A Brief History of School Choice: 1955 to now
By Carlon Howard, New Leaders Council Rhode Island
This article is the first piece in a four-part series that examines the modern school choice movement in America. School choice is often a politically divisive topic that leaves many education reformers conflicted. On one end, school choice may be the answer for many families who feel their children are being deprived of a quality education. On the other end, it may prove to be a public resource drain that is contributing to the privatization of education. School choice may be able to provide a more immediate solution to educational disparities, but has the potential to create devastating long term consequences without sufficient accountability measures and equitable funding policies.
In an effort to thoroughly cover this topic, this series is divided into the following pieces: 1) the history of school choice; 2) an analysis of dominant school choice policy; 3) a review of recent research on effectiveness; and 4) a discussion of the potential long term effects of school choice on the American public education system. This series includes online articles collected from various sources in order to help concretize the relevant issues with school choice in public education. This series, also, aims to help readers gradually develop a well-rounded understanding of the debates on modern school choice and what role it plays in the future of education. As we as a nation determine how to expand educational opportunities for our most underserved youth, it is necessary our citizenry has a foundational overview of the major issues in education. We’ll start with a historical context to frame our thinking later in the series.
In1980, Milton Friedman, an internationally-acclaimed economist and intellectual, hosted “What’s Wrong with our Schools,” the sixth installment of the PBS docuseries Free to Choose. In the opening scene, viewers see students, mostly black and high school-aged, enter a metal detector in a single file line as security guards and armed officers overlook. As the camera jumps around, the audience witnesses school officials waving hand held scanners across the bodies of these young individuals. In reference to what we’ve just witnessed, Friedman comments:
“Isn’t that awful. What a way for kids to have to go to school through metal detectors and be searched. What can they conceivably learn under such circumstances? Nobody is happy with this kind of education.”
Friedman goes on to describe the last one room school house in Vermont as well as a predominantly white suburban school suggesting these schools give parents the power to choose. He holds that parents in low-income neighborhoods have no choices for a quality education. Friedman states:
“The people who lose most from this system are the poor, the disadvantaged in large cities. They are simply stuck. They have no alternative.”
Many often regard Milton Friedman as the father of the modern school choice movement; however, it’s important to note that the concept of school choice has a complicated history that extends well beyond Friedman. For the purposes of this article, we’re focusing on the school choice topics that often dominate today’s public discourse on education, vouchers and charter schools.
In 1955, Friedman released the essay, “The Role of Government in Education.” He essentially argues for the application of free market principles to the education sector, and more specifically, he advocates for tax dollars following the student as opposed to public schools receiving a blanket amount of funding. Friedman proposes that government offers families vouchers they can use at any approved educational entity of their choosing, for profit or non-profit, that meets a minimum threshold in terms of standards and content.
Friedman never mentions charter schools specifically in his essay because they don’t appear until later in history. In 1974, Ray Budde, a University of Massachusetts professor, presents the foundational concepts of charter schools in his paper “Education by Charter.” Budde was interested in the reorganization of existing schools and wanted to grant teachers greater control and authority. Underlying this idea of teacher-ran schools was a sense of innovation and a determination to improve public schools.
Budde’s ideas didn’t really gain momentum until his paper was published in 1988, five years after the release of “A Nation at Risk,” a seminal report on the state of education in America. “A Nation at Risk” was a condemning indictment of America’s public schools that set the stage for government initiatives aimed at improving our education system. Eventually, Budde’s charter concept made it’s way to Al Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers. With Shanker’s help, the idea of charter schools reached several state legislatures in the early 1990s with Minnesota being credited as the home state of America’s first charter school.
Over the past several decades, vouchers and charter schools have experienced great support and resistance. Many argue that charter schools in particular have strayed away from its early roots. With the confirmation of Betsy Devos as Education Secretary, the debate about school choice has grown even more tense considering her vocal support for voucher programs and charter schools. Currently, 27 states and Washington, D.C. offer some sort of publicly-funded private education program, and 43 states and Washington, D.C. have charter school laws on the books. Only about 5 percent of all public school students attend charter schools, but that number is significantly higher in certain cities such as New Orleans which is moving to a virtually all-charter school system.
There is a genuine need for innovation in education to improve the educational outcomes of our most underserved youth. America’s public education system historically has disenfranchised students from marginalized communities from access to a quality education. By understanding the history of the school choice movement, advocates can begin to piece together even more equitable and innovative approaches to schooling that’s grounded in lessons learned from the past. As the school choice movement grows, it begs the question, what is the role of local, state, and federal government in all this? In part two of this series, we will critically analyze the dominant policy on school choice.
Carlon Howard is the executive director of Breakthrough Providence, a nonprofit organization that works to expand college access for underserved students and build the next generation of educators. He is a 2017 NLC-RI Fellow and can be reached at choward@breakthroughprovidence.org.
