School choice
"School choice" is a term for pre-college public education options, describing a wide array of programs offering students and their families voluntary alternatives to publicly provided schools, to which students are generally assigned by the location of their family residence. In the United States, the most common—both by number of programs and by number of participating students—school choice programs are scholarship tax credit programs, which allow individuals or corporations to receive tax credits toward their state taxes in exchange for donations made to non-profit organizations that grant private school scholarships.[1] In other cases, a similar subsidy may be provided by the state through a school voucher program. Other school choice options include open enrollment laws (which allow students to attend public schools outside the district in which the students live), charter schools, magnet schools, virtual schools, homeschooling, education savings accounts (ESAs), and individual tax credits or deductions for educational expenses. School choice is supported by international human rights law including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights art. 26, and the Convention Against Discrimination in Education.
History
Economist and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman proposed in 1955 using free market principles to improve the United States public school system. The practice had been that children were assigned a public school based on where their parents live, which public schools were funded by state and local taxes. Friedman proposed that parents should be able to receive those education funds in the form of vouchers, which would allow them to choose their children's schools, including both public and private, religious and non-religious options.[2] In 1996, Friedman and his wife economist Rose Director Friedman founded the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, (now EdChoice).[3][4][5] This American education reform organization headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana seeks to advance “school choice for all children” nationwide.[6]
The first use of school vouchers in the United States came in the form of state tuition grants provided by Virginia's 1956 Stanley Plan, which financed white-only private schools known as segregation academies. Other states followed until the practice was disallowed by Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (1964). While school choice has always implied school improvement, debates have regularly followed about the motivation and implementation.
Forms
Scholarship tax credits
States with scholarship tax credit programs grant individuals and/or businesses a credit, whether full or partial, toward their taxes for donations made to scholarship granting organizations (also called school tuition organizations). SGOs/STOs use the donations to create scholarships that are then given to help pay for the cost of tuition for students. These scholarships allow students to attend private schools or out-of-district public schools that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive for many families. These programs currently exist in fourteen states: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia in the United States.[7]
Vouchers
Vouchers give students the opportunity to attend a private school of their choosing, secular or religious. This would be paid for by accessing all or part of the public funding set aside for their children’s education.[8]
Charter schools
Charter schools are independent public schools which are exempt from many of the state and local regulations which govern most public schools. These exemptions grant charter schools some autonomy and flexibility with decision-making, such as teacher union contracts, hiring, and curriculum. In return, charter schools are subject to stricter accountability on spending and academic performance. The majority of states (and the District of Columbia) have charter school laws, though they vary in how charter schools are approved. Minnesota was the first state to have a charter school law and the first charter school in the United States, City Academy High School, opened in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1992.[9] The prevalence of charter schools has increased with the support of the Obama Administration. Under the Administration, the Department of Education has provided funding incentives to states and school districts that increase the number of charter schools.[10]
Somewhere between 22 and 26% of Dayton, Ohio children are in charter schools.[11] This is the highest percentage in the nation. Other hotbeds for charter schools are Kansas City (24%), Washington, D.C. (20-24%), and Arizona. Almost one in four public schools in Arizona are charter schools, comprising about 8% of total enrollment.
Charter schools can also come in the form of cyber charters. Cyber charter schools deliver the majority of their instruction over the internet instead of in a school building. And, like all charter schools, cyber charters are public schools, but they are free from some of the rules and regulations that conventional public schools must follow.
