Do Parents have any School Choices for their Kids?

 

As schools begin the new academic year we thought parents might want to know that they are not alone in wondering about the best educational choices for their children. Do parents have any school choices for their kids?  

While there seems to be a fast-moving trend in states moving toward greater school choice, parents can make their own choices generally for what is in the best interests of their children. In our recent article, Lauren Gruel and I researched and analyzed the choices parents are indeed making in the wake of the fallout from pandemic restrictions in schools. By looking at three very different states, California, Florida, and Wisconsin, we found that parents are pulling their kids out of public school in droves. Parental attitudes towards and enrollment in traditional routes of public and private education is changing in major ways.

Read it all in Has State Legal Handling of COVID-19 Affected Traditional School Enrollment Numbers? An Examination of Student Enrollment, State Legislation, and Parents’ Perspectives, 29 Widener L. Rev. (2023), which you can freely download right now at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4478498. 

Because parents generally want to choose what is best for their children in their education, the pandemic illuminated what parents will do when faced with varied state law regulation. Yes, mom and dad, you do have a choice for what’s best for your child’s education, and it is yours to make.