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School choice is the slogan of a U.S. movement to give parents more say in which primary and secondary schools their children attend. The movement hopes that increased choice will cause more fierce competition between different schools, and thereby raise the overall quality of education.

School choice proponents differ in the extent to which they advocate privatization. Some do not advocate privatization at all, wishing only to allow parents greater choice among different public schools within a district. Others seek to grant parents the option of either spending vouchers at a (possibly parochial) private school or of obtaining tax credits for the same. Usually, those advocates of the latter schemes suggest that public schools not receive funding for those pupils who did not choose to attend public schools. A few school choice proponents call for the complete elimination of government funding of education, ie total privatization of the educational sector.

See Charter schools or Alternative schools for another American idea for providing school choice options to parents.

Arguments in favor

The proponents of this idea say that if parents were given a choice about where public money should go, they would pick the better schools and the under-performing schools would have to improve or lose public funding. Proponents claim that school choice is a good way to improve public education at low cost, by forcing schools to perform more efficiently.

Another argument is based on cost-effectiveness. Moe and the CATO institute cite public statistics for the U.S. costs and quality of education that show private education usually costs between one quarter and one half of public education while giving superior outcomes. Boston schools spend $7,300 per enrollee each year, Washington D.C. $9,500 per enrollee, and New York City, $7,350 per enrollee. These figures are larger than all but the most expensive private schools. They are also quite controversial, however.

In areas with these expenditures, many public schools are unaccredited, while private schools are fully accredited in order to retain students and avoid regulatory difficulties. In many large public school districts, administrators do not publicize accreditation for this reason.

Still others argue that since poor children almost exclusively attend public schools, a voucher system would allow these students to opt out of bad schools and acquire a better education.

Due to the expanded market and subsequent demand for private schooling, myriad schools of varying selectivity and philosophies would arise to meet this demand, providing greater choice than the public school system. The choice of schools would be analogous to the choice of food products in a supermarket, only limited by physical constraints and not government budgets.

Furthermore, the decentralization or localization of power endemic to private schooling would facilitate greater parent teacher interaction, as the teachers would be accountable to parents, not to a distant city or state board. A close-knit community of students, parents, and faculty unified by a common ideal would promote involvement among the relevant parties. Effectively, proponents of school choice argue, vouchers would confer the benefits of private schooling on a wide swath of the population while lessening, or even negating the cost.

Arguments against

Some critics against the idea say that if parents are given a choice (as to where public money should go), it is likely they will pick the school their child is attending in attempts to improve it, while others think the supposedly better schools could become overcrowded if most parents send their kids there, making it unfair to local parents of the "better" school.

And how, critics ask, will the poorer parents get their kids to a school of their choice without public school buses? Many parents start work around that time in the morning, and driving their children to a school farther away might not fit into busy work schedules.

One of the things bothering critics may be their view that the entire thing is really part of the general campaign for privatization. A portion of them believe that the wording (school choice) lures voters by playing with their parental fears, but that in the end the big winners will be a small handful of rich business merchants. Critics argue: if business is so successful in running schools without government help, then why did government need to create public schools in the first place? The answer, they claim, lies in the massive number of unschooled citizens that existed before government stepped in. A number of critics see the attempt to get rid of public schools as a return to those days when mostly the rich were educated.

Critics may also be upset that much of the movement seems too sneaky and full of flowery promises. They look to the No Child Left Behind law, which forces schools to give the names, phone numbers and addresses of children to army recruiters, with the threat of withdrawal of public funds if the school refuses. Although different in purpose from school choice, it has been promoted as a way to hold teachers accountable for a school's performance. Many critics seem to see parallels between the two, especially because in Texas, there are reports of "fixing" results to make school performance seem better. Similarly, schools trying to survive any struggle around school choice might be encouraged to cheat.

Many critics propose a different solution that does not involve threats to take away needed money or force schools to struggle against each other. They say if incentive is what is needed, it already exists: the school board is elected by direct popular vote. They say that instead of government forcing school choice, citizens and parents need to become more aware of who runs the schools, and for laws to help improve that awareness. Any head of the school board who values their position will likely do everything possible to ensure the school runs better, if citizens are more active in deciding who stays or goes.