Magnet schools
Magnet schools are public schools that often have a specialized function like science, technology, or art. These magnet schools, unlike charter schools, are not open to all children. Much like many private schools, some (but not all) magnet schools require a test to get in. Magnet schools are an example of open enrollment programs. Open enrollment refers to district or statewide programs that allow families to choose public schools other than the ones they are assigned. Intradistrict open enrollment programs allow school choice within a district. Interdistrict open enrollment allows families to choose schools outside the district in other districts.[12]
Home schooling
"Home education" or "home schooling" is instruction in a child's home, or provided primarily by a parent, or under direct parental control. Informal home education has always taken place, and formal instruction in the home has at times also been very popular. As public education grew in popularity during the 1900s, however, the number of people educated at home using a planned curriculum dropped. In the last 20 years, in contrast, the number of children being formally educated at home has grown tremendously, in particular in the United States. The laws relevant to home education differ throughout the country. In some states the parent simply needs to notify the state that the child will be educated at home. In other states the parents are not free to educate at home unless at least one parent is a certified teacher and yearly progress reports are reviewed by the state. Such laws are not always enforced however. According to the federal government, about 1.1 million children were home educated in 2003.[13]
Inter-district enrollment
District of Choice is a program in California created during 1993, allowing any California public school district to enroll students outside district lines.[15] To participate in the program, district governing boards only need to declare themselves a District of Choice and set a quota for how many transfer students to accept to participate in the program. School districts cannot discriminate among students to enroll, but can limit them through an unbiased lottery system. The program was created in response to several parent's concerns over the lack of choice of schools to enroll their children in. Currently 47 school districts and 10,000 students participate in the program, serving 5 percent of school districts and 0.2 percent of students in California.[16]
Education Savings Accounts
This variant of school choice allows the parent to withdraw their child out of the public or charter school, and receive a direct deposit of public funds into a government-authorized savings account. These funds are often distributed in the form of a debit card that can be used to pay for various services, such as private school tuition and fees, online programs, private tutoring, community college costs, higher education services, and other approved learning materials and services. ESA’s also acquire the ability to pay for a combination of public school courses and private services.[17]
Tax credit/deduction for educational expenses
Certain states allow parents to claim a tax credit or deduction as a means to provide relief for certain educational expenses. These can include private school tuition, textbooks, school supplies and equipment, tutoring, and transportation. Currently, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have such programs.[18]
Individual Tax Credit and Deduction Option
This form of choice abates the income tax for parents, so approved educational expenses can be more economical. Approved educational expenses include private school tuition, supplies, computers, books, tutors, and transportation.[19]
Online Learning
Online learning permits students to work with teachers and their courses over the internet. This can be used in cooperation with, or in place of traditional classroom instruction. The online learning can be also paid for by accessing ESA’s and vouchers.[8]
Customized Learning
This form of tutelage is a student-tailored form of education. This form of instruction can have various combinations. For example, course choice programs, public school courses, and special education therapies can all be integrated into a students curriculum. There are a myriad of possibilities, especially as learning innovations continue to occur.[8]
Debate
Support
The goal of school choice programs is to give parents more control over their child's education and to allow parents to pursue the most appropriate learning environments for children. For example, school choice may enable parents to choose a school that provides religious instruction, stronger discipline, better foundational skills (including reading, writing, mathematics, and science), everyday skills (from handling money to farming), or other desirable foci.[20][21]
Supporters of voucher models of school choice argue that choice creates competition between schools for students. Schools that fail to attract students can be closed. Advocates of school choice argue that this competition for students (and the dollars that come with them) create a catalyst for schools to create innovative programs, become more responsive to parental demands, and to increase student achievement.[22] Caroline Hoxby suggests that this competition increases the productivity of a school. Hoxby describes a productive school as being one that produces high student achievement for each dollar spent.[23] Others suggest that this competition gives parents more power to influence their child's school in the school marketplace. Parents and students become the consumers and schools must work to attract new students with new programs. Parents also have the ability to punish schools that they judge to be inferior by leaving the 'bad' school for a better, more highly ranked school.[24] Parents look for schools that will advocate for the needs of their child and if the school does not meet the needs required for that child, parents have the choice to find a school that will be more suitable.[25] This freedom to choose puts the consequences of good or bad choosing on the parents instead of the government.[26]
