School Choice

School districts' mask requirements reveal deep differences about who should make decisions about children’s health and how they are educated. Florida allows parents of children who were threatened or bullied because of mask choice to attend another public or private school of their choice. North Carolina should consider similar legislation; giving parents the choice over how and where their child is educated is key to ending the mask wars.

State reopening mandates led to sizable increases in home and private school enrollment during the 2020-21 school year. According to statistics published by the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education, homeschool enrollment soared by 20.6% (not a typo) and private school enrollment increased by 3.3%. An estimated 23% of North Carolina families selected a home, private, or charter school last school year.

Learning Loss Education Savings Accounts can remedy the damaging impacts of students being out of the classroom and empower parents to find the educational option that best fits their child’s needs. The American Rescue Plan Act expands the child tax credit to $3,000 or $3,600, depending on the age of the child, and this change can greatly aid the ability of parents to afford private school.

Support for school choice is strong nationally and resulted in new programs and expansions in many states. North Carolina legislation to expand choice programs and grant a tax credit to homeschooling families, if approved, would increase the amount of the assistance as well as the number of people using school choice programs.

HB 32 would expand eligibility for the Opportunity Scholarship program, peg the scholarship award to a percentage of state per-pupil support, and combine existing special-needs programs into one. SB 297 would give homeschool families a nonrefundable state tax credit of up to $1,000 per child.

Learning loss is a real problem without a simple, one-size-fits-all solution. For addressing a student's learning deficit, research increasingly favors tutors because they have different skill sets than teachers. Education Savings Accounts are another way to tailor solutions to a struggling student's individual needs.

Learning loss from pandemic-driven loss of in-person instruction in public schools is a serious problem, and its impacts vary by race, income, and geography. Education Savings Accounts offer an alternative that may be better for many families because they give parents the ability to address their children's specific educational needs.

People overwhelmingly favor parents being in charge of their children's education, and Opportunity Scholarships had strong, bipartisan support. These findings should spur legislators to help parents by giving them more control over their children's education.

Friedman’s ideas have helped to fuel an education revolution in North Carolina and across the country. Choice empowers parents to make educational decisions, challenges monopolies, and calls out bureaucracies. Choice expands personal freedom but also highlights that accountability comes in different forms. In so doing, choice has helped to shift the public discussion of education from a focus on how much money is spent to how well money is spent.

There’s always been overwhelming support for programs offering school choice opportunities for disadvantaged and special-needs children assigned to underperforming or unsafe public schools. Modest investments in school choice programs can…