States Working To Better Their Education Systems: Andrew Handel on The Voice of Reason
The momentum that we've been seeing for education, freedom and, you know, kind of opening up all of these other educational options for parents across the country. It's, it's been absolutely amazing.
Are states delivering more education freedom for parents and students? Andrew Handel, ALEC Education and Workforce Development Task Force Director, discusses with host Andy Hooser on The Voice of Reason show the new ALEC education freedom rankings by state. The topics discussed include financial freedom, open enrollment, parental empowerment, and more.
The momentum that we’ve been seeing for education freedom has been absolutely amazing. You know, all 50 states are seeing this movement. It’s just been incredible. In our new rankings, the first factor that we looked at was financing programs. That’s where your education savings accounts or tax credit scholarships come in — basically anything that helps parents pay for school supplies and private school tuition or anything along those lines.
The second thing that we looked at was charter schools, and then we looked at virtual schools, homeschooling and open enrollment. Open enrollment is your public school choice, essentially. Getting rid of those district boundaries and letting parents pick what public school they want the child to attend. So, we looked at all five of those categories and determined a letter grade for each state.
There’s only a handful of states that don’t have any form of open enrollment right now. So, you know, definitely great to see Kansas adding that in. I’m sure that’s going to help a lot of families in the years to come.