Educating wisely: Why school choice is imperative

Since 2020, education has played a large role in political and cultural discussions in the United States. The conversation surrounding the topic has grown more polarized and more prominent in the past four years. The pandemic lockdowns allowed parents a rare opportunity to see what their children were being taught, and they were not pleased with what they saw. 

These glimpses into what modern public education is like helped many parents realize that sending their children to public school was a risk they did not feel comfortable taking, which resulted in increased conversations about private and homeschooling options. It is past time for states across the nation to implement school choice. 

According to EdChoice, “School choice allows public education funds to follow students to the schools or services that best fit their needs — whether that’s to a public school, private school, charter school, home school or any other learning environment families choose.” 

Basically, school choice allows for parents to be able to educate their child how they want and be able to afford it. The future of our country depends on the availability of this option.   

Public schools have always seemed to be at odds with Christians, whether shown by the “Scopes Monkey Trial” in 1925 or the removal of prayer in public schools in 1962. Things have remarkably gotten worse recently, however, as the New York Post comments “American education has been thoroughly corrupted.”   

While there have been some attempts to fight back, such as the Parental Rights in Education bill in Florida, public schools are still largely a haven for the teaching of radical ideas to impressionable children.

Some parents don’t believe the problem is that big of a deal or that their children can be light in a dark place. While this may be true for older children, it is not a good idea to willingly send your children to a place where they will have everything you have taught them torn to shreds eight hours a day. 

To quote Voddie Baucham, “We cannot continue to send our children to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans.”

Other parents want to send their children to a private school that matches their values or to even homeschool their children, but they find themselves unable to afford it. This is why school choice is so important. 

With the implementation of school choice, parents who want freedom to send their kids to the school of their choice will have an eased financial burden. Educational funds from state governments should be used to help provide for many kinds of education, not just for public schools. Parents should be able to have a choice. 

Hughes is an opinion writer for the Liberty Champion