Why School Choice is An Important Business Issue

It’s our responsibility to make good choices for our children, who are the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. But what happens when some of the best options for our children’s education, including charter schools, aren’t available?

Hi guys, I’m Kristin Tate, author of Government Gone Wild and analyst for Capitalism.com, here to tell you why school choice is an important business issue.

During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed to bring prosperity and safety back to America’s inner city communities. Yet the very pundits, analysts, and political experts who are quick to write off and label Trump refuse to acknowledge one of the biggest problems plaguing our inner cities: failing public schools.

One key to lifting up our inner cities, and the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators, is quality education. Without quality education, young people are more likely to live in poverty.

In urban public school districts across the nation, student performance is currently flat and minority students face major academic inequalities. The public high school graduation rate among black students is significantly lower than that of white students, and that gap is only growing. The dropout rate in Chicago, for example, is an astounding 33 percent.

Many politicians claim that the public schools are failing because they need more funding. But that argument doesn’t hold up: despite receiving more federal funding each year, most urban schools have seen a decrease in performance.

These same politicians have reacted with hysteria over President Trump’s new Education Secretary: Betsy DeVos. They don’t like DeVos because she’s one of the nation’s most vocal advocates of school choice and charter schools.

The Truth About Charter Schools: They Threaten The Status Quo

What’s so bad about that? We’re already seeing evidence showing student performance at charter schools can be better than at public schools. And, in spite of receiving federal funding, charter schools are not as restricted as public schools and are typically run like a business.

Here’s an example: in New York City: During 2014, only 29 percent of students at public schools passed the state reading tests, while 64 percent of students at Success Academy – a large charter – passed the same tests. When it came to state math tests, 35 percent of students at public schools passed compared to 94 percent of the students at Success. Amazingly, charter schools receive an average of $3,814 less in federal funding per student than public schools.

Many politicians want to squash charter schools because they threaten the status quo and Teachers’ Unions, which often hold back some of the best teachers due to tenure policies. And, many liberal politicians rely on Teachers’ Unions for generous campaign contributions.

The days of forcing inner city youths into failing public schools must end: Trump has promised to expand school choice and “allow every disadvantaged child in America to attend the public, private, charter, magnet, religious, or home school of their choice.”

Now let’s hold him, and his new Education Secretary, to their word.

The next generation of entrepreneurs depends on it.

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