No Choice

Originally published in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

In a recent Inquirer article, Donna Cooper, executive director of Children First, stated that “the overwhelming majority of parents choose public schools.” Her use of the word choose is flagrantly wrong. Public school district catchment areas dictate the academic future of Pennsylvania youth. Where they live determines where they go to school. Sadly, students and families — especially those living in low-income communities — have limited educational choices. Without open enrollment or educational choice, many Pennsylvania kids — especially the 200,000 trapped in the state’s chronically lowest-performing schools — lack the ability and resources to find a school that better serves their academic needs.

Pennsylvania families are in dire need of educational alternatives. Recent polling asked voters to grade Pennsylvania’s K-12 schools. Nearly two-thirds gave Pennsylvania public schools a C-grade or below. Also, if money weren’t an issue, about seven in 10 said they would enroll in a private school; only 19% chose their neighborhood public school. That’s far from “an overwhelming majority.” Cooper should ask herself: Do Pennsylvanians willingly “choose” to send their kids to schools that fail to educate, or did they lack genuine choice in the first place?

Read more at The Philadelphia Inquirer.