Education

More than perhaps any other part of our normal life other than the healthcare system, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted education and schools. As with any disaster, we can hope that some silver linings emerge from this crisis. If this moment re-centers parents—not politicians, district administrators, or schools—in their rightful place as the directors of their children’s educations, the cultural impacts could be positive and long-lasting.

Public education does not have to mean a monopoly of poorly-run government schools teaching curricula contrary to parents’ wishes. Instead, public education could mean investing in students and families directly, and providing them with opportunities and options. From homeschooling and “podding” to private schools, charters, or magnets, there is no single model that fits every child’s needs and every family’s values. A plethora of academic studies have shown that school choice has benefits from the academic, such as higher test scores, to the cultural, including higher rates of marriage, lower rates of divorce, and lower crime rates in adult life.

In addition to making plans for reopening schools, policymakers and legislators should look to expand options like education savings accounts, which allow families to use funds on any educational purpose.

Further, they should be curtailing unproductive “turf wars” between the traditional public, charter, virtual, and private school sectors.

Families should be able to do what works best for them during this time.

As with any disaster, we can hope that some silver linings emerge from this crisis. If this moment re-centers parents—not politicians, district administrators, or schools—in their rightful place as the directors of their children’s educations, the cultural impacts could be positive and long-lasting, even as students eventually return to brick-and-mortar schools and normalcy.