School choice is good for families and students — and public schools, too. Here’s how | Opinion

The battle for school choice is heating up. Texas is one of the leading fronts, but lawmakers in Florida, Iowa and Utah are also leading the charge to make students’ education dollars transferable.

Lawmakers are riding a major surge in popularity that began in spring 2020: polling data shows more than 70 percent of voters support the broad concept of school choice. Public officials have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enact major reforms that put a high-quality education within every student’s reach.

But not everyone is convinced. State representatives, often from rural districts, have previously stopped school choice bills short of the finish line. Rep. Ken King, a Republican who represents a Panhandle district, declared voucher bills “dead on arrival.” Citizens who otherwise favor freedom and choice can be skeptical about whether transferable student funding is right for their state. Protesters in Utah recently expressed concern that school choice “drains so much money away from public schools.”

Does embracing school choice mean pulling the plug on traditional public schools? The answer is no.

Choice doesn’t defund or destroy public school systems. In fact, the best social-scientific evidence shows that school choice can improve them. Transferable funding is a complement to, not a substitute for, the existing system. By ensuring all students have the resources to find the educational environment that’s best for them, school choice improves education outcomes across the board.

First, let’s consider how school choice affects student achievement in traditional public schools. Twenty-eight studies explore this question, dating back to 2002. The studies mostly focus on voucher programs, but several consider tax-credit and private scholarships as well. The evidence is clear: 25 of these studies find school choice raises test scores for students who remain in the existing system. Only two find any negative effects. The evidence clearly points to spillover benefits for traditional public schools, which should be much more widely known and discussed.

How about the effects on teacher compensation? While this question hasn’t been researched as extensively, there are a handful of promising results. Out of six studies going back to 1994, five find positive effects and one finds mixed effects. The takeaway is that school choice usually results in modest salary increases for public school teachers.

These results may seem counterintuitive. The explanation comes from basic economics: It’s the power of competition. The more options students have, the better existing schools must perform to attract and retain students. Traditional public schools are not totally stagnant and impervious to improvement. They are capable of meeting this challenge if they have the right incentives. School choice ensures they do.

Just as important are the additional options for teachers. School choice puts them in a better bargaining position by giving them alternatives where salary considerations aren’t constrained by the administrative and bureaucratic hurdles of traditional public school systems. Outside options mean inside benefits. Too often we think transferable funding only benefits students, but this reflexive attitude is mistaken.

“School choice is not a zero-sum game with teachers on one side and families on the other,” writes Corey DeAngelis, a leading school choice scholar and advocate. He’s right. Competition can help all stakeholders in the education debate get what they want.

We mustn’t fall into the trap of reducing school choice to another front in the culture war. Growing concerns about critical race theory and other questionable topics in K-12 curricula are fueling the school choice debate. But in terms of basic values, the public agrees on much more than it seems.

Everyone wants an education system that promotes familial and national flourishing. We need reforms that help public and private schools perform at their full potential. Viewed this way, school choice becomes a means-ends question: Does transferable student funding improve the well-being of students and teachers? The research on school choice says yes.

Governors and state legislators deserve credit for prioritizing strong education systems. The best reforms create new options while strengthening old ones. This is exactly what transferable funding does. Even for students and teachers who choose to remain in public education, school choice is a winner.

This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 5:27 AM.