It was a banner year for families and education reform—outside of Missouri. Iowa parents got a big win. Once its new school choice law is fully phased in, families will be able to take $7,600 to the public or private school of their choice. The Oklahoma Legislature also scored a victory for parents. Oklahoma students who choose a private school can take a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for tuition, from $7,500 for the lowest-income families to $5,000 for the highest-income families. In Arkansas, Governor Sanders signed a sweeping education bill—the Arkansas LEARNS Act—that allows families to use up to 90 percent of annual per-student spending on private school tuition, homeschooling, or other educational expenses while holding public schools more accountable. Another neighbor, Kansas, will begin implementing its own strong open enrollment program passed by the legislature last year.
Once again, Missouri parents came up shorthanded. An admittedly weak open enrollment bill died when Missouri Senators couldn’t stop filibustering each other’s bills. A bill that would have made it easier for Missouri students to enroll in the state’s full-time virtual program met a similar fate, as did expansion of the extremely limited education savings account (ESA) program.
Nearly every family in the state of Missouri is given exactly one choice for their children’s education, and if it isn’t a fit—too bad. Or you can simply move to a neighboring state. Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, and Oklahoma trust their parents to choose a school that works for them. Enrollment is already shrinking and our resistance to change is going to shrink it even more. And guess what happens when you have fewer K-12 students? You have fewer high school graduates, fewer college students, and fewer workers. It doesn’t make Missouri look like a very attractive state.
School choice is spreading like wildfire across the country because parents have stood up and demanded it. The longer Missouri sits on the bench, either because we’re not sure it’s a good thing or because we just can’t get our priorities straight, the less families will choose to raise their children here.
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