An overwhelming majority of American students attend public schools. But that number is falling. In part, that’s because in more than half of states, parents can now use public money to educate their kids — at home, online, in private schools. This year, a million students used some kind of private education voucher, more than double the figure from four years earlier, according to new research from EdChoice, a group that supports private-school choice and tracks the sector.
The result is a growing movement of choose-your-own-adventure education. Parents are permitted to find any program that they think fits their beliefs and their kids’ needs. Yet it’s unclear how, or whether, accountability or standards will be enforced outside traditional schools.
What’s driving this change? The pandemic prompted many families to reconsider how their children learn. Republican lawmakers embraced private-school choice as part of a broader push for parental rights. (They also see the issue as a way to appeal to young parents — often Black and Latino — who are critical of how public schools serve their children.) And teachers are reporting intense burnout, with some leaving public schools to open small businesses that can accept these vouchers.
I wrote about these “microschools” in a story The Times published this morning. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain why parents are opting out of public schools — and what it might mean for how this country educates all of its children.
I recently spent a week in the Atlanta area, talking to parents who pulled their children out of public schools to attend microschools. Some have as few as six students. While most are run by career educators, they don’t have to be: The sector is unregulated, and anyone can open a microschool.
Next year, Georgia will start offering $6,500, through an education savings account, to families who withdraw their children from schools in the bottom 25 percent academically. Some parents I met hope to spend that money on the microschools, home-schooling supplies, therapy or tutoring.
A few were Christian conservatives who want the Bible taught as history. One mother complained about L.G.B.T.Q. public school educators and lamented what she said was an emphasis on gender and race.
But more common were parents who had nothing against public school except that their children failed to thrive there. Nicole Timmons said her daughter, Sienna, 15, was not moving forward academically. Sienna now attends C.H.O.I.C.E. Preparatory Academy, a microschool in Gwinnett County. It serves an almost all-Black student body. On an April afternoon there, I saw about 40 students, ages 8 to 17, working in small groups on Greek and Latin word roots and building simple electromagnetic motors.
The boom in nontraditional education comes with a new political vocabulary. Conservatives who think the government should give parents money for these programs no longer talk much about vouchers. Now they praise money sent directly to families in education savings accounts and buzz about “entrepreneurship” and “permissionless education” — no teachers’ unions or curriculum mandates, and far less standardized testing.
Little accountability
As parents spend state money, the marketplace for private education is growing — with few quality checks. Teachers may not need to be certified or even hold college degrees. Facilities may not be inspected. The schools can teach whatever they like. Some states have approved questionable home-schooling expenses, such as game consoles, trampolines, snack food, televisions and theme park passes. Vouchers from recent decades showed underwhelming academic results.
Private-school choice programs are popular with parents of disabled children. Public school administrators sometimes suggest vouchers to parents when their children are having difficulty, especially with behavior. But accepting a voucher often means enrolling in a program that is not required to follow federal disability law. Private educators often don’t provide on-site therapies.
Advocates for private-school choice embrace the lack of regulation. They say the market will correct itself as parents withdraw their children from mediocre programs. “We’re in the midst of a change on what we mean by accountability,” said Robert Enlow, chief executive of EdChoice, a right-leaning group.
Enlow and others envision a future in which all parents, regardless of income, can spend their children’s per-pupil public school funding on à la carte services — from private school tuition to music lessons to educational software. Even school districts could become players in this marketplace, selling seats in advanced courses to home-schooled students whose parents are not equipped to teach Spanish or physics.
They are pitching this vision as one that can appeal to equity-minded liberals, too. Diana Lopez, whose son attended a microschool this year after struggling in public kindergarten, had generally voted for Georgia Democrats. But their party opposes education savings accounts. “I did have to start considering again who’s representing us,” she told me. “Are they on the same page?”
Democrats and public-education supporters point out that many of the Republican-led states offering vouchers spend comparatively little on their schools anyway — so it’s no wonder parents want out.
For now, the percentage of American students using vouchers is small — about one in every 50 children. But it adds another challenge for traditional public schools. Nationwide, they’ve seen declining enrollment because of low birthrates and the appeal of other options. Now the new laws could turn private-school choice into a rival model, mirroring the rise of charter schools.
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The Tony Awards were last night. Here’s a recap of the big winners:
Best new musical: “The Outsiders,” based on the classic young adult novel.
Best new play: “Stereophonic,” which is about a band making an album.
Best musical revival: Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” completed a four-decade journey from flop to hit and won the prize.
