Editing School choice (section)

== Debate ==

=== Support ===

==== Parental influence ====
School choice gives parents more influence over what students learn (e.g., academics vs trades) and the learning environment (e.g., discipline, uniforms, extra-curriculars).<ref name="Davies">{{cite journal |last=Davies |first=Scott |author2=Janice Aurini |date=Dec 2011 |title=Exploring School Choice in Canada: Who Chooses What and Why |journal=Canadian Public Policy |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=459–477 |doi=10.1353/cpp.2011.0047 |s2cid=153710232}}</ref><ref name="Gulosino">{{cite journal |last=Gulosino |first=Charisse |author2=Christopher Lubienski |date=May 2011 |title=School's strategic responses to competition in segregated urban areas: Patterns in school locations in Metropolitan Detroit |url=http://www.redalyc.org/src/inicio/ArtPdfRed.jsp?iCve=275019735013 |journal=Education Policy Analysis Archives |volume=19 |issue=13 |page=13 |doi=10.14507/epaa.v19n13.2011 |access-date=17 October 2012|doi-access=free }}</ref>

==== Student achievement ====
[[Caroline Hoxby]] suggested that competition among schools increases student achievement.<ref name="Hoxby">{{cite journal |last=Hoxby |first=Caroline M. |year=2003 |title=School Choice and School Productivity Could School Choice Be a Tide that Lifts All Boats? |url=https://www.nber.org/chapters/c10091 |journal=The Economics of School Choice |pages=287–342 |doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226355344.003.0009 |access-date=31 October 2012}}</ref> Supporters say this would level the playing field by broadening opportunities for low-income students—particularly minorities—to attend high-quality schools that would otherwise be accessible only to higher-income families.<ref name="Davies" /><ref>{{cite news |date=2004-08-29 |title=12 million languish in failing public schools, report says |newspaper=The Washington Times |url=http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040829-114519-1566r.htm |access-date=2008-08-27}}</ref>

==== Competition ====
Voucher supporters argue that choice creates competition between schools, and that failing schools can lose students and close. Competition encourages schools to create innovative programs, become more responsive to parental demands, and increase student achievement.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lubienski|first=Christopher|author2=Jack Dougherty |title=Mapping Educational Opportunity: Spatial Analysis and School Choices|journal=American Journal of Education|date=August 2009|volume=115|issue=4|pages=485–491|doi=10.1086/599783|s2cid=145098388}}</ref> Competition can help parents influence their child's education. Parents can also punish ineffective schools by transferring their children elsewhere.<ref>Lessard, Claude and Andre Brassard.  "Education Governance in Canada, 1990–2003: Trends and Significance" ''Canadian Perspectives on the Sociology of Education''. Ed. Cynthia 	Levine-Rasky. Don Wells: Oxford University Press, 2009. 255–274.</ref> Traditional public schools also have to compete, although even the least effective are rarely closed.<ref name="Bosetti">{{cite journal|last=Bosetti|first=Lynn|title=Determinants of School Choice: Understanding How Parents Choose Elementary Schools in Alberta|journal=Journal of Education Policy|date=June 2004|volume=19|issue=4|pages=387–405|doi=10.1080/0268093042000227465}}</ref>

==== Cost effectiveness ====
Studies undertaken by the [[Cato Institute]] and other American [[Libertarianism in the United States|libertarian]] and [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] think tanks claim that privately run education costs less and produces superior outcomes.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cato.org/new/09-03/09-02-03r.html |title=$5000 School Vouchers Would Give Most Students Access to Quality Private Schools |date=2003-09-02 |access-date=2008-08-27 |publisher=Cato Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080814125444/http://www.cato.org/new/09-03/09-02-03r.html |archive-date=2008-08-14 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Arizona">{{Cite web |last=Murray |first=Vicki |date=2005-03-01 |title=Arizona Private Schools Half as Expensive as Public Schools |url=https://heartland.org/opinion/arizona-private-schools-half-as-expensive-as-public-schools/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |publisher=[[Heartland Institute]]}}</ref><ref name="wapolicy">{{Cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/Centers/education/policynote/04_milewski_publiceducation.html |title=K-12 Public Education Spending in Washington |access-date=2008-08-27 |publisher=Washington Policy |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821125957/http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/Centers/education/policynote/04_milewski_publiceducation.html |archive-date=August 21, 2008 }}</ref>

==== Mental health ====
One study reported that states that adopted charter school laws experienced a decline in adolescent suicides, and that private schooling reduces the likelihood of adults reporting mental health issues.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=DeAngelis|first1=Corey A.|last2=Dills|first2=Angela K.|date=2020-12-03|title=The effects of school choice on mental health|journal=School Effectiveness and School Improvement|volume=32|issue=2|pages=326–344|doi=10.1080/09243453.2020.1846569|issn=0924-3453|doi-access=|s2cid=149669625 }}</ref> School choice supporters claim that it can reduce bullying since families could choose to send their kids to a different school if they are experiencing bullying.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-09-26|title=Can School Choice Keep Children Safe from Bullying?|url=https://www.edchoice.org/engage/can-school-choice-keep-children-safe-from-bullying/|access-date=2021-02-21|website=EdChoice|language=en-US}}</ref>

