From frustration to choice.

Parent empowerment and what it means for traditional schools.

It is not news that wealthy parents have always had school choice. They can choose to live in expensive towns with high taxes, pay for tutors if their children struggle in school, afford elite private school tuition, hire college coaches to help improve chances for acceptance, and move to “higher-achieving” school districts if their current district doesn’t work for them.

If this isn’t news, then what is happening now, and why is school choice—or “education choice,” as we refer to it here—the most important movement in the country?

For education policy experts and others who have been advocating school choice for decades, this is not a “new” movement. But the pandemic allowed parents unprecedented (virtual) access into classrooms and schools. They were not happy with what they saw, for a variety of reasons. Parents are voting with their feet: since the pandemic, much has been written about the rate at which they are leaving public schools. It is a trend that does not appear to be reversing any time soon. Instead, parents are increasingly empowered to make education choices.

Educators are also frustrated and are leaving the profession, or considering doing so, again for a variety of reasons. (More about this in a future post, including how the barriers in traditional schools often prevent teachers from feeling successful and how the growth of innovative schools and learning models presents tremendous opportunity for them).

Pioneers of school choice and innovations such as charter schools, online courses and hybrid schools have had a vision for alternative schooling since before the pandemic. Now, parents are increasingly demanding options. At the same time, states are enacting policies that support schooling options. The education choice movement is accelerating.

When parents open up about their frustrations.

If you are the parent of a school-aged child, you may have your own story. Here is how one parent described her son’s experience:

“My son hates school. Getting him to go to class each day was a challenge. When he was in elementary and middle school, the support system that was built around him went above and beyond and truly helped him each and every day. Then, he went to high school. His high school had a sink-or-swim mentality and the lack of support and student-centered environment was evident each and every day. I was constantly fighting for my child. Teachers never reached out, support was only given after school, no differentiation was used in class, and the students were expected to sit passively and listen. Semester after semester I watched my child shrink more into himself and resist going to school. In his sophomore year, he missed 23 days of school and NOBODY reached out. I had to ask for a plan that I then had to create. This past summer he announced to me he was not going back.”

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