School choice advocates argue that if parents had more options then schools would be doing better. Unfortunately this is a disingenuous argument meant to see their true goal, which is privatization.
In our district now if a child is attending an F or D graded school then they can use and opportunity scholarship and the district will pay to send them to a public school that is rated higher. The problem is good kids that leave continue to do good and kids that have been struggling continue to struggle too.
Private schools and charter schools do not have some magical wand that negates the effects of poverty. But if they are allowed to siphon scarce resources from public schools then public schools and the children who attend them will suffer.
Furthermore charter schools and private schools don’t have the same accountability that public schools have and as a group don’t do any better.
We all know the true goal is privatization and since that is the case why don’t they just embrace that and sell it? Why do they hide behind disingenuous catch phrases? The end game can’t be school choice just for choices sake.
School choice will not mitigate poverty and until we put systems in place to do so we will continue to struggle.
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