Opponents of School Choice Sound the Same Everywhere

With National School Choice Week fast approaching, people in Lincoln and across the state of Nebraska are talking about school choice and how it could benefit kids, parents, and teachers in our local communities. The excitement is palpable, and the future seems brighter when students and families have more options to choose from.

There are certainly those who would like to limit choice, however. They are people with personal interests in the concentration of power and resources that comes with the traditional public school district structure. They try to convince us that we already have all the choices we need and that looking for other options is somehow selfish or misguided.

Kentucky is one of the other few states that does not have charter schools, and it's interesting to see that critics of school choice in Kentucky say the exact same thing as the critics in Nebraska.

In a piece for Kentucky's WFPL News, Jacob Ryan writes, "Hargens said one district strategy to fight charter school support is pushing the idea that Jefferson County parents already have a form of school choice, a key selling point of charters.

Hargens said Jefferson County Public Schools offer an array of magnet schools, and students also have access to private schools within Jefferson County."

This is uncannily familiar to the op-ed written by Lincoln Public Schools consultant Doug Evans, entitled, "Nebraska Has Had School Choice For Years." State Senator Adam Morfeld (who received contributions from the Nebraska State Education Association teachers union) posted Doug Evans' op-ed on his Facebook page and said:

"Nebraska has had school choice for years, it is called option enrollment. Another example of our strong Nebraska public schools giving parents and students options and high quality education. I will fight hard to preserve it!"

Morfeld's passionate commentary points to another unfounded claim by school choice opponents that is commonly brought out and paraded around by those who benefit from the public school district monopoly structure: school choice "drains" public schools.

When taxpayer money for education follows the students, no money is "lost." It all goes to education. What all the hand-wringing is about is that parents get to make the decisions, not those who currently hold all the power. Again, there is no loss of money with school choice. The loss feared by school choice opponents is a loss of power over of the money. Adam Morfeld might not receive as many campaign contributions from the teachers union if the union doesn't have as much control over teacher's paychecks. Doug Evans might not be hired on as a PR consultant if LPS has to compete with other public schools that use their money more wisely. When they have to compete, they'll use their money to improve educational outcomes instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing to convince the public that they don't really want choice.

Come to the National School Choice Week celebration at the Capitol on the 28th. It's time to cut through the false messages and bring hope to the thousands of Nebraska students who need other options in order to thrive educationally. See you there!