Promisingly, 15–20 percent of union workers in education resigned their memberships last year.
Most states provide at least some support for parents who choose to send their child to a private school, such as tax credits, education savings accounts, or vouchers. Historically, this has not been a partisan issue. Among the states that spend the highest percentage of their education funding on choice programs, Florida and Indiana are strongly Republican, Vermont and Maine are strongly Democratic, and Arizona and Wisconsin are split.
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In many states, however, choice programs are limited in the types of students they can serve and in how much public money parents can spend on the school of their choice. As a result, only a minuscule amount of government education funding is expended on any program outside of the traditional neighborhood public school. (READ MORE: The Biden Administration’s Title IX Revisions Provoke Backlash From Left and Right)
But that’s changing.
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West Virginia, Arizona, Iowa, Utah, and Arkansas have all recently passed universal school choice bills that offer programs to all students. According to school choice advocate Corey A. DeAngelis, similar bills are moving, or likely to move, in Oklahoma, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. (A majority of lawmakers in Wyoming have also signed on to full school choice, but it is currently being blocked by the Republican House speaker.)
School choice is popular. Even in Democratic-controlled states, lawmakers have not — yet, at least — rolled back private school programs. In Michigan, where private-school choice programs are unconstitutional, about a quarter of students still want choice, attending public schools other than the one assigned to them based on their home address — either a charter school or one in a nearby district. The state’s new Democratic legislature, the first in forty years, has not signaled an interest in restricting these choices.
School choice is also effective: EdChoice, an education-reform nonprofit, found that the vast majority of studies on educational vouchers and tax credits show that choice results in significant learning gains for students, as well as such benefits as increased parental satisfaction and less bullying of students.
There are two main obstacles to expanding school choice: one is the traditional public school establishment, and the other is teachers unions. But the latter’s power and influence are gradually being gutted across the nation.
Why? Because of union choice.
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