It's Time for School Choice

The oft sounded death knell for our nation's public schools can be heard everywhere from the breakfast
conversations of Main Street diners to the committee rooms and corridors of our nation's capitol. Citing
sagging test scores and the overwhelming disparity in quality among schools, many argue that something
has gone dreadfully wrong with our nation's public schools. They fret that the very notion of the American
Dream might be founded on increasingly shaky ground.

Despite these dire words, public education is not a lost battle. Though the situation in rural and urban
areas might be considered desperate, the system is certainly salvageable. Indeed, school
choice programs might offer the nation's public schools a chance for salvation. By increasing school
choice, not only would more educational avenues be opened up for disadvantaged youths, the standard
of education offered by schools for all students would be raised. Choice programs would allow market
forces to clean-up the public schools - streamlining them, making them more efficient, and perhaps even
telling schools unable to shape up to "ship out."

However, critics argue vehemently that school choice programs essentially mean an abandonment of
traditional public education. Instead of market forces raising the level of all schools, they fear that choice
programs would further stratify our nation's schools, widening the gap between the privileged and the
disadvantaged. To the opposition, school choice programs are little more than cleverly dressed up
programs promising hope to disadvantaged members of society but, instead, merely entrenching the wellconnected and well-informed deeper into their positions of luxury.

School choice programs are not equivalent to the sleight of hand tricks of a street side magician,
however. If properly executed, they offer our nation's public schools a dramatic and perhaps final
opportunity to save themselves from the abyss into which they are currently heading. The fact is that
school choice programs can work, and, more importantly, they do work. Just ask parents, teachers, and
administrators from the White Plains, New York school system.
White Plains, a suburban town about thirty minutes from New York City, is the perfect testing ground for a
school choice program. The district possesses a diverse student body - an eclectic mix of middle-to-upper
class, white students; a sizable minority population; and an increasingly large contingency of Spanish-

speaking immigrants. With town demographics in mind, the district implemented a limited school choice
program seven years ago in order to stave off the effects of an increasingly stratified school district. Since
that time, the program has had many positive effects and has been met with rave reviews from parents
and school officials alike.

Far from merely giving a selected few the privilege to attend the school of their choice, White Plains has
essentially given a universal choice opportunity to all its students. Remarkably, over ninety percent of
students have been assigned to their first-choice schools and over ninety-eight percent of students have
been assigned to one of their top two choices since the program's inception. Additionally, the program
has increased diversity district wide. In fact, student populations at each school building are within two
percentage points of the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic mixture of the town at large.

The district has been able to deliver this incredible placement rate because of the program's success in
improving the quality of all the district's schools. No one school has been perceived as significantly
stronger or weaker than the rest, and, thus, no undue stress has been created by the overwhelming
demand for a few schools. How has this been accomplished? It has been accomplished by shifting the
burden of attracting students to the schools themselves. The program has forced teachers and
administrators to better define what makes their school strong, what sets it apart, and what makes it a
proper environment in which to educate children.

Adding to the success of the program has been the amount of parental involvement attained. Prior to the
start of the program, school administrators set up the Parents Information Center-a gathering place where
parents could receive information about the program in one-on-one meetings and arrange to visit schools
within the district. Administrators highly publicized the center within the district, saturating the town with
newspaper announcements and flyers - even going so far as to distribute information in both Spanish and
English and advertising door-to-door in some neighborhoods.

In return for their effort, they have received a parental response few thought possible. No longer mere
spectators, parents are in the school buildings, actively involved and asking pointed questions of teachers
and administrators. Parents feel like an integral part of the process and feel truly welcome in principals
offices and classrooms throughout the district. As a result, almost sixty percent of White Plains children
had a parent who made a school visit prior to making their school selection.

The success of the White Plains program lies in the fact that it has successfully woven the positive
elements of traditional choice ideology with solutions to traditional choice objections. It actively seeks to
give every student a fair chance at education, placing accountability squarely on the shoulders of
educators and power in the hands of parents - where it belongs. Thus, it stands as a shining example of
how school choice initiatives can positively benefit school districts and, more importantly, students across
the country. Done correctly, school choice is able to preserve those things we love most about our public
schools while at the same time fostering a bold, new educational climate of involved, contemplative
parents and educators. That's a future I think we would all like to see.

How to Cite this Page

MLA Citation:
"Vouchers and School Choice - It's Time for School Choice."123HelpMe.com. 12 Jan 2015
<http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=10423>.