School choice: a progress report.

• Author: Lips, Dan
• Position: Education

REFORMS THAT GIVE parents greater ability to choose their children's schools continue to expand across the nation. Just a decade ago, only a few school choice initiatives existed. Today, a dozen states and the District of Columbia have private school choice programs. Eight states--Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wisconsin--enacted new school choice programs or expanded existing ones.

As of 2006:

* Seven states--Arizona, Florida, Maine, Ohio, Vermont, Utah, and Wisconsin--and the District of Columbia have taxpayer-funded scholarships to help students attend private elementary or secondary schools of choice.

* Seven states--Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island--have tax credits or deductions for education expenses, including private school tuition, or incentives for contributions to scholarship programs.

* Forty states and the District of Columbia have charter school laws.

* Public school choice within or between districts is guaranteed in 15 states.

* Dual enrollment programs exist in 38 states. In 18 states, they are mandatory to allow qualifying high school students to attend college classes to receive higher education credits.

* Home schooling is legal in every state.

This progress follows a 15-year trend of reforms to give parents greater ability to choose their children's schools. In all, 10 states now have publicly funded scholarship programs to help students gain access to private school options. This year, an estimated 150,000 students will participate in publicly funded tuition scholarship programs across the U.S. In all, over 1,000,000 students are attending more than 3,600 charter schools. In addition, over 1,000,000 families have opted to forego publicly financed schools in order to educate their offspring at home.

The following is an overview of the measures enacted to expand or create K-12 private school choice options:

Arizona. During the 2006 legislative session, lawmakers created three new private K-12 school choice options. The first is a corporate scholarship tax credit that allows businesses to take a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for contributions to nonprofit organizations that fund private school scholarships for low-income students. The cap is $10,000,000 annually with a provision increasing it by 20% each year until 2010, when $21,000,000 will be available for tax credit contributions.

The second new option is a private school scholarship program for youngsters with disabilities--$2,500,000 will be available annually for qualifying special education students to attend private schools of choice.

The third initiative is a first-in-the-nation school voucher program providing $2,500,000 annually for tuition scholarships for kids who have been placed in foster care. Foster children face many challenges in life and the classroom. Research suggests that, compared with the general population...