If you want to help poor kids get ahead, you need to support school choice

Even without vouchers, many public school systems are in trouble because parents see that they are inferior, and scrimp, save, and maneuver to get their kids into better places. Since the kids whose parents care that much about their education tend to be the better students, their departure makes the public schools noticeably worse, leading to further departures. As I noted in my book, The New School, in a number of cities this has led to school closings and teacher layoffs, as failing public schools can’t retain enough students to stay in business. As black Atlanta educator Nikita Bush says, “people are starting to realize that public education in America was designed for the masses of poor, and its intent has been to trap poor people into being workers and servants. If you don’t want that for your children, then you look for something else.”

If leaving lousy public schools gets easier, still more people will leave and these problems will grow. This won’t be bad for the kids, who’ll be going to better schools. It’ll be bad for the teachers, administrators and union officials who depend on the existing schools to maintain their jobs.

Remember this when you hear people arguing that school choice is a tool for destroying public schools. The truth is that when public schools are good, most parents won’t bother with vouchers or charters. But when public schools are bad — and they often are — school choice will allow people to escape, and do better.