Some also note that private schools are not obliged to take just any students; many have entrance exams and admit only those who score well. Thus there is some concern that private schools would take the best students, leaving the most disadvantaged in a school system unable to improve itself and saddled with the hardest children to teach.

Even if private schools are not allowed to participate, critics note, this might prompt a two-tiered public education system, in which those students with motivated parents leave for good schools, while other students languish.

Another concern arises when converting schools into businesses that struggle against each other: what happens when one of them goes "out of business" or bankrupt? Do the children get shuffled around to other schools? And what of the teachers they're used to, and the lessons they'd be in the middle of? Critics believe that the school choice crowd have no "plan B" for the many things which may go wrong.

There are several critics who oppose the idea for school choice because of its being advertised to Christian organizations with promises that many of the students would end up in their religious schools, and because of possible conflict with the separation of church and state.

Some critics believe that when schools are in bad shape, it is partly because of lawmakers in the government who are (and have always been) against public schools. Because such lawmakers wish to destroy the public school system, it is believed, the laws they pass are likely going to weaken public schools or corrupt their policies.

Legal standing of vouchers in the US

In the U.S., the legal and moral precedents for vouchers may have been set by the G.I. bill, which includes a voucher program for university-level education of veterans. The G.I. bill permits veterans to take their educational benefits at religious schools, an extremely divisive issue when applied to primary and secondary schools.

In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (2002), the Supreme Court of the United States held that school vouchers could be used to pay for education in sectarian schools without violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. As a result, states are basically free to enact voucher programs that provide funding for any school of the parent's choosing.

The Court has not decided, however, whether states can provide vouchers for secular schools only, excluding sectarian schools. Proponents of funding for parochial schools argue that such an exclusion would violate the Free Exercise Clause. However, in Locke v. Davey, 540 U.S. 712 (2004), the Court held that states could exclude majors in "devotional theology" from an otherwise generally available college scholarship. The Court has not indicated, however, whether this holding extends to the public school context, and it may well be limited to the context of individuals training to enter the ministry.

Overview of School Choice Around The World

In France

The French government subsidizes most private primary and secondary schools, including those affiliated with religious denominations, under contracts stipulating that education much follow the same curriculum as public schools and that schools cannot discriminate on grounds of religion or force pupils to attend religion classes.

This system of école libre (Free Schooling) is mostly used not for religious reasons, but for practical reasons (private schools may offer more services, such as after-class tutoring) as well as the desire of parents living in disenfranchised areas to send their children away from the local schools, where they perceive that the youth are too prone to delinquence or have too many difficulties keeping up with schooling requirements that the educational content is bound to suffer. The threatened repealing of that status in the 1980s triggered mass street demonstrations in favor of the status.

In the United States of America

School Choice in America comes in a few different forms. The different options could be put into these categories: Vouchers, Tax Credits, Charter Schools, Magnet Schools and even Home Schooling.

Vouchers: When the government pays tuition to a private school on behalf of the parents, this is usually referred to as a Voucher. Vouchers currently exist in Milwaukee, Cleveland, Florida, and, most recently, Utah, Colorado and the District of Columbia [1] . The largest and oldest Voucher program is in Milwaukee. Started in 1990, and expanded in 1995, it currently allows no more that 15% the district's public school enrollment to use vouchers. As of 2005 over 14,000 students use vouchers and they are nearing the 15% cap [2].

Tax Credits (or Tuition Tax Credits): A Tuition Tax Credit is similar to most other familiar tax credits. Certain states allow individuals and/or businesses to deduct a certain amount of their income taxes to donate to education. Depending on the program, these donations can either go to a public school or to a School Tuition Organization (STO), or both. The donations that go to public schools are often used to help pay for after-school programs, schools trips, or school supplies. The donations that go to School Tuition Organizations are used by the STO to create scholarships that are then given to students. These programs currently exist in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Pennsylvania [3].

Arizona has probably the most well known and fastest growing Tax Credit program. In the Arizona School Tuition Organization Tax Credit program individuals can deduct up to $500 and couples filing joint returns can deduct up to $625. About 20,000 children received scholarships in the 2003-2004 school year. And since the program has started in 1998, over 77,000 scholarships have been granted [4] [5].

