improves test scores in reading and math. This just bolsters the intuitive notion that parents should have control over where they send their child to school.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement