Many private schools remained open while public school systems across the country closed in-person learning for entire semesters, even years, and remote learning lifted the cover on what public school kids are actually learning – and not learning.
Private schools across the country reported witnessing a substantial increase in enrollment over the past two years, while public school enrollment fell on a national scale. Between fall 2019 and fall 2020, total public school enrollment dropped 3% nationwide, removing a decade of steady growth, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Meanwhile, total enrollment in independent private schools saw a net growth of 1.7% between 2020 and 2022, NPR reported in December.
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Private school choice, or providing all families with alternatives to the public schools they’re zoned for, can be expanded through multiple avenues at the state level, including school voucher programs, tax-credit scholarship programs, individual tuition tax credit programs and deductions, and Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). Charter schools, magnet schools and homeschooling are also forms of school choice programs.
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Supporters of school choice, especially private school choice, claim it gives families more freedom in deciding their child’s education regardless of socioeconomic status. Opponents like teachers’ unions and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argue against the privatization of schools and take issue with using public funds for private school tuition.
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Dozens of elected Democrats at the state and national level, who have publicly slammed or notably objected to private school choice measures, have personally benefited in some way from private schooling.
Corey A. DeAngelis, national director of research at the American Federation for Children and executive director at Educational Freedom Institute, argues that private school choice should be available for every student, not just the wealthy.
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"When these politicians get called out on this hypocrisy, they’ll often try to defend themselves by saying that other families do indeed already have school choice since they can simply just choose to pay for private school tuition out of pocket if they want," DeAngelis told Fox News Digital in a statement.
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"To them, apparently, only rich people should have school choice. Their argument is even worse than that, because the taxpayer is already funding the education of the child. That same money should follow the child to the education provider that best meets their needs."
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"Low-income families are not forced to take their food stamp dollars to residentially assigned government grocery stores," he continued. "Instead, families can take their taxpayer-funded food stamp dollars to the grocery store of their choosing. We should apply the same logic to K-12 education and fund students, not systems."
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