Another argument in favor of school choice is based on cost-effectiveness. Studies undertaken by the Cato Institute and other libertarian and conservative think tanks conclude that privately run education both costs less and produces superior outcomes compared to public education.[27][28][29][30]
Others argue that since children from impoverished families almost exclusively attend D or F ranked public schools, school choice programs would give parents the power to opt their children out of poorly-performing schools assigned by zip code and seek better education elsewhere. 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.[20][31]
The Organisation Internationale pour le Droit à l'Education et la Liberté d'Enseignement (OIDEL), an international non-profit organization for the development of freedom of education, maintains that the right to education is a fundamental human right which cannot exist without the presence of State benefits and the protection of individual liberties. According to the organization, freedom of education notably implies the freedom for parents 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.[32]
The The Walton Foundation has also held charter school investment conferences featuring Standard & Poor's, Piper Jaffray, Bank of America, and Wells Capital Management.[33]
Opposition
Teachers' unions in the United States are very opposed to school choice. School choice measures are criticized as profiteering in an under-regulated environment.[34] Charter authorization organizations have non-profit status; and contract with related for-profit entities with public funding.[35] Reports indicate that charters create organizational arms that profit by charging high rent,[35][36] and that while the facilities are used as schools, there are no property taxes.[36]
Public school entities are chiefly concerned that these school choice measures are taking funding away from public schools and therefore depleting their already strained resources. Other opponents of certain school choice policies (particularly vouchers) have cited the Establishment Clause and individual state Blaine amendments, which forbid, to one degree or another, the use of direct government aid to religiously affiliated entities. This is of particular concern in the voucher debate because voucher dollars are often spent at parochial schools.
Some school choice measures are criticized by public school entities, organizations opposed to church-state entanglement, and self-identified liberal advocacy groups. Known plaintiffs who have filed suit to challenge the constitutionality of state sponsored school choice laws are as follows: School Boards Associations, Public School Districts, Federations for Teachers, Associations of School Business Officials, Education Associations/Associations of Educators (unions for public school teachers), the American Civil Liberties Union, Freedom From Religion Foundation, and People for the American Way.[37]
There is evidence that school choice programs reduce housing prices, and that they do so in high-performing districts more than in low-performing districts.[38]
International overview and major institutional options
Finland
The basic compulsory educational system in Finland is the nine-year comprehensive school (Finnish peruskoulu, Swedish grundskola, "basic school"), for which school attendance is mandatory (homeschooling is allowed, but extremely rare). There are no so-called "gifted" programs. The more able children are expected to help those who are slower to catch on.
France
The French government subsidizes most private primary and secondary schools, including those affiliated with religious denominations, under contracts stipulating that education must follow the same curriculum as public schools and that schools cannot discriminate on grounds of religion or force pupils to attend religion classes.
This system of école libre (Free Schooling) is mostly used not for religious reasons, but for practical reasons (private schools may offer more services, such as after-class tutoring) as well as the desire of parents living in disenfranchised areas to send their children away from the local schools, where they perceive that the youth are too prone to delinquency or have too many difficulties keeping up with schooling requirements that the educational content is bound to suffer. The threatened repealing of that status in the 1980s triggered mass street demonstrations in favor of the status.
Sweden
Sweden reformed its school system in 1992.[39] Its system of school choice is one of the freest in the world, allowing students to use public funds for the publicly or privately run school of their choice, including religious and for-profit schools.[39] Fifteen years after the reform, private school enrollment had increased from 1% to 10% of the student population.[39]
Chile
In Chile, there is an extensive voucher system in which the state pays private and municipal schools directly, based on average attendance (90% of the country students utilize such a system). The result has been a steady increase in the number and recruitment of private schools that show consistently better results in standardized testing than municipal schools. The reduction of students in municipal schools has gone from 78% of all students in 1981, to 57% in 1990, and to less than 50% in 2005.
Regarding vouchers in Chile, researchers have found that when controls for the student's background (parental income and education) are introduced, the difference in performance between public and private subsectors is not significant.[40] There is also greater variation within each subsector than between the two systems.[41]
United States
A variety of forms of school choice exist in the United States. It is a highly debatable subject because some people wish to use taxpayer dollars in order to allow low-income students the choice of a private schools by way of vouchers.
