From Deseret News archives:
Choice does improve schooling
Analyses of student achievement indicate that school choice leads to higher levels of learning in various parts of the United States and other countries. Better studies show stronger and more consistent effects, and no study points to substantially poorer performance of choice schools.
Surveys show that parents most often choose private and public charter schools with academic standards superior to regular public schools. Parents are as adept as education experts in evaluating the academic offerings. To meet parents' desires for such offerings, charter schools are expanding their numbers and enrollments.
Required new achievement reporting in all 50 states helps parents pinpoint failing schools and choose the best school for their children. Unlike regular schools, moreover, schools of choice that fail to attract parents must close, which leaves the successful schools of choice to prosper and further enlarge opportunities.
School choice is also effective among special-needs students with physical and mental problems such as those in Florida's McKay Scholarship program. More than 90 percent of parents of McKay children were satisfied with their chosen schools, far more than other parents of other special-needs students in non-chosen schools.
Depending on their own preferences, McKay parents can choose between schools that focus on a particular disability or schools that integrate children with and without disabilities. Parent surveys also show that McKay students suffer far less harassment and physical attacks than their peers attending non-chosen public schools.
Comments
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