School Choice for Some But Not for All?

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It’s a safe bet that school choice will be high on the education agenda when President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, as it will for Republican governors in states like Texas and Florida. But not all forms of choice are created equal. Some can be downright unfair and potentially even harmful to students and families. 

I fear that in the coming rush to expand publicly-funded private school choice, students with disabilities have a great deal to lose. As the leader and co-founder of a national nonprofit dedicated to advocating for students with disabilities to have access to high-quality educational opportunities and choices, I see school choice and parent empowerment as vital to student success. 

I have also served as a board member, appointed and elected, for a local charter school and a traditional school district. In those roles, I saw firsthand the importance of open enrollment, a public budgeting process, open meeting laws, and essential accountability via state assessments, with an expectation that results are transparent and available for all to see. After all, exercising school choice is a big responsibility for families.

They deserve ready access to clear information and excellent school options – criteria that are especially urgent for students with disabilities and their families.  But too often, as a new paper from the Center for Reinventing Public Education found, families are faced with convoluted admissions policies, limited transportation options and a dearth of choices that can actually meet their children’s needs.

Today, roughly one in five U.S. students requires support under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Their families come from across the political spectrum, from every corner of the country: small towns and rural areas, big cities, sprawling suburbs, and “red” and “blue” states.

The current push to expand private school choice – whether called vouchers, education savings accounts (ESAs), or tuition tax credits – promises little in the way of public access or accountability for delivering results. Instead, these approaches have the dubious distinction of potentially being bad for kids and taxpayers. 

Despite multiple methods of enacting private school choice programs, what is universal is that the rights of children with disabilities are diminished when they step inside a private school. This includes not only the right to attend but also to be taught alongside their peers, and to access individualized supports. So, a child with autism, dyslexia, or Down syndrome, for example, may be denied access, and private schools are under no obligation to provide any specialized services or supports to help them succeed. 

This extends to needs that surface after enrollment – that is, a private school can simply inform the family that the child is “no longer a good fit” for the school. By contrast, a traditional or public charter school is required to conduct an evaluation and provide services. While some private schools cater to students with disabilities, it is very unclear to what extent this model is financially or programmatically sustainable absent designated funding or explicit federal protections.

Making good school choices requires information. Our public education systems are obligated to provide detailed information regarding school and student achievement, graduation rates, and other measures of school quality. Public school choice – among charters, magnets, and traditional schools – is also defined by transparent application and enrollment procedures to ensure fairness. 

In the charter schools sector, for example, when demand exceeds the supply of seats, uniform enrollment systems and public lotteries provide transparency. Yet, as states expand private school choice, only some require participating private schools to adhere to the accountability and oversight systems that apply to public schools. 

The right of any child with a disability to attend school, to be included with peers, and to access individualized supports is only 50 years old in the United States. These important rights have created possibility and independence through education. But they hinge upon public schools: Those rights do not follow students into private educational settings. We cannot forget our recent history, when exclusion was the norm – and we must not go back.

President-elect Trump and his team are not hiding their cards. They have been transparent about seeking to leverage the federal tax code, and specifically tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and large corporations, to expand private school choice. As someone who has worked for many years to create the conditions for families to make informed school choices and to help schools earn and keep their trust, I’ve learned that simply having options isn’t enough. A choice in schools is only meaningful if it leads to a better education. 

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