Education

Key Points
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Key Points
  • Citizens, legislators, and regulators should separate the concept of public education from the monopolistic delivery system and embrace 21st-century methods of connecting students with learning experiences.
  • Legislators should improve or pass charter school laws, striking a balance between innovation, autonomy, and accountability.
  • Legislators should create or expand the type(s) of school choice program that best suits their state: vouchers, tax credit scholarships, homeschooling, and education savings accounts.
  • Legislators and regulatory agencies should be wary of attempts to re-regulate innovative and/or private educational options, which could expose them to the death of the thousand bureaucratic cuts and sacrifice the freedoms that allow them to succeed.
  • Institutions of higher education should be transparent about what outcomes students can expect and how much money they will have to spend or borrow.

An excellent education has long been recognized as key to the American Dream. Unfortunately, the current monopolistic and expensive K-12 education system is failing our students, leaving them unprepared for college, careers, or life. Similarly, our higher education system is leaving students with higher debt burdens and fewer career guarantees than ever before.

While the left argues that our ailing public education system can be fixed with ever-greater quantities of taxpayer dollars, the more than $600 billion we currently spend nationwide reflects a large increase in funds over the last 30 years, in exchange for total stagnation – or worse, declines – in achievement. On the college level, subsidies meant to help college students struggling to pay tuition have instead caused prices to skyrocket well above inflation.

Instead of throwing more money at the problem, it’s time to let parents take back control over their children’s educations by allowing them to apply competitive pressure to schools and educational providers. Innovative, parent-empowering choices such as charter schools, voucher programs, tax credit scholarships, homeschool, and education savings accounts allow each child the opportunity to reach his or her potential. In higher education, greater transparency is needed to ensure that students and parents know what they are paying for, and with what prospects they are likely to graduate.

Instead of endless top-down mandates, these revolutionary inroads into the education system are coming from the states. Forty-two states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books allowing charter schools to operate, while half the states have some form of private school choice program. The states should continue to expand parent choice and push educational institutions to compete with each other to provide the best product, just like providers of any other service.

Articles

In the News

Post-Election Game Plan & Pro-Growth Reforms Across the States: Jonathan Williams on NewsTalkSTL

Jonathan Williams/November 14, 2024
In the News

Texas Needs Universal Education Freedom: Lisa B. Nelson & Stephen Moore in National Review

Education

Education Freedom and Tax Cuts in Iowa: Speaker Pro Tem. John Wills at the ALEC Annual Meeting

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Publications

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Model Policies

  • Limiting Student Use of Cell Phones in K-12 Classrooms Draft

    Section 1. Definitions. (A) “Instructional time” is time during which students are participating in an approved course, curriculum, or other educationally-related activity under the direction of a teacher. The term does not include a period of time between classes, lunch, or recess. (B) “Mobile device” means a personal mobile telephone…

  • Education Tax-Credit Act Draft

    Section 1. Definitions (A) “Qualifying student” carries the definition of a “qualifying child” found in 26 U.S.C. § 152(c)(1) through (4) who received full-time academic instruction in a nonpublic school. (B) “Curriculum” means a completed course of study for a particular content area or grade level,…

  • Standardized Testing Choice Act Draft

    Section 1. Definitions (A) “CLT” means the Classic Learning Test administered by Classic Learning Initiatives. Section 2. Post-Secondary and Higher Education Admissions (A) Public institutions of higher education shall accept a student’s score on the ACT, CLT, or SAT, as those terms are defined in [insert statutory reference], for purposes…

  • Amendment to the Open Enrollment Act Draft

    Section 1. Purpose (A) The purpose of this Act is to improve educational achievement and to enhance the opportunity for parental choice in education by providing additional options to pupils in the state to enroll in public schools and educational programs throughout the state without regard to pupil…

  • Internet Safety Resource Act Draft

    Model Policy (1) Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the words defined in this section have the meaning given. (a) “Internet” means the combination of computer facilities and electromagnetic transmission media, and related equipment and software, comprising the interconnected worldwide network of computer networks that employ the Transmission Control…

  • Act to Prohibit Anti-Semitism in State K-20 Educational Institutions Final

    Preamble WHEREAS, a historic rise in antisemitic violence, harassment, and discrimination has occurred at K-12 schools, colleges, and universities across the United States, targeting Jewish students; WHEREAS, in April 2024, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found that the number of FBI investigations into antisemitic hate crimes…

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Task Forces

Education and Workforce Development

The mission of the ALEC Education and Workforce Development Task Force is to promote excellence in…

Press Releases

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