Sample School Choice Key Messages
From the Institute for Justice School Choice Team
- School choice works. School choice enables children to secure a good education TODAY in schools that work for them.
- We can work to improve struggling public schools, but children - especially those stuck in struggling schools - need to quality educational option TODAY.
- School choice creates real accountability in education by empowering parents with the freedom to escape failing schools and choose schools that will work for their children.
- School choice makes public schools better. Public schools can - and do - and do respond to school choice. Wherever school choice has been implemented, it has spurred public schools to work harder to improve.
- In particular, research on Florida's school choice program demonstrates the positive impacts of school choice on public schools. Three separate studies show that Florida's most troubled public schools - those where students are eligible for school choice - have made the greatest gains on the state test.
- A recent analysis by Columbia's Teachers College of 41 studies found that choice and competition have a positive impact on public school outcomes, improving test scores, graduation rates, teacher salaries and student-teacher ratios.
- In particular, research on Florida's school choice program demonstrates the positive impacts of school choice on public schools. Three separate studies show that Florida's most troubled public schools - those where students are eligible for school choice - have made the greatest gains on the state test.
- Most Americans already have school choice: they choose to live in a good school district or they can afford private school. School choice is widespread - unless you are poor.
- School choice means equal education opportunity - giving parents of lesser means the same freedom to choose their children's school that wealthier parents already have.
- Parents know best, and school choice empowers them to take charge of their children's education.
- School choice is constitutional. That's because school choice is about education, not religion. As the U.S. Supreme Court said, not one dollar reaches a private or religious school unless a parent decides that school is right for her child.
- School choice works. [With specific parents stories or specific research findings]
- School choice gets parents more engaged in their child's education, and that can only be a good thing.
- School choice saves money - without reducing per pupil spending in public schools
Institute for Justice School Choice Team
www.ij.org/schoolchoice