Charter Schools: Charter schools are public schools with more relaxed rules and regulations. These relaxed rules tend to deal with things like Teacher Union contracts and state curriculum. The majority of states (and the District of Columbia) have Charter School laws. Minnesota was the first state to have a charter school law and the first charter school in the United States, City Academy, opened in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1992 [6].

In places like Dayton, OH, Kansas City, MO, Washington, DC more than 14% of public school students attend charter schools [7]. Of the states, Arizona has the most charter schools per capita with over 20% of their public schools being charter schools.

Charter Schools can also come in the form of Cyber Charters. Cyber charter schools deliver the majority of their instruction over the Internet instead of in a school building. And, like Charter Schools, they are public schools, but free of many of the rules and regulations that public schools must follow.

Magnet Schools: Magnet schools are public schools that often have a specialized function (i.e. science, technology, art, etc.). These Magnet Schools (unlike charter schools) are not open to all children. Much like many private schools, the students must test into the school.

Home Education: When a child is educated at home, or is having his education instructed or directed primarily by a parent, then this is usually referred to as Home Education or Home Schooling. Home Education has obviously been around for a very long time, but in the last 20 years the number of children being educated at home has grown tremendously. The laws relevant to Home Education differ throughout the country. In some states the parent simply needs to notify the state that the child will be educated at home. In other states the parents are not free to educate at home unless at least one parent is a certified teacher and yearly progress reports are reviewed by the state. According to the Federal Government, about 1.1 million children were Home Educated in 2003.[8]

Uncategorized School Choice: There are still some examples that do not fit well in any of the previously mentioned categories. One such example is in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In Edmonton each school principal has near total control of the school budget. That is, the principal does not need to go through some central bureaucracy to get things built or changed. This gives each school and principle more autonomy. This might be considered similar to Charter Schools, but these are traditional public schools with VERY traditional budgeting schemes.

More information on School Choice in the United States can be found at:

The ABCs of School Choice (pdf) from the Friedman Foundation
Frequently Asked Questions from School Choice Indiana
School Reform News - August 2001 edition (pdf) from The Heartland Institute
School Reform News also from The Heartland Institute

POV versus NPOV: Traditionally, school choice advocates have been on the right and school choice detractors have been on the left. So, those looking to find information to support School choice should look to these Think Tanks:

Those looking for information to oppose School Choice should look here:

Some Notes: Vouchers also exist in Vermont and Maine and have been in place since the 1800s. These programs are very small and serve only those students that live in rural areas that do not have a public school. Also, there are privately funded Voucher programs around the country. The two largest are the Children's Educational Opportunity (CEO) Foundation and the Children's Scholarship Fund.

In Ontario, Canada

Ontario is the only large province in Canada with no school choice programs. In 2003, the Conservative government introduced a tax credit worth up to 50% of tuition at any independent school in Ontario. However, the tax credit was retroactively cancelled by the subsequent Liberal government. Currently there are over 800 independent schools in Ontario. The only school choice program available to parents who wish to send their children to an independent school is a privately funded program called Children First, a program of The Fraser Institute.

For more information on school choice in Ontario:

In Chile

In Chile, there is a voucher system in which the state pays private schools directly, based on average attendance. These schools show consistently better results in standardized testing than public schools, with 35% of all students attending such schools.

External links

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 === In Ontario, Canada ===
-Ontario is the only large province in Canada with no school choice programs.  In 2003, the Conservative government introduced a tax credit worth up to 50% of tuition at any independent school in Ontario.  However, the tax credit was retroactively cancelled by the subsequent Liberal government.  Currently there are over 800 independent schools in Ontario.  The only school choice program available to parents who wish to send their children to an independent school is a privately funded program called Children First, a program of The Fraser Institute.
+Ontario is the only large province in Canada with no school choice programs.  In 2003, the Conservative government introduced a tax credit worth up to 50% of tuition at any independent school in Ontario.  However, the tax credit was retroactively cancelled by the subsequent Liberal government.  Currently there are over 800 independent schools in Ontario.  The only school choice program available to parents who wish to send their children to an independent school is a privately funded program called Children First, a program of [[Fraser_Institute|The Fraser Institute]].
 For more information on school choice in Ontario: