Is School Choice Advantageous for Our Students?

Economic empowerment today is somewhat linked inextricably to education. This simply means that Congress has the opportunity to give tens of thousands of America's most disadvantaged children a much brighter future.

School choice measures before Congress give parents the option to send their children to public, private, or parochial schools of choice. Due to the growing body of research supporting choice, it is certain that inner-city children will benefit from these measures. The research focuses on the impact of choice on a range of outcomes such as grades, standardized test scores, dropout and graduation rates, college attendance, and future wage gains.

I would suggest that lawmakers and educators use the research comparing the performance of students in private and religious schools with their public school counterparts to promote real change in the educational systems.

Because of the swelling popularity of school choice, proposals before Congress will give inner-city low-income parents the chance to send their children to the public, private, or parochial schools of their choice. These measure will empower parents to remove their children from violent or failing schools and send them to schools in which they will be able to learn.