Scholarship tax credits
Scholarship tax credit programs currently exist in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.[7]
Arizona has a well-known and fast-growing tax credit program. In the Arizona Individual Private School Tuition Tax Credit Program, in accordance with A.R.S. §43-1089[42] and §1089.03,[43] individuals can claim up to $1,053 and couples filing joint returns can claim up to $2106 (for 2014, amounts are indexed annually).[44] Nearly 24,000 children received scholarships in the 2011-2012 school year. Since the program has started in 1998, over 77,500 taxpayers have participated in the program, providing over $500 million in scholarship money for children at private schools across the state.[45]
The Arizona program was challenged in court in ACSTO v Winn by a group of state taxpayers on the grounds that the tax credit violated the First Amendment because the tuition grants could go to students who attend private schools with religious affiliations.[46] The suit was initially brought against the state until the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization (ACSTO), one of the largest School Tuition Organizations in the state, voluntarily stepped in to represent the defense with the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund). Typically, taxpayers are not allowed to bring suit against the government regarding how taxes are spent because injury would be purely speculative. In addition, insomuch as a donation to a School Tuition Organization is still a charitable act, just like any donation to a charity, there would be no standing unless all charitable deduction programs nationwide were brought under scrutiny. The Court ruled 5-4 to let the tax credit program stand.[46] In April 2011, a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll found that a majority of American voters (60%) felt that the tax credits support school choice for parents whereas 26% felt as it the tax credits support religion.[47]
In Iowa, the Educational Opportunities Act was signed into law in 2006, creating a pool of tax credits for eligible donors to student tuition organizations (STOs). At first, these tax caps were $5 million but in 2007, Governor Chet Culver increased the total amount to $7.5 million.[48] The Iowa Alliance for Choice in Education (Iowa ACE) oversees the STOs and advocates for school choice in Iowa.
Greater Opportunities for Access to Learning (GOAL) is the Georgia program which offers a state income tax credit to donors of scholarships to private schools.[49][50] Representative David Casas was responsible for passing the Georgia version of the school choice legislation.[51][52]
Vouchers
Vouchers currently exist in Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, Indiana and, most recently, the District of Columbia[53] and Georgia.
The largest and oldest Voucher program is in Milwaukee. Started in 1990, and expanded in 1995, it currently allows no more than 15% of the district's public school enrollment to use vouchers. As of 2005 over 14,000 students use vouchers and they are nearing the 15% cap.[54]
School vouchers are legally controversial in some states. In 2014 a lawsuit sought to challenge the legality of the Florida voucher program.[55]
In the U.S., the legal and moral precedents for vouchers may have been set by the G.I. bill, which includes a voucher program for university-level education of veterans.
The G.I. bill permits veterans to take their educational benefits at religious schools, an extremely divisive issue when applied to primary and secondary schools.
In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (2002), the Supreme Court of the United States held that school vouchers could be used to pay for education in sectarian schools without violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. As a result, states are basically free to enact voucher programs that provide funding for any school of the parent's choosing.
The Supreme Court has not decided, however, whether states can provide vouchers for secular schools only, excluding sectarian schools. Proponents of funding for parochial schools argue that such an exclusion would violate the free exercise clause. However, in Locke v. Davey, 540 U.S. 712 (2004), the Court held that states could exclude majors in "devotional theology" from an otherwise generally available college scholarship. The Court has not indicated, however, whether this holding extends to the public school context, and it may well be limited to the context of individuals training to enter the ministry.
Charter schools
The majority of states (and the District of Columbia) have charter school laws. Minnesota was the first state to have a charter school law and the first charter school in the United States, City Academy, opened in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1992.[9]
Dayton, Ohio has between 22–26% of all children in charter schools.[11] This is the highest percentage in the nation. Other hotbeds for charter schools are Kansas City (24%), Washington, D.C. (20-24%) and the State of Arizona. Almost 1 in 4 public schools in Arizona are charter schools, comprising about 8% of total enrollment.
Charter schools can also come in the form of Cyber Charters. Cyber charter schools deliver the majority of their instruction over the internet instead of in a school building. And, like charter schools, they are public schools, but free of many of the rules and regulations that public schools must follow.
