By Kevin P. Chavous
Michael Q. McShane wrote yesterday, “Why School Choice is Failing.” His thought provoking piece raised some very important points, but fails
to illustrate how school choice is succeeding, the several solutions already in
place to address his concerns, and how school choice advocates are laying the
groundwork for even greater impact.
McShane’s issues boil down to three points: Filling excess
capacity, encouraging high-quality schools to scale-up and creating new
high-quality schools, the latter two McShane argues that school choice programs
are “lousy at.”
The majority of us who are involved in the education reform
movement are focused on advancing parental choice as central component of
fundamental, meaningful, and impactful reform to provide children with better
options that generate better educational outcomes. It’s both smart policy and a
matter of social justice. However, when a child moves from a public school to a
private school through an educational choice program, and receives the same
failed outcome, that is not a success. And, this is where McShane has it right.
