Op-Ed: The left’s relentless battle against school choice

School choice keeps winning: A 35-year program in Wisconsin. Programs with more than 100,000 participants in Arizona and North Carolina. A federal program set to launch in January. A lawsuit that upheld school choice in Missouri.

However, despite its expansion to 35 states and participation by more than 1.5 million students, liberal politicians and the teachers’ unions that back them keep fighting against education freedom.

In Minnesota, the teachers’ union even opposed additional security funding for schools because some of the money would have been available to private schools, which led one politician to call the union “disgusting.”

“They have no interest in safety for our students in this state,” said a Republican state senator. “I don’t understand why we are once again having this conversation that somehow, some children are not worthy of protection in this state, but the children that their union members serve are.”

It’s as if the “hands off our tax dollars” approach leads to “hands off our students” – meaning the kids should not be allowed to go anywhere but a public school.

With such an attitude, it’s easy to see why parents who opposed the woke agenda in schools – and spoke up about it – were labeled terrorists by the Biden administration.

But freedom is constitutional and is winning in court again and again.

Judges from Florida to Idaho and Arizona to Ohio have ruled in favor of school choice, deciding that the government’s requirement to maintain a system of “common schools” does not limit its ability to facilitate other options.

The positives of school choice

School choice saves money. It also empowers parents. Maybe that’s why the left opposes it so strongly.

Teachers’ unions want to control what goes on in schools for political reasons (99% of union donations go to Democrats), so parents meddling or choosing other options is a problem.

The system is set up to feed itself: an ever-expanding school system that indoctrinates children in the ways of the left. When unchecked, the system perpetuates itself, producing more voters who choose politicians who maintain the system – and feel justified in doing so.

COVID-19 threw a wrench into that, as parents got a glimpse of what was happening in schools. Randi Weingarten’s ill-fated move to keep schools closed to extract more funding from the government backfired.

Parents, who could see what their children were learning (or not learning) on Zoom, finally caught wind of the shockingly low academic standards and the woke material being forced on their children.

Voting with their feet

In response to the public school failures, parents started voting with their feet. Millions chose private school, homeschool or other options. Public school enrollment declined by more than 1 million students from 2020 to 2025, and many students show little interest in returning.

The education tide has shifted in this country. With choice present in a majority of states and 29 indicating participation in the federal program next year – and several more still considering it – the U.S. has reached a tipping point.

Despite repeated efforts to shut down what parents want, and what is legal under state constitutions, education freedom keeps advancing.

What will it take for the left to accept it?

There are examples such as Jorge Elorza, a former blue city mayor who runs Democrats for Education Reform. But for every Elorza, there’s North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein or Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, both of whom called for eliminating state and federal school choice this month.

Stein proposed taking $1 billion from the state’s 100,000 school choice students to fund teacher pay raises in public schools, where less than half of students are proficient in reading and math. Kelly called Arizona’s school choice program, which also has more than 100,000 participants, a “failed experiment” that should not be expanded nationwide.

Calling school choice a failure is one thing, but ignoring the will of parents – who are flocking to new options – is another. There is nothing more American than voting with your feet.

The midterm elections are a few months away. Before that, parents must decide where to enroll their children for the next school year.

First the schools, and then the ballot box.

In 2026 and beyond, let freedom ring.

Photo credit: Gov. Kim Reynolds signs the Student First Act (via Twitter)