Parents know best: Kentucky's quest for school choice

By Jim Waters & Joel Peyton

Executive Summary

When assessing the performance of our state's public schools, a popular response by Kentuckians has often been: "Thank God for Mississippi." However, even Mississippi ranks ahead of Kentucky when it comes to the amount of educational liberty enjoyed by parents. Why is this?

Relatively few Kentuckians fully understand the benefits that school choice offers to their children. This lack of understanding does not plague parents of means who have always had the ability to select better educational alternatives. Such parents are able to move into better school districts and work "the system" that favors the well-informed or pay for private-school tuition.

But for families without means, school choice advocates that parents - not addresses, zip codes, education officials or socioeconomic backgrounds - should determine where children attend school. And it comes in various forms, including:

Charter schools. Particularly worthwhile in urban areas, charter schools are innovative public schools that operate without the burdensome regulations forced upon many school districts by teachers unions and state education departments.

Vouchers. An education voucher is a government-issued certificate - much like the GI Bill was to returning World War II veterans - that allows parents to choose a different school for their children.

Scholarship tax credits. This school-choice program allows parents to obtain a tax refund for the amount of tuition they pay to send their children to public or private school outside the district in which they reside. Such a policy enables taxpayers - not just parents - to participate in making scholarships available to needy students.

Open-enrollment agreements. Such arrangements allow parents to choose - and the state to fund - a public school for their children outside the district in which they reside. Kentucky law currently specifies that districts may enter into such contractual arrangements and determine the conditions under which transfers may be permitted. As long as bureaucrats - and not parents - control these policies, many children will remain locked in failing schools.

Home schooling. At present, this is the only form of school choice available to, and completely controlled by, Kentucky's parents. As a result, parents have been removing their children from the state's public-school system faster than parents in any other state.

In nearly every other state, school choice is gaining momentum because the ensuing competition it induces shines a brighter light on failing public schools. As a result, public schools improve and children receive a better education. The same trend must soon emerge in Kentucky or its children will not be able to obtain the quality education they need to compete effectively in the 21st century global workplace.

Read more