School choice has finally made it to the U.S. Senate...and, it's about time.
COVID-19 has made it painfully obvious that parents of private, charter and homeschooled children have been hugely and unfairly discriminated against.
They are paying huge sums of money to educate other people's children and to pay public school teachers, even when those same schools have been closed by state governments due to the pandemic.
Thankfully, relief is in sight.
Right now, a crucial bill in the U.S. Senate would allow federal tax dollars to follow children to the school of their parents' choice, including public, private, charter and homeschools.
The Support Children Having Open Opportunities for Learning (SCHOOL) Act, proposed by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, will allow parents to choose how their education tax dollars will be spent on their own children.
Please SIGN our petition which urges all U.S. Senators to pass this critical education bill. This petition will also be CC'ed to all 50 state governors as a model which can be proposed at the state level.
Our current system wrongly penalizes parents who don't agree with the one-size-fits-all solution proposed by public school education, and this kind of double taxation is wrong and unjust.
The SCHOOL Act bill proposes the following (quoted from Senator Paul's press release):
- Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to allow certain funds authorized under those laws to follow a child, whether learning in person or remotely, to the public school, private school, or homeschool of the family’s choice
- Allows those funds to be used for a range of needs, including:
- Curriculum materials
- Technological educational materials
- Tutoring
- Extracurricular activities
- Private school tuition; and
- Support for Special Education
- Ensures each child would receive the same amount of funding, regardless of where the child is enrolled
- Ensures students who choose to take advantage of these opportunities could still benefit from federally funded school food programs
- Protects non-public education providers from federal and state control
Not only do we need to support parents in making decisions about their children's education, we also need to give parents the flexibility - in terms of resources and curricula - to 'custom design' their children's education.
After all, it is parents who best know their own children.
Perhaps one tangential benefit to be gleaned from the COVID crisis is that many parents are now able to personally devote more time to their children's education. And, perhaps they notice that their children learn better in a different way than proposed by the local public school.
The SCHOOL Act bill would empower all parents to make consequential decisions regarding their children's education. And, this bill could also encourage schools, of all types, to better tailor curricula and materials, as well as teaching style/method, to the needs of each individual pupil.
And, of course, this bill could help homeschoolers by making homeschooling more affordable and more engaging, as homeschooling parents would have greater resourses at their disposal.
Please SIGN this petition which supports school choice and which urges all U.S. Senators to pass the SCHOOL Act.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Rand Paul introduces bill to free parents, students from locked-down public schools' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/rand-paul-introduces-bill-to-free-parents-students-from-locked-down-public-schools
Press Release from Senator Paul's Office - https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/dr-rand-paul-introduces-school-act-empower-parents-increase-education-options-and-flexibility
The text of S.4432 or the 'SCHOOL' Act - https://www.paul.senate.gov/sites/default/files/page-attachments/SCHOOLAct.pdf
