You don’t have to be a far-right nationalist to believe in giving children access to an education that works for them. Anyone who values Americans’ right to chart their own course has a stake in this school choice movement.
My family left the Philippines to seek the American Dream when I was 1. Part of that American Dream was giving my sister and me the best education possible. They found a learning environment that worked for us, and they sacrificed a lot financially for us to attend that school until it became too much for us to afford.
Public charter schools were our next best option, and it worked for us at the time. It provided my sister and me with opportunities we would not have had otherwise, setting us on a path toward academic and personal achievement. Still, it was imperfect because of state requirements, including standardized testing.
My parents could have continued sending us to a private school or even another school if we had access to school-choice scholarship programs.
Nonetheless, having access to different learning options outside the traditional public schools truly saved us because they did not work for us, no matter how good or bad.
School choice is the education solution that proponents of Freedom Conservatism seek. The concept is based on granting families the freedom to chase their pursuit of happiness by giving their children an education that works for them, free of government constraints keeping them stuck in their traditional public schools.
This Freedom Conservative principle benefits everyone regardless of political views, and the power of school choice cannot be overstated.
Families nationwide are making life-changing decisions about their children’s education. With the spread of school choice, more families can access education options tailored to their needs.
I have seen firsthand too many families stuck in failing schools in regions and districts where school choice scholarship programs and learning environments have struggled to get passed. In these cases, low-income families suffer the most.
Unfortunately, some states are not adhering to this Freedom Conservative idea.
In one state last year, I fought to ensure low-income students would continue to have access to the state’s sole school choice program after its opponents refused to expand it. The restrictions on the program led to one school getting shut down.
In addition, the state’s largest school district, which has a strong teachers’ union presence, is looking to end charter school sponsorships, which will, unfortunately, likely lead to more students returning to their traditional public schools. Unions often lobby against school choice, whether it is school choice scholarship programs, private schools or charter schools.
Many people opposed to these programs are concerned that it will defund public schools. It is up to us school choice advocates to tell these opponents of school choice that this idea will benefit everyone and that it will even improve all forms of education.
We also need to tell them that these students are deprived of the opportunity to escape environments that do not meet their needs, often leading to poor academic performance. This resistance to school choice perpetuates educational inequality and stifles the potential of children.
School choice has transformed many lives, including my own. It is an idea for every student in our country that is indeed the civil rights issue of our time. My story and the work done by many school choice advocates prove it is not just part of a far-right-wing agenda.
