In these states, school choice is central

School choice, an issue that has divided parents for years, is on the agenda in November in three states: Colorado, Kentucky and Nebraska. Choice programs allow states to direct public funds to private or alternative schools.

The ballots have arrived Colorado And Kentucky propose adding language supporting school choice to their states’ constitutions, but neither includes details for a statewide program.

If Colorado and Kentucky’s measures pass, the states will join at least 29 states and the District of Columbia that already have some form of school choice language on the books, according to an analysis of Education Week.

The Nebraska Measure is seeking to repeal a $10 million school voucher program that the state Legislature passed this year, putting that decision in the hands of voters.

School choice experts told USA TODAY that these measures echo debates happening across the country.

“What we’ve seen in recent years is that private school choice programs are expanding rapidly, among almost exclusively red states,” said Deven Carlson, professor and associate professor of education at the University of Oklahoma’s Institute for Public Policy Research. Analysis.

But these measures indicate “some kind of counterbalance,” Carlson said, especially with Colorado, a blue state, looking to add school choice to its constitution.

Because of the vague language in the measures in Colorado and Kentucky, it’s unclear how any choice programs those states might adopt would work out and which families would be served, said Liz Cohen, policy director at the independent think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Science . Public policy.

That will vary depending on how much money states spend on school choice programs, she said.

What is the debate over school choice?

The presence of school choice programs in the US dates from at least 1869 in Vermont. The modern school choice movement was driven by parents angry about school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some parents took their children out of area public schools and moved them to other types of schools, including private schools, home schools and charter schools. A lot of parents have kept their children in those alternative schools.

Since the pandemic several states have passed school choice laws that allows parents to use public funding to pay for alternative schools through vouchers or education grants, according to a national tracker from EdChoice, a nonprofit organization that advocates for school choice.

Opponents of these measures argue that school vouchers, education savings accounts and other school choice options hurt public schools, which they say need all the funding they can get.

Contact Kayla Jimenez at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.