Message of the Day: School Choice

The Problem:

Currently, schools get students and funding regardless of how well they perform. This public school monopoly has not served many children well for at least a decade. Sadly, the education bureaucracy and teachers’ unions often try to keep parents from fully accessing different educational opportunities.

Parents strive to send their children to safe schools where they will get the educational opportunities they need to compete in a global economy. Unfortunately, not all parents can afford to move to a better school district, or send their children to private schools.

The CSE Position:

CSE believes that choice and competition improve products and services. Giving parents the choice among the widest possible array of schools will provide these schools with the incentive to provide the best education for all students — regardless of where they live or what their parents earn.

A few of CSE’s youngest volunteer activists rally for school choice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

CSE supports policies that will increase competition, innovation and diversity in the education system. This includes vouchers, limited choice programs, charter schools and tax credits.

High tech jobs pay 85% more than average — need well-educated students to fill these jobs and keep America in the lead. School choice will make sure our children have the necessary skills for the New Economy.

Children get a better education through school choice.

Parents who can afford to move to an area with quality public schools, or enroll their child in private school, have already exercised school choice. Parents without such means are forced to send their child to a school assigned by the government — regardless of what the parents think of that school. Consider America’s system of universities, where choice has created high-quality education of many different kinds for anyone interested in obtaining it.

School choice works where it’s being tried:

·Voucher students in Milwaukee performed better in math and reading, while voucher students in Cleveland performed better in math, reading and language.

School choice improves regular public schools by encouraging innovation and competition:

·When parents began applying for vouchers in Cleveland, the public school system offered applicants a chance to place their children in magnet schools and enrichment programs.

·In Milwaukee, the public school system seeks to retain students by advertising that they will pay for a reading tutor for any child who does not learn to read in regular classes.