Magnet schools
Magnet schools are public schools that often have a specialized function like science, technology or art. These magnet schools, unlike charter schools, are not open to all children. Much like many private schools, the students must test into the school.
Home schooling
The laws relevant to homeschooling differ between US states. In some states the parent simply needs to notify the state that the child will be educated at home. In other states the parents are not free to educate at home unless at least one parent is a certified teacher and yearly progress reports are reviewed by the state. Such laws are not always enforced however. According to the Federal Government, about 1.1 million children were Home Educated in 2003.[13]
College
The United States has school choice at the university level. College students can get subsidized tuition by attending any public college or university within their state of residence. Furthermore, the U.S. federal government provides tuition assistance for both public and private colleges via the G.I. Bill and federally guaranteed student loans.
References
- "School Choice Virtual Yearbook" (PDF). Alliance for School Choice. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-15. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
- "The Role of Government in Education". 1955.
- "Friedman Foundation Calls for Tax Credits to Benefit K–12 Education". Inside Indiana Business. February 10, 2009. Archived from the original on 11 May 2009. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
- Dodd, D. Aileen (February 17, 2010). "Rally to unite public, private groups that back vouchers". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
- Sullivan, Maureen (July 30, 2016). "Milton Friedman's Name Disappears From Foundation, But His School-Choice Beliefs Live On". Forbes. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
- "Mission and History". The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. Retrieved July 8, 2013.
- "School Choice Programs". Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.
- "Types of School Choice - EdChoice". EdChoice. Retrieved 2018-04-22.
- "Clinton touts success of public charter schools". CNN. 2000-05-04. Archived from the original on August 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- I. Frankenberg II. Siegel-Hawley III. Wang, I. Erica II. Genevieve III. Jia (2011). "Choice without equity: Charter school segregation". Education policy analysis archive. 19 – via ERIC.
- Elliot, Scott (2005-12-02). "Catholic schools: Victims of choice". Dayton Daily News. Archived from the original on 2008-09-05. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- "School Choice in the States: A Policy Landscape". Council of Chief State School Officers. 2013 – via ERIC.
- "1.1 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2003". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- "School Choice - School Finance". www.doe.mass.edu.
- Quackenbush, Chuck. "Assembly Third Reading-AB19". Official California Legislative Information. California State Assembly. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
- "Evaluation of the School District of Choice Program". Legislative Analyst's Office. January 27, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
- "What is an Education Savings Account? - EdChoice". EdChoice. Retrieved 2018-04-22.
- The ABC's of School Choice, 2014 Ed., Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, 107.
- "How Do K–12 Education Tax Credits and Deductions Work? - EdChoice". EdChoice. Retrieved 2018-04-22.
- Davies, Scott; Janice Aurini (Dec 2011). "Exploring School Choice in Canada: Who Chooses What and Why". Canadian Public Policy. 37 (4): 459–477. doi:10.1353/cpp.2011.0047.
- Gulosino, Charisse; Christopher Lubienski (May 2011). "School's strategic responses to competition in segregated urban areas: Patterns in school locations in Metropolitan Detroit". Education Policy Analysis Archives. 19 (13): 1–29. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- Lubienski, Christopher; Jack Dougherty (August 2009). "Mapping Educational Opportunity: Spatial Analysis and School Choices". American Journal of Education. 115 (4): 485–491. doi:10.1086/599783.
- Hoxby, Caroline M. (2003). "School Choice and School Productivity Could School Choice Be a Tide that Lifts All Boats?". The Economics of School Choice: 287–342. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
- 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.
- Bosetti, Lynn (June 2004). "Determinants of School Choice: Understanding How Parents Choose Elementary Schools in Alberta". Journal of Education Policy. 19 (4): 387–405. doi:10.1080/0268093042000227465.
- Bosetti, Lynn (2005). "Public Education at a Crossroad". American Journal of Education. 11: 435–441 – via ERIC.
