‘School choice is practical, not partisan,’ seasoned educator says

Dr. JoAnne Kilpatrick spent 20 years working in public schools as a teacher and administrator, but she’s become a strong advocate for school choice – something many public school officials resist.

Kilpatrick, who now directs education policy and partnerships for Outschool, an online marketplace for virtual classes, said she has come to see education freedom as a practical issue instead of a partisan one.

“I served more than two decades as a public school teacher and school leader,” she writes in the Bedford (Pennsylvania) Gazette. “During that time, I sat across the table from dozens of families whose children were struggling in the traditional school environment. Sometimes the issue was learning differences. Sometimes it was anxiety, bullying or a teaching approach that simply didn’t fit how their child learned best.”

When parents asked for other options, Kilpatrick often felt that she “didn’t have an answer.”

“Like most educators, I believed deeply in public education. But I also knew the system could not be everything to every child. Families who could afford alternatives sometimes found them. Many others could not.”

Over the past decade, school choice has proliferated to 35 states, including 18 that offer broad or universal programs. The debate has often fallen along party lines, with Republicans supporting it and Democrats, who closely align with teachers’ unions, opposing it.

Federal choice program challenges ideologies

Kilpatrick said the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit is changing that.

Since the credit, which passed in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer, is available to all U.S. taxpayers but states must opt in for their students to receive scholarships, states that choose not to participate will see money from their state flow to students in other states. A recent study found states that don’t opt in could leave $23 billion on the table.

“School choice debates have historically focused on ideology,” Kilpatrick wrote. “The EFTC reframes the issue as something more practical. Are states willing to allow their residents’ tax incentives to support opportunities only in other states? That shift could move the conversation from red versus blue toward something more purple.”

If helping students and families is the main goal, which is the purported purpose of public education, then supporting the tax credit should not be controversial. It would help students of all backgrounds, including special needs students, who face “lengthy and sometimes adversarial processes simply to obtain support within a system that was not working for their child.”

“Educators know this reality well,” Kilpatrick wrote. “We see the children for whom the system works beautifully – and the ones for whom it does not.”

Choice helps students, families

While school choice “won’t solve every challenge in education” and public schools will still educate the majority of students, expanding options affirms that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work for everyone.

Kilpatrick went on to call the federal program “an opportunity rather than a threat for public school districts” because public school students can use it to “fill enrichment and other gaps, including summer programming, tutoring, transportation and specialized services … What has been out of reach for many public school families will now be possible.”

When school choice was primarily a state effort, it could be classified “as a red-state policy experiment,” she writes. But a federal program challenges blue-state governors who “face a decision less about ideology and more about equity.”

“When families are trying to find the right educational model for their children, the issue isn’t red or blue,” Kilpatrick concludes. “It’s about whether we are willing to give every child a choice.”

To date, 28 states have indicated participation in the plan, which starts next year.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is the only Democratic governor to indicate participation, although North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein and leaders of several other states are considering it. Some are waiting for program rules to be released, which are expected this summer.

Nationally, more than 1.5 million students participate in school choice programs, a number that continues to rise as programs launch or expand in states including Texas and Tennessee.