It’s heartwarming to read American news about school choice. With the pandemic showing that health costs are going to be a priority for many years to come, other social spending costs are being probed for belt-tightening. Education is being examined — not only for efficiencies, but because alternative models of delivery are popping up and gaining favor at the legislative level.
And the question is being asked: Should the government be the provider, in near-monopoly terms, of education to children? In such a top-down, bureaucratic system, each layer creams off their share before the beneficiary, the child, gets any benefit from the ed dollar.
This latest article from Education Week notes progress on the school choice front. https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/covid-19-may-energize-push-for-school-choice-in-states-where-that-leads-is-unclear/2021/01
In the first weeks of 2021 one-third of American state legislatures are considering such moves as:
– tax-credit scholarships
– education savings accounts (ESAs)
– increasing public charter schools
– support for microschools (learning pods, pandemic pods . . .)
– Covid special relief funds to assist families with computers, etc. for online learning
In political science language we can see legislatures shifting to “governance” of education, which is funding, regulating, overseeing and auditing education providers. Through family choice provisions all kinds of new innovations can develop, good programs will thrive and poor programs will be defunded.
Of course, there are detractors, including the militant Badass Teachers Association, not a union, but active in all states, with organizational capacity and reach. They oppose choice, accountability and testing.
In Canada, we need more information on family choice in education and not be detracted by those who may rise in fervent, self-interested opposition.
[posted on my Facebook, Educhatter post of 20 Jan ’21]