- "$5000 School Vouchers Would Give Most Students Access to Quality Private Schools". Cato Institute. 2003-09-02. Archived from the original on 2008-08-14. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- Salisbury, David (2003-08-28). "What Does a Voucher Buy?" (PDF). Cato Institute. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- Murray, Vicki (2005-03-01). "Arizona Private Schools Half as Expensive as Public Schools". Heartland Institute. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- "K-12 Public Education Spending in Washington". Washington Policy. Archived from the original on August 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- "12 million languish in failing public schools, report says". The Washington Times. 2004-08-29. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- "OIDEL - A Presentation" (Portable Document Format). Organisation Internationale pour le Droit à l'Education et la Liberté d'Enseignement. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 2009-04-18.
- "The Walmart family is teaching hedge funds how to profit from publicly funded schools".
- Rawls, Kristin (8 May 2013). "Who Is Profiting From Charters? The Big Bucks Behind Charter School Secrecy, Financial Scandal and Corruption" – via AlterNet.
- Rawls, Kristin (21 January 2015). "Who Is Profiting From Charters? The Big Bucks Behind Charter School Secrecy, Financial Scandal and Corruption" – via AlterNet.
- TEGNA. "Charter schools making big profits for private companies".
- The ABC's of School Choice, 2014 Ed., The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, 109.
- Chung, Il Hwan (May 2015). "School choice, housing prices, and residential sorting: Empirical evidence from inter-and intra-district choice". Regional Science and Urban Economics. 52: 39–49. doi:10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2015.01.004.
- "Free to choose, and learn". The Economist. 2007-05-03. Retrieved 2010-11-29.
- McEwan, Patrick J.; Martin Carnoy (Fall 2000). "The Effectiveness and Efficiency of Private Schools in Chile's Voucher System". Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 22 (3): 213–239. doi:10.3102/01623737022003213.
- Mizala, Alejandra; Pilar Romaguera (August 2000). Determinación de Factores Explicativos de los Resultados Escolares en Educación Media en Chile. Economy Series No. 85. Centre for Applied Economics, Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Chile.
- "Format Document". www.azleg.gov.
- "Format Document". www.azleg.gov.
- http://www.azdor.gov/TaxCredits/SchoolTaxCreditsforIndividuals.aspx
- Private School Tuition Organization Income Tax Credits In Arizona: A Summary of Activity FY 2013. Arizona Department of Revenue, p.5.
- Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn et al. 987 U.S. 9 (2011)
- Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind Poll "Public Blesses Arizona Christian School Tuition" press release (April 4, 2011)
- "School tuition organization tax credit" (PDF). iowa.gov. Iowa Department of Revenue. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
- Bell, Daniel (October 27, 2009). "GOAL to aid private schools, donors: Saturday is the deadline for a tax break to benefit schools and their contributors". Rome News-Tribune. Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
- Allen, Greg, "Tax Credit Scholarships Reignite Voucher Debate", NPR All Things Considered, August 15, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-03-03. Retrieved 2010-03-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- Georgia State Representative David Casas discussing HB 1133 and HB 325, scholarship tax credits, YouTube video
- Kafer, Krista (2005-04-25). "Choices in Education: 2005 Progress Report". The Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on 2008-09-07. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- "School Choice - Wisconsin". The Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on 2008-09-19. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- Postal, Leslie (August 28, 2015). "Lawsuit calls Florida voucher program unconstitutional". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
External links
- https://www.blogtalkradio.com/theneilhaleyshow/2019/07/12/the-school-choice-show-with-host-ed-temple
- Families in the 'Public-markets': School choice in the comprehensive school (in Finland)
- What is School Choice? (in the United States), by the Friedmann Foundation for Educational Choice
- Special Report #125 on Education: Choosing to Succeed, by the Heritage Foundation
- National Research and Development Center on School Choice, Competition, and Achievement, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee
- Society for Quality Education, an organization, mostly of parents, with the mission "To significantly improve student learning in Canada"
- National School Choice Week, organization dedicated to raise awareness and acceptance of the growing school choice movement across America.
- Alliance for School Choice, one of the largest school choice advocate organization in the US.