==== Rights ====
According to The Organisation Internationale pour le Droit à l'Education et la Liberté d'Enseignement (OIDEL; {{langx|en|International Organization for the Right to Education and Freedom of Education}}<ref>{{cite web | url= https://translate.google.com/?sl=fr&tl=en&text=Organisation%20Internationale%20pour%20le%20Droit%20%C3%A0%20l%27Education%20et%20la%20Libert%C3%A9%20d%27Enseignement%20(OIDEL)&op=translate  | title = '[Google Translate]' results for: ["Organisation Internationale pour le Droit à l'Education et la Liberté d'Enseignement"] | quote=  International Organization for the Right to Education and [[freedom of education|Freedom of Education]]  | access-date= April 18, 2021 }}</ref>) the [[right to education]] is a [[human right]] and parents should be able to choose a school for their children without discrimination on the basis of finances. To advance freedom of education, OIDEL promotes a greater parity between public and private schooling systems.<ref>{{cite web|title=OIDEL – A Presentation|url=http://www.oidel.ch/anglais/presentation/prospectus%20OIDEL%20anglais.pdf|publisher=Organisation Internationale pour le Droit à l'Education et la Liberté d'Enseignement|pages=1–2|access-date=2009-04-18 }}</ref>

In the United States, support for school choice has been paired with parental rights. For example, Virginia Governor [[Glenn Youngkin]] asserted that he won his 2021 race by emphasizing that parents have the right to make decisions about their children’s education<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wtop.com/virginia/2021/11/youngkin-victory-shows-winning-gop-path-on-education/|title=Youngkin: Victory shows winning GOP path on education|date=November 18, 2021}}</ref> and supported school choice.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2022/january/name-926455-en.html|title=Governor Youngkin Announces School Choice Proclamation|date=January 26, 2022}}</ref>

==== Housing prices ====
One study reported that school choice programs in Seoul, South Korea, reduced housing prices in high-performing districts more than in low-performing districts.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chung |first1=Il Hwan |date=May 2015 |title=School choice, housing prices, and residential sorting: Empirical evidence from inter-and intra-district choice |journal=Regional Science and Urban Economics |volume=52 |pages=39–49 |doi=10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2015.01.004}}</ref>

=== Oppose ===

==== Profiteering ====
School choice measures are criticized as encouraging [[profiteering (business)|profiteering]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alternet.org/education/who-profiting-charters-big-bucks-behind-charter-school-secrecy-financial-scandal-and|title=Who Is Profiting From Charters? The Big Bucks Behind Charter School Secrecy, Financial Scandal and Corruption|first=Kristin|last=Rawls|date=8 May 2013|via=AlterNet}}</ref> Charter authorization organizations have non-profit status; and contract with related for-profit entities.<ref name="alternet.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.alternet.org/election-2014/who-profiting-charters-big-bucks-behind-charter-school-secrecy-financial-scandal-and|title=Who Is Profiting From Charters? The Big Bucks Behind Charter School Secrecy, Financial Scandal and Corruption|first=Kristin|last=Rawls|date=21 January 2015|via=AlterNet}}</ref> Charters have been accused of creating units that charge them high rent,<ref name="alternet.org" /><ref name="wtsp.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/investigations/2014/08/21/charter-school-profits-on-real-estate/14420317/|title=Charter schools making big profits for private companies|last=TEGNA}}</ref> and that while the facilities are used as schools, they pay no property taxes.<ref name="wtsp.com" />

==== Constitutionality ====
Some school choice measures are criticized as violating church-state separation. The constitutionality of state-sponsored school choice laws has been challenged by school board associations, public school districts, teacher unions, associations of school business officials, the [[American Civil Liberties Union]], the [[Freedom From Religion Foundation]], and [[People for the American Way]].<ref>The ABC's of School Choice, 2014 Ed., The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, 109.</ref>

==== Destruction of public system ====
School choice has been criticized for aiming to privatize schooling.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Strauss|first=Valerie|date=2017-05-22|title=What 'school choice' means in the era of Trump and DeVos|language=en-US|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/05/22/what-school-choice-means-in-the-era-of-trump-and-devos/|access-date=2021-10-03|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

==== Racism ====
School choice policies have been accused of racism, as they came into prominence for encouraging private schooling shortly after the [[Brown v. Board of Education]] decision required desegregation only in public schools.<ref>{{Cite web |last=MacLean |first=Nancy |title=How Milton Friedman Aided and Abetted Segregationists in His Quest to Privatize Public Education |url=https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/how-milton-friedman-aided-and-abetted-segregationists-in-his-quest-to-privatize-public-education |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=Institute for New Economic Thinking |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Faculty Viewpoint: School Choice Has a Less-Than-Choice History |url=https://education.illinois.edu/about/news-events/news/2021/09/01/faculty-viewpoint-school-choice-has-a-less-than-choice-history |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=College of Education |language=en}}</ref>