When school choice is lauded by public school administrators, you know that school choice has gone "mainstream." In a letter to the Hunterdon County Democrat, D. Carol A. Fredericks, superintendent of the Franklin Twp., Hunterdon County school district, trumpeted her districts implementation of New Jersey's School Choice program. Under this program, parents can apply to move their child to a public school of their choice within a 20 mile radius of their child's home district school.
I left these comments:
New Jersey's school choice program is a laudable start toward empowering parents to determine the course of their own children's education. I commend Dr. Fredericks for seizing the opportunity the program offers to expand parental choices. Such empowerment is morally and logically the inalienable right of the parents, who brought the child into the world and know the child best.
But it is only a start. Real school choice means recognizing the rights of parents to opt out of the government school system altogether, and pursue private options unfettered by the ball and chain of education taxes and heavy-handed bureaucratic standards.
I laid out such a plan in my article for The Objective Standard. My plan would not only liberate parents to spend their own money as they judge best, but also open wide the gates of private educational opportunities for children of poor families and other worthy but under-served children. Here, in my view, is what real school choice looks like: Toward a Free Market in Education: School Vouchers or Tax Credits.
I might add that Governor Christie is on record as favoring universal school choice, as he told the American Federation for Children 3 years ago.
Related Reading:
Modern-Day George Wallaces in Reverse
Parent Trigger Laws Indicate Growing Strength of the Parental School Choice Movement
School Choice is About Freedom, Not "Union